Valetta with its Grand Harbour is one of the most spectacular ports to sail in and out of and also to stay in. There are hardly any restrictions for a ships size as the port entrance is wide enough and only becomes a challenge if there is a Northerly wind blowing. The entrance through the breakwater has a sort of turn in it, which can be a challenge for long and wide ships if they have the wind full on the beam. That wind would then set them upon the South of East breakwater right when they slow down to go through the turn. During those rare occasions a ship will have to wait outside but cruise ships are seldom affected. Those ships that wait outside are normally tankers which go to Malta dry dock. During our call there was no big tanker in dry dock but two oil rigs and they are not small either. Not so very long but very wide and very high. I assume that they came in on a windless moment.

A cruise ship entering the Grand Harbour. The entry looks almost straight but it has this small turn in it, which is an issue for long ships if there is wind blowing. The two breakwater piers are so constructed that they keep the swell out from any direction.

The ms Oosterdam had come in yesterday morning at 08.00 hrs. and then was scheduled to stay until this morning 06.00 hrs. then it was to hop over to Mgarr at the south east side of the west island called Gozo. There it would run a tender service until 15.00 hrs. and then sail for Palermo where we will be tomorrow morning.

When I arrived at the Oosterdam, late yesterday afternoon, and went up to the Captain’s Cabin to pay my respects it was at once clear that not all was well in “The State of Malta”. Captain Robert Jan Kan (you can find his photo and biography on the blog site under current captains) was concerned about the expected westerly wind which would start to breeze up around noon time and then continue to strengthen. By 14.30 it was predicted to go up to 35 knots and then it is not easy to maintain position in that fairly tight corner with local ferries darting around you. An additional concern, which I experienced while being there with the ms Prinsendam, was that when the wind has been blowing for a while the waves which it has started to generate, tend to bounce back from the West side of the larger island and then you have a real issue with keeping a good lee. On one side you are making a lee to keep the wind out so the tenders can use the gangways at the other side and then that other side gets harassed by reflected waves. Not a good position to be in.

Malta is made up of three larger islands. And when we go to Mgarr on Gozo we anchor with the ship in the narrow passage between Mgarr harbor and the island of Comino.

So it was decided by the Captain to happily stay in Valetta until noon time today. Then we had to sail as our berth was to be taken by a NCL ship which was at the pilot station around 12.00 hrs. The decision was validated this morning at 10.30 when we already saw white caps forming outside the Grand Harbour; a good 2 hours earlier than forecast. It would not have been pleasant for the guests to have been in the tender coming back to the ship as when we left, the wind was building up to a wind force 7 to 8 already.

Gozo is a wonderful little island and very unspoiled, at least compared to the main island which bore the brunt of the 2^nd world war fighting, but not much fun if you cannot get back on board your own ship again.  But Valetta itself with its enormous history, nice downtown area and wonderful weather made up for it more in one way. So instead of the guest having to wait for the tender to take them ashore, they could just walk again off the ship and be there. Waking up and having breakfast against the wonderful scenery of the Grand Harbour is already a good reason just to be here.

Because of it great harbor, its history and its shelter, cruises have been coming here since the turn of the century. Here we have a blast from the past with the ss Arandora Star of the English Blue Star Line and the ss Letitia of the Scottish Donaldson Line. The yacht in the front is from American owners as far as I know. These ships were anchored “style Mediteranee” exactly in the same spot where the Oosterdam was today.

Valetta was made great by the order of the Knights of the Templar, which still exists in Malta but are now more business men than warrior monks and then it became a strategic harbor for the British Royal Navy until Malta went independent. All were here because the island was so strategic. Controlling North/South routes in the Med. And East /West routes as well. There has been a lot of fighting over it during the last 2000 years. For those who follow the news the area is once again in the spotlight due to the refugee exodus from Africa to Europe. A tragedy for which there is not a direct or good answer, whatever Europe has been trying to do thus far.

So we sailed out at noon time and headed with a gentle speed North West to sail around the West side of Sicily to arrive at Palermo tomorrow morning. A very important port for me, as my suitcase was left behind in Amsterdam while transferring to Air Malta. They are making arrangements to have it forwarded to Palermo.

Now we are sailing against the Gale force winds but they are supposed to abate tonight and by tomorrow morning we should have: sunny skies, 77oF / 27oC and a breezy afternoon.

Our route from Kirkenes to the old landing place of the cruise ships of the early days. A still present path leads all the way up the mountain,.

On departure from Kirkenes we saw wind. Normally we do not like wind but now it might be our friend. A good bit of wind might blow the (rain) clouds away and if so we could see the North Cape. So with hope in our hearts we traveled back up the coast during the night; also reaching our highest point of the cruise and hoping for a bit of visibility. Good news was, it was not completely foggy; bad news was the rain clouds were still enveloping the top of the North Cape. So we had to make do with a small rock formation called the horn or horngrunner in Norwegian which is sticking out on the side of the North Cape.

