After our windy adventure yesterday, Crete was a bit of a relief. There was only a gentle breeze blowing when we arrived. That gave the option to swing on arrival without any worries and then be ready to shoot straight out on departure.

The docking. The orange squares indicate the movement of the bridge which in this case was also the pivot point of the ship. There where the curve goes to a straight line is the moment the ship has almost completed its turn and now goes bodily sideways.

With it being so nice and quiet the Captain decided to let a 3^rd officer do the maneuvering. The company encourages the captains to let all the navigation officers get some experience in ship handling and this port, on a not so windy day, is a nice opportunity. The turning basin is more than wide enough for the Oosterdam to swing around in but having “concrete” on both sides of the ship when making the turn is just enough to raise the stress level for a junior officer to make it a challenging affair and a good learning experience. I was once again on the bow with the Cadet and today it was a lot easier than yesterday. The linesmen were only upset once and for the rest it all went very smoothly.

Whatever way you spell the name, the area remains very dry and sandy. The Marque in the front is especially there for embarkation days as there are now also cruise ships who start their cruise from Heraklion. A shuttle bus takes the guests from the ship to the  Terminal Gate entrance located behind the containers. From there you can walk into town, although most guests took the tour to Knossos today.

I still have not figured out if the name is spelled Iraklion or Heraklion and the locals must have issues as well as I saw emails coming by, from the agent, using both versions in the name. A few years ago they were very emphatic about it being Iraklion but now both spellings seem to be around again.

Knossos. I think this is the best known postcard picture of Knossos and most likely also the best selling one. No doubt the maker has long and happily retired and is now living off the license fee coming in.

Crete is part of Greece but it has its completely own culture and in the grey mists of time they were totally separate from what is now the Greek main land. It had a rich culture and the many archeological sites bear witness to date with as the main highlight the Palace of Knossos. Which would not have looked much like a palace if it had not been partly been rebuilt a 100 years ago.  The experts are still arguing whether it was a good idea or whether it was heresy but at least those without a lot of ancient knowledge can see something that otherwise would had to be visualized.

The Ware houses of the Venetian Shipyard in Chania. Located just outside the city walls. The old town right behind it is a great place to go out in the evening.

My preference goes to another town, located in the west of Crete, called Chania. This was for many years a stronghold of the Republic of Venice and there are still warehouses there (With the Lion of Venice above the entrance door) which reminds everybody of those days. The old Venetian dockyard, constructed in the 16^th. Century for their War Fleet is still in very good shape and dominates the water front with the old town behind it.  Somehow I find that town more “Crete” then Heraklion which is the capital. It has a small harbor but it is not suitable for cruise ships as the afternoon wind creates too much swell to keep a safe tender operation going. Thus we stick with Heraklion. Then to the east there are a large number of towns and villages which now all cater for sun, sea and beach tourists, mainly Europeans, who want to make to make sure that they get enough sunshine, even in the summer time.

Nearly all the tourist areas are at the North Side of the island where there is at least a cool breeze (sometimes a cool storm) blowing and that leaves the inland quite unspoilt; and in some area’s even very poor. I do not know how it is now but a number of years ago, when I ventured inland; it did not look like that the large sums of money spent by the tourists was reaching everybody further inland. I hope it has changed as Greece has some monetary problems of its own at the moment; as previous governments have been a little bit too creative with their book keeping and “investments”.

We sail from there to Piraeus where we will arrive early in the morning. Between 05.00 hrs. and 06.00 hrs. all the overnight ferries (including those from Crete) are coming in and they all have preference. So the captain has to decide to be either early or late. As you can never be sure if one or two ferries are coming in after 06.00 hrs. it is better to be early. So the plan is to be at the pilot station at 04.20 hrs. and to be docked before the ferry parade begins.

It will be even warmer tomorrow than it was today: 96oF