The horn a rock formation protruding from the side of the North Cape.

The one thing everybody could see was the fact that the North Cape is not the most northerly rock of Europe and Norway, but that is a rock formation a bit more to the west. Not so high and not so spectacular. The good ship Prinsendam sailed by with slow speed even stopped near the inlet where in the old days, the cruise ships landed their boats as there is a path/ stairs all the way to the top, and it was not always a short drive from Honningsvag to the North Cape.

It is not an apartment building at the end of the street, it is the Prinsendam.

And then we continued to Hammerfest. Here we were scheduled to arrive at 13.00 hrs. But we had to wait as the Mail boat one of the Hurtigruten ships was not yet ready with loading the mail, passengers and cars. Still waiting for 20 minutes was much better than having to dock at the other side of the bay, where the Aida Sol was berthed. The port authorities had provided shuttle buses for those guests but it all takes time. Once the mail boat had departed, the Prinsendam could dock right in down town. And I mean right in downtown. The gangway was literally an extension of the main street, leading up the hill to the high street where all the shops are. It is not often that a small cruise ship can dominate the port, but today we did.

The polar bear is omnipresent in Hammerfet. Not only in the museum but in downtown as well. There is even a polar bear walk, made up by white painted paws on the pavement.

Right outside the dock, is the tourist information which also can make you a member of the most Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society which is the coat of arms of Hammerfest. I am a member of the order of the sou’wester (Sydney, Nova Scotia, only open to senior mariners) and the order of the dolphin (Sydney Australia, only open to people who drink) and those are on invite only, but the everybody can become a member of the polar bear order, and some 250,000 people have already done so, so I did not join the queue. But it has a nice museum with a full size polar bear on display.

Hammerfest must be a rich town as it is thus far the only place in the world, where I have seen those using Lexus cars as taxis. I have a Lexus at home and they are not cheap. But if you have to pay a lot of money for a ride anyway you might was well sit in luxury. It is an old town or city as it has more than 5000 in inhabitants, just over 10,000 to be precise and is thus a lot bigger than Honningsvag. When you walk around there is not much “old” to see as the Germans burned the whole city down when they retreated from here in 1945. They had used Hammerfest as their submarine base for attacking the Murmansk convoys. Only one chapel survived the burning.

In bright red the Artik Kultur Center. It must make for a wonderful Christmas card, the red against the snow on a dark winters night.

Thus walking through the streets, is basically walking through a small modern market town, Nordic style. There is a museum and thanks to the influx of petro money a large cultural center which dominates the downtown area. No church to dominate downtown, a new, post 1945 church was built on top of the hill overlooking the town. An old grave yard is nearby so I assume that they built the new church on the location of the old church. With two ships in town, the majority of people walking the street were the cruise guests, and thus only German, English/American and Dutch was heard. At least those who were not on tour as the tours take you inland to reindeer and Sami camps and other nature related excursions.

The ship will sail tonight at 21.00 hrs. as the next port of call, Tromso is only just around the corner. That will also be my last port of call, as I will be living the Prinsendam here to transfer to the Oosterdam. There are no direct flights between Tromso and Malta and thus the journey will take me two days. Hence the next blog will be on the 26^th. of June. Whatever the weather will be when I reach the Oosterdam. it will at least be a lot warmer than here in Norway.

Once we were through Lofoten the plan was to go outside again and to sail past the North Cape. But the swell was still running high and that provided a few challenges. If we went to the North Cape then we would have to slow down to avoid the heavy pitching of the bow on the waves and that would result in at least being an hour late in Honningsvag. And that would have a knock on effect on the tours and everything else. So a decision had to be made. Pilots were available and we could go back inside and………….. arrive in time; but we had to forget the North Cape. And then we saw that the tops of the lower mountains were already covered in low hanging clouds and that meant you could not see the North Cape anyway. Thus we went inside; which is very nice and scenic and we docked nicely on time.  If the clouds lift, then we will try the North Cape this evening after departure as the sun does not set anyway. (We passed the 66oN two days ago and so we are in the land of the midnight sun)

The Norwegian Inside passage near Honningsvag. It has some similarities with the Alaskan Inside Passage but the vegetation is different. Less trees and much more grass.

Of course we are not the only ship on the coast, although thus far we have been alone except in Geiranger. Now we were in port with the Costa Pacifica which with 3800 guests is one of the bigger ones. Honningsvag had in 2017 a population of 2484 inhabitants so this ship alone sends more guests ashore than there are locals. Plus our 750 guests on top of that. So a busy day in downtown. Who says that cruising is not popular that so many cruise guests go all the way to the top? The town is quite compact nearly all the locals live in an area of 1 square mile, so guests do not have far to go unless they go on tour. When all the tourists are gone Honnigsvag is a fisherman’s town, as so many other Norwegian ports. We docked at the best pier in town, but also right in the location where a lot of the fish is brought ashore. And the moment you stepped outside, you could smell that things were fishy. Luckily the smell was not strong enough to be able to permeate into the air conditioning. The town holds the distinction of being the most northerly fishing village of Norway.

The metropolis of Honningsvag, which doubled in size today due to the influx of cruise ship guests.

What can you do around here? Most popular are the tours up to the North Cape, where there is a large visitor’s center and from there you can walk to the edge and look to the North Pole or look down into the water. The North Cape is not the most northerly point of Norway, that is the cliff next door but it is a steep cliff of 1007 ft. high (Not 1008 ft. so somebody must have measured it very carefully) and from there you look down upon the water of the Barentsz Sea or any ship which has stopped there to look up while you are looking down. The Barentsz Sea is a body of water between the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic Ocean. I am proud to say that the sea has been named after Willem Barentszoon  a 16^th. Century Dutch explorer who was trying to find the Northerly Passage around the world. That he did not manage and he had to spend the cold arctic winter on the island of Nova Zembla, near Spitsbergen by building a log cabin with wood from his ship. It was not until very much later that the North West Passage was completed navigated and nowadays in the summer time, regular traffic is possible and even cruise ships now make the journey. Icebreakers are more powerful but also the current Global Warming makes the ice cap melt & diminish and leave open waters in the summer time.

Luckily the locals do not take cruise business that seriously and have built a pier somewhere far out in the wilderness. So we just push our gangway right in the storage area for a local rope factory.

We will sail from Honningsvag at 20.00 hrs. and then try to make for the North Cape which is just around the corner. Hopefully the clouds will have lifted so we can see the top. That is another Captains dilemma. You want to go close to the Cape so you can have a good look at it but due to its height you can then not see the top. If you stay further out, you can see the top with the monument, but you cannot get a good view of the cliff itself unless you have powerful binoculars.

Tomorrow we are in Kirkenes and the original plan was for the ship to anchor. But the local authorities counted their docks one more time and there is room for us so we go alongside. Today it was dry, at least after arrival, but chilly and tomorrow it looks the same. 51oF / 11oC overcast with a light breeze.

Until 3 am. we sailed the inside coastal route, which still follows the coast but behind mountainous islands and that gave us some protection from the severe storm that was blowing. Still we had a wind force 8 to 9 while in this sheltered area but it was a following wind and the waves generated by this wind did not do much to the Prinsendam as she was happily surfing along. By the early morning the winds hit the 70 knots (that is hurricane force) but abated down to force 8 quite quickly so the ship could poke its nose outside and with following seas and swell it was doable. Also once passed Trondheim, where we had by now arrived, the Inside Passage is not much of an inside passage anymore and the protection of the land is minimal. Outside is the straightest route at this location. Thus we moved about a little bit until the mid morning as the swell was not completely on the stern so the surfing of the ship did not cure all our problems. On occasion we had it ¾ on the stern and then you get this corkscrew combination motion of sometimes a pitch and sometimes a roll (a lurch is what landlubbers call it) and sometimes we had confused seas as well, as there was still a remnant from the last storm left.

This was the wind and sea at 21.00 hrs. last night. Already at a wind force 8, but as you can see not much swell as we are in the protection of the land. (Which is hiding somewhere in the rain)

By the late afternoon the Captain could & decided to go back inside again and sail via Lofoten as we were catching up with the storm and its wave field of 20 ft. and now we could not surf anymore but had to plow into it. That is not nice for guest and ship and it costs a lot more speed than veering back inside and having smooth seas and be able to keep the speed up. Tomorrow we will find out what our delay will be, if any, but at least the guests will have had a comfortable ride and no accidents.

Blog the Norwegian Inside Paasage. We went out to open sea at Trondheim and came in again south of the Lofoten Islands. (With a thank you to the unknown maker of this map from the internet)

It sounds so easy, deciding to stay in, to go out and to go in again but as it involves pilots, arrangements have to be made. We were lucky in this case that pilots were available and that our Norwegian Captain could make arrangements in his own language. Norway is a small country and most in the seafaring community know each other. It is “the old boys club” and it is really useful. I had the same opportunities in the past when calling at Dutch ports, when most of my school and HAL colleagues when saying goodbye to the sea, either went into pilotage or into Flag State related functions. Nothing happening under the table of course but it is easier to ask a friend for help than an unknown entity who hides behind form 1A to 37B (with appendix……..). My own old boy’s network is slowly fading as those in pilotage retire at 56 years old, those in civil service around their 59^th. and those at sea, including me, see that day come closer as well. But there are reunions where we then as real old boys can remember the good old days.

The ss Rotterdam in Stavanger on 11 June 1935 and the guests going ashore for tours by limousines. Note the public to the left. It looks as if the whole town has come out to see these strange people who can afford a cruise during the depression years.

We have on board a lecturer who was in his working days the managing director of the Oslo Maritime Museum, Bard Kolltveit and a source of knowledge on Norwegian shipping including Passenger ships so directly up my street. That hit me with the question, when did Holland America go to Norway and Scandinavia for the first time (not counting the passenger ships we sold to Sweden). When checking my database, it turned out that the first ship was the Nieuw Amsterdam (I) voyage 99 Capt. van den Heuvel which on the return voyage after the Armistice stopped in Bergen on 30 Nov. – 01 Dec. 1918 before continuing to Rotterdam. I still have to find out why that exactly was; as I do not think they went cruising less than a month after the end of the hostilities. But then in 1934 and 1935 the ss Rotterdam (IV), Veendam (II) and Volendam (I) and the ss Statendam (III) all made Norway cruises. Due to depression, cruises brought in some extra income as on the North Atlantic there was not much work. I have a photo of the ss Rotterdam. Docked in Stavanger when she made a Norway cruise between 07 and 13 June 1935

This will be the storm swell at midnight, still well up to 18 feet. So a good thing that we are going inside.

Tonight things should be fairly quiet as the islands of Lofoten will keep the ocean swell away from us and then tomorrow morning we will curve around the North Cape for our call at Honnigsvag. It will be a cold day of 48oF or 09oC but the rain should be gone by then. Good news is we are scheduled for the downtown dock nbr 1, which means you can walk straight into the super market once out of the gate.

I am not a good photographer but once in a while I am lucky when clicking away. I think this shot catches the old lady at her best. Geiranger fjord in the early morning.

Geiranger is tucked away deep inland at the very end of a fjord with steep cliffs at either side. That makes it very scenic and at times also very un-pleasant as the steep cliffs of the fjord can cause a funnel wind, reaching up to hurricane force, which makes staying there impossible. Then there are other days that it is a picture postcard location and the scenery is awesome. Today we were somewhere in between. There was no wind but it was chilly and the drizzle & light rain which started shortly after arrival and made it cold and bleak (a green version of bleak as the fjord at all sides has very green pastures running up the steep mountains)

The ms Prinsendam at anchor in Geiranger Fjord. Anchor down in 70 meters water and the stern on the buoy with 4 mooring lines.

We had to anchor a little bit further out as we were together with another cruise ship; the Aida Aura, which is a German Operator but also belongs to the Carnival family. They were coming in later but as they make more calls than the Prinsendam, they get the best anchorage (Plus they have more guests on board). They were supposed to go on the downtown anchorage and use the Sea Walk (a long walkway which can be extended for about 300 feet from the shore line) but for reasons unknown they stayed further from the shore. Maybe the captain was worried about the storm wind veering into Geiranger fjord. So we dropped the hook in 70 meters deep water and put mooring lines ashore at the stern, which stops the ship from swinging on the wind. ………….. as there is no space to swing around at any of the anchorages in the Geiranger corner. The Aida Aura kept her engines going to avoid the ship from drifting towards the rocky shore.  There are no any shallows here, the cliffs, the rock face, goes almost straight down to the bottom. Under water the cliffs are as steep as above water.

The town of Geiranger. The Campers are just of the photo to the right. This photo was taken at 07.00 in the morning while I was examining the tender drivers. By 08.00 hrs. it started to drizzle and rain.

Geiranger is a little village with houses against the steep mountain face and it is dominated by a large hotel next to the tender dock. What was also very dominant was the large number of RV’s (for our USA readers) or Campers (for our European readers). There was a large parking area below the Hotel and if I am not mistaken the Hotel has facilities for these camper people to shower and go to the toilet. Then there is a nice souvenir shop with a café/restaurant. So for us Geiranger is a tour stop and a good one as there are ample parking areas for the coaches and it has one of the best tender docks I have ever seen.  It can handle 3 tenders at the same time, so today it was all peace and quiet between Germany and Holland as we did not have to fight over tender landings.

I think that every tourist who has visited Geiranger has been either up or down this road. the sharpest turn is about 3/4 up and the bus drivers take a delight in asking everybody to look out of the window………….. and you see no road, just the abyss.

While the guests were enjoying the sharp corners on their tours going up and down the mountains, the rain got steadily worse and worse but the 90 turn in the Geiranger fjord kept us sheltered from the wind. That changed when we sailed at 15.00 hrs. and we came around that corner. The white caps steadily increased. But for a smaller ship as the Prinsendam, there is often a plan B, and also here. We have the option to stay inside and follow the coastal route for part of the journey. For now at least to Trondheim and then the Captain will have another look. The hope is that the swell will diminish so much that it does not matter anymore or that we can join the swell…… with having the swell in the stern. A following swell. The Prinsendam is a ship that can surf. Which means if she goes with full speed, 18 to 19 knots, then the waves do not hit her but she rides them. I have done that often myself in the past and it works very well. While a larger ship with a square stern would have very un-comfortable moments, the Prinsendam just rides from white cap to white cap.

That nasty storm has not hit the Norwegian coast. the Captain is alleviating the impact as much as possible by staying inside. Which means we will only feel the motion of the ocean when we pass a gap in the mountains/islands between the open ocean and the coastal route.

Tomorrow we have a day at sea while we surf/ race north to our next port of call Honnigsvag. So how we fare there will all depend on the quickness with which our bad weather system will fall apart or blow itself out.

In Honnigsvag they have nice weather at the moment, same as we had in Alesund. Their silence before the storm. But they should be ok again when we get there.

Alesund is a sort of perfect smaller port for cruise ships. It is sheltered and not too deep inland. It takes hours to get to Oslo and to Geiranger (where we are tomorrow) but Alesund is nicely hidden behind a mountain range and it takes less than an hour from the pilot station to the dock. A very clever clog who decided to put a town here. Because it straddles a sort of land tongue it has a port on both sides of the city and a sort of Canal / channel setup in between for small boats. This means that ships can dock at both sides of the town and still be close to downtown. Ideal for cruise ships and ideal for Cruise Company’s as there is room for quite a few cruise ships. We docked in the old harbor today as we were the only cruise ship in port.

Alesund from the air with the inner harbor and little channel which connects both dock areas of Alesund.

Is there enough to do for the guests? Only the fact that they have a big red hop on – hop off bus making the rounds should be enough to stop that argument. It is also one of the reasons by the Prinsendam is staying longer here than normal. As we do not sail until 22.00 hrs. 2^nd reason is tomorrow we go to Geiranger which is about 60 miles up the fjord and that fjord starts here at Alesund. So no reason to hurry or to sail early.  I have done the city tour here some years in the past and that is really a fascinating thing to do as only by going on a tour with a good narration it gives you a good perspective of what Alesund was and is. It is my favorite Norwegian port and that is because of the large numbers of buildings that were designed and built in Art Noveau style. This happens to be my favorite years of Ocean Liner history and my interest has sort of spilled over into buildings. And you can lay close connections between the design of the ships interiors and of buildings on land.

The older Art Noveau buildings near the dock in between more modern architecture.

The reason for this concentration of buildings all of the Jungendstil or Art Noveau School is because in 1904 almost the whole (wooden town) burnt down. The German Emperor who used to vacation in this area sent a lot of help with materials and know-how and the town was rebuilt in what was then the cutting edge of Architecture.  So although the area is very ancient in years of occupation the town itself is in image not much older than 100 years.

But I did not get the chance to do some admiring of the downtown area as I was responsible for creating a lot of mayhem on board today. Every 7 days we are legally required to stage a fire, mustering and abandon ship drill and when on board, I normally get involved as I can give the ship something more elaborate in scenario’s and un-expected things. I have the time to organize it and can keep it to myself so nobody really knows what to expect. In real life a fire does not announce itself either and thus the more you prepare for the un-expected the better it is. Today we focused on CO2 procedures for the Engine Room and then for the ripple……… that flows away from that occurrence and affects the whole ship. If there is a big fire in the main engine room it might stop most or all of our power and when not stopped quickly, could cause the end of the ship.

Not as pleasing to the eye as Jugendstil or Art Noveau, but highly efficient. It takes 60 of these bottles to flood the main engine room of the ship.

Golden Rule is, if there is an engine fire and you are not certain in the first 2 or 3 minutes that you can stop it without CO2, and then you should release CO2. In the past there was always a sort of reluctance to quickly engage CO2 because it could cause the lights to go out and the ship loose its option to maneuver. (Quite important in bad weather or close to rocks and other shallow patches) Through experience companies have learned that you should release CO2 the moment you are in doubt because at least you then have a good change to save the ship and all on board. And that we did this morning. A simulated big fire and based on the scenario provided, the Chief Engineer had 3 minutes to decide what his options were and then to contact the Captain for discussion so the Captain could make a quantified decision. The Master of the Vessel makes the decision whether to release CO2 and when, as he is the only one who has the complete oversight; of Navigation (info by the Navigator) the ships safety (info by the Staff Captain), the Engine situation (info by the Chief engineer) and the guest/hotel situation (info by the Hotel Director) Unless there is direct danger of hitting the rocks, Captains will be very fast in ordering CO2 release. The industry norm is to have a total flooding of an area with CO2 within 15 minutes of the occurrence of a major engine fire.  Releasing CO2 is easy, you basically pull a handle and it goes. But you want all engineers and others out of the affected spaces, you want to only flood the affected areas, you want to make sure you have monitoring teams in place and you want to make sure that the guests are well aware of what is going on. For that we look at a maximum of 10 minutes before we go for it. That needs a well-trained team with good communication and that we trained on this morning. The only thing we could not train was the waiting time before we are allowed to re-enter the affected space (Could be as long as 24 hours), we could only simulate that as at 11.30 Guest lunch started again.

Tomorrow we are in Geiranger, nicely sheltered deep in the Geiranger Fjord. This is an anchor port and we will use our little shuttle tenders to and from the ship.

Weather for tomorrow does not look that great. With the rain that has come through and the approach of the storm system, we are expecting frequent showers, temperatures around 10oC or 50oF and a chilly but light wind. Double socks for me tomorrow.

And during tomorrow we will keep a close eye on the weather, as the storm has not dissipated but is still coming closer. This afternoon the rain band in front of it came over, and it is a game of wait and see how close it will come to the Norwegian Coast and how much swell we will have to contend with.

See top right, some nasty stuff is approaching Norway. the one thing we do not know is will it stay the same or will it dissipate when touching the coast; and how much will still be there when we have left Geiranger. (Courtesy www. Stormsurf.com)

Today we are en route from Amsterdam to Alesund in Norway where we are scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning just before 08.00 hrs. Apart from a slight swell running we are having a real sunny day so all is well in the world. Today we followed an almost straight course north as Amsterdam is sort of on one line with the west point of Norway. Once we are there which will be early evening then we following the coast until we come to the entrance of the Fjord where Alesund is hiding. Although the town is well sheltered it is not too far inland and from pilot station to the dock is not more than an hour.

The North Sea, East of Scotland. Every mark in the chart is some sort of obstruction. We are following the red dotted path which clears all that might be in the way.

By going north in this area we have an excellent view of the source of our petrol and gasoline as we sail past vast areas of oil rigs and processing units. Some small, some large, some occupied, some automatic. Most are well away from the regular shipping lanes but some are quite close and to avoid having ships bumping into them, they have patrol or guard ships on station which come out to and/or call straying merchant navy ships to advise them to go back to the correct dotted line in the chart.  Occasionally we hear conversations on the VHF, most of them polite with a thank you from the straying party, but sometimes there are heated discussions as well. Those are quite often with fishermen, who are already not happy about all these oil rigs in “their” territory and who are convinced that the fish is swimming or hiding as close to the rigs as they can do. I would if I was a fish….. but I do not know if that works in reality. How clever is a fish. The Guard ships have no official “policing power” but as they are instrumental in preventing ecological disasters, they have the Coast Guard of various countries very much on their side.

The windmill plan for the North sea and already in full progress. Pink has been approved. Yellow is on application and the black stars/ wind mill vanes are already there.

When looking around at sea, it looks as if there are not that many of them. But when having a look at the Radar screen one can see that the whole area is full of them and quite densely. And these are not the only things sticking out of the water. With the oil diminishing, windmill parks are coming up and already large numbers have been installed (or planted??, as they look like forests). Causing more upset for the fishermen who see even more open water disappearing and also creating challenges for other deep sea traffic. In dense traffic areas we have the VTS, Vessel Traffic Systems, which are a sort of highways at sea, but in more open sea area’s ships could always set their own course and take the closest route to their next destination. That is now also disappearing  and there are currently a lot of committee’s and pressure groups out there who try to influence the various governments about what is feasible and what layout should be chosen to make it possible for everybody to  keep  doing their job.

When I am on board for my work, and when hopping from ship to ship, I always grab the chance to document a ship from top to bottom and take photos of everything. While doing so, you meet all the crew on board, and the Prinsendam is blessed with a lot of dedicated HAL crew with many years of experience.  And so I bump into many crew members from years gone by and who sailed with me from their very first days. Yesterday when documenting the inside of the Suite rooms on board (each suite here has a name and the decoration / art relates to the name of the Suite. So the Columbus Suite has drawing pertaining to his explorations.) I met the cabin steward from Deck 11 starboard side who had been my Captain Steward back in 2007 on the Veendam. I had the camera in my hand so I only had to push the button to document his reaction. That reaction might have been partly due to the fact that he saw me but it also has to do with the fact that the crew is genuinely happy here and so was he. It is not on every ship that I hear singing in the Main Galley or in the Lido Buffet or in the crew staircases.

Happy Greetings from the crew of the ms Prinsendam.

We are still keeping a close eye on the weather. It will remain good, maybe rainy, for the next 24 hrs. Then the frontal system, that we are concerned about, will be clearing the Orkneys and approach the Norwegian Coast. In front of it it pushes rain and if it does not rain out against the mountains then we could have a rainy day in Alesund. The weather gurus are forecasting 40 to 50 % by lunch time. Which basically means it either rains or it does not rain……………….50% chance. What happens then is a question we really cannot answer yet. The previous frontal system fell apart here and just dissipated. The forecast model does not do this for this system and the swell it generates might make things a bit a bit un-easy if it does not dissipate. We will know tomorrow evening.

For the guests it is much more scenic to sail from downtown Amsterdam than to be docked in Ijmuiden just outside the locks. But for the ship it is a lot of extra work. This morning the ms Prinsendam picked up the pilot at 03.00 hrs. and then had to go through the locks, sail through the North Sea Canal to be docked at the Cruise Terminal at 07.00 hrs. We were in port with the Zuiderdam but she had come in yesterday as having an overnight stay. Thus the whole passenger terminal was one wall of blue and white, it was Holland America Day in Amsterdam. (Plus the Rotterdam was in Rotterdam and that made the Dutch picture complete.) About 80% of the guests left us here; the remainder are the so called CVG (Collector Voyager Guests) who glue 2 or more cruises together. If you select a ship such as the Prinsendam then that makes sense as nearly every cruise is different. But we also have a lot of guests who do this while sailing on the larger ships, ships which are on the regular 7 day cruise run. Not much new to see then but the guests simply like the Holland America Line product. I can only agree with them, it beats sitting at home in the cold anytime.

The Cruise terminal of Amsterdam as seen from the North. I love looking at blue ships. There are river barges alongside for Water, fuel and recyclables loading and off loading.

The whole voyage to Amsterdam downtown takes so much extra time as we have to go through the locks and then at a steady and slow speed of between 7 and 10 knots through the Canal until we come to the passenger terminal. If there were no locks then the journey would only be 90 minutes or so but the lock takes a good full hour. And then we have to hope that the Lock master does not decide to give another ship preference; and that happens. I had it a few times that we had to hover as the Lock master decided to wait for a tanker on the other side while we originally had a confirmed entry time. To alleviate that issue, they are now in progress of building a new lock, bigger and wider. The North Lock (or Noorder Sluis) was already a big lock but started to reach its capacity with the arrival of the Mega Liners. Now our Koningsdam is about the biggest cruise ship that goes through. The lock is built south of the current large dock and will be sandwiched between some small locks from the old days and the North Lock.  Where this new lock is coming used to be a sort of apron where visitors could walk right up to the ship to wave, have a chat, or have another tearful farewell. Since 9/11 more and more fences have been installed and you if cannot get there anymore, then you might as well put something else useful there.

The new lock being built at Ijmuiden, which will basically increase capacity by 100%

The North Sea locks are there to keep the water level steady on the land side of the lock. Depending on the tide there can be a difference of about 3 to 4 feet with the North Sea and the lock levels that out. The whole area behind the lock, all the way up to Amsterdam is mainly below water level and thus the lock serves a dual purpose: to keep the sea out and keep the water level down. Plus it helps the local eco and farming system as the water is really fresh in the rivers, ditches and canals instead of partly salty or really salty. The whole water system which includes the canals of Amsterdam is kept on one steady level and is regulated by an intricate system of locks and sluices. In the 18^th century there were more than 10,000 windmills big and small that did the job, now it is down to a few high powered electric pump stations. Those pump stations also take care of the circulation of the water to avoid stagnant water which then will start to smell.

Amsterdam has the extra challenge that it is connected by the Amsterdam – Rhine canal with the river Rhine much further to the south. The Rhine is a fresh water river, so no problem with salt, but also a glacial river and in spring the water level can rise very high. Thus where this waterway meets the Rhine, there is a set of locks as well. These locks are set in the dykes that keep the Rhine in its place. Although most of the land east of the Canal is well above sea level, the churning power of the Rhine, especially in the spring time, can easily remove large swaths of land.

Thus the ms Prinsendam sails through fresh water each time it goes to Amsterdam and when it goes out again. Different to the Kieler Kanal which has sea water coming in from both sides and is much more of a mixture.

Our coming cruise, voyage 286 going to the North Cape.

We are not returning to the Kieler Kanal as this cruise takes us up to Norway. To the top of the world at the North Cape. I am keeping my fingers crossed for the weather. There has been a lot of fog up there lately, courtesy of the warm spring, but now a lot of turbulence has come over from the North Atlantic and that might affect us while traveling up the Norwegian Coast. Tomorrow we are still in the shelter of England and Scotland but once we clear the Orkneys the ocean swell can run in freely and then we will have to see. I am not predicting anything this time as the weather chart is too unsettled. One system is now dissipating and that will reduce the swell but in the next 72 hrs. something very nasty might develop east of Iceland. I say might develop, as you never know if it will. Hence no prediction. But tomorrow we should have sunny weather and that is a good start.

Today is the last day of the cruise and we are retracing our steps down to Amsterdam. We left Copenhagen yesterday just after 17.00 hrs. and then sailed up between the Danish and Swedish Coast to the Kattegat, the section of North Sea Water which has a different name here. At 18.20 we pasted Hamlets Castle on our portside and that satisfied those who are into classical literature and plays. With cruises that have many port days, and the ms Prinsendam is very good at this, the last day is full of all the standard activities which are staple fare of a Holland America Cruise. Mariners Meeting, always a full house on the Prinsendam, followed by Mariners Lunch which generates an even fuller house as there are quite a few mariners who skip the party and go directly to the dining room for the lunch; or at least line up to be the first in.  I hate standing in line but there seems to be people who love standing in line, and I have to admit it is a way of meeting people as nobody has anywhere to go.

The Engine Control Room of the ms Prinsendam. Dials, buttons and switches are all still original. what is new are all the screens and the mountains of paperwork needed to comply with, whatever there is to comply with. (And that is a lot nowadays)

Then in the afternoon there is the option to get rid of all the gained calories by joining On Deck for the Cause, walking 5 kilometers around the deck after having paid for the T shirt which helps the cause. The ship is in the wide open waters of the North Sea and although she moves at times it is not a bad ride at all. We are thundering down south with the –near- warp speed (at least for the Prinsendam) of almost 18 knots and we are overtaking slower ships all over the route.

Two of the four main engines, looking aft with the gear box setup right in the middle.

With all this routine stuff going on, it gives me the chance to blog a bit about our un-sung heroes, the engineers and their engine room. As the Prinsendam harkens back to another era, the engine room setup is also of a different philosophy than what is the norm today. Nowadays all the large cruise ships are diesel electric or better said engine electric as LNG is coming into vogue as well. Electro motors and the setup around it, is much more flexible and that is what the industry wants.  Back in the 80’s the focus was on low cost and reliability and the electric engines did not have the same economics yet as the regular motor engines connected directly to a propeller shaft.  Based on that principle there are a lot of variations possible. The N ships of Holland America in the 1980’s had direct drive. Propellers connected directly to very low speed engines. The advantage was, ultra-efficient in fuel consumption but prone to vibrate at higher speeds.

This is the portside gear box looking forward. the two round things are the end of the shafts of the engines and the round thing in the middle is the start of the port shaft which is connected to the portside propeller.

If you want to avoid vibration the best option is to go for medium speed or high speed engines. (They thump a lot less than low speed ones) On average the size and capacity of an engine gets less when the number of revolutions increase. Cars normally have higher rev engines than a big truck or lorry. Thus the designer has to balance the space available (normally there is no room to put 10 high speed engines next to each other or in line) and the amount of vibration that is acceptable while sailing. When the Royal Viking Sun was designed, they needed a cruise ship which could do 21 knots to maintain the average cruise schedules of those days and because it was a six star cruise company the guests should not notice the engines.

The top of the main engines, which run through three levels of the ER. The silver pipe is the exhaust pipe which leads to the Funnel but before the anything goes out, it first passes through the blue Turbo Blower in the fore ground which extracts more energy from the exhaust fumes. Then the fumes are still used to heat steam for the evaporator and that gives fresh water.

So they installed Four 8 cylinder ZAL40S Wartsila Sulzer diesel engines. The ship was built in Finland and thus buying local engines (built under license from the Sulzer company) made sort of sense. To reach a service speed of 20.5 knots, you need to have a bit of surplus and the top speed was measured at 21.8 knots. To get that speed a total of almost 29000 Horse Power is generated. To get the power to the propeller shaft, they connected two engines to each propeller shaft by means of a gear box. The gear box gave the option to disconnect from each shaft one engine if only lower speeds were required. The only thing the guests feel when the ship is sailing is when these engines are being clutched in or clutched out. That gives a sort of vibration during the moment that the gearwheel of the clutch mechanism synchronizes with the shaft. That will also be the case tomorrow morning when we start slowing down and enter the North Sea Canal on two engines.

Electricity at sea and in port is delivered by one or more auxiliary engines, we have three in total. With diesel electric propulsion you do not need those extra engines but the Prinsendam still has them. When we need the bow thrusters and the stern thruster then two engines have to be on line and when sailing like on the Amazon when the A.C goes to top capacity the 3^rd one might be used as well.

I just did a structural locker inspection in the engine room and if I was not in the know, then I would not think the ship was 30 years old. A credit to its builders but also to the Holland America Engineers who have maintained the engines since 2002.

Tomorrow we are in Amsterdam. We will be in the locks around 03.00 hrs. and then docked at the passenger terminal behind Central Station by 07.00 hrs. The weather calls for an overcast day with temperatures in the mid-sixties or around 18 oC. Then our next cruise is up to Norway and the first few days do not look too good as Storm Hector has caused some turmoil in the upper North Sea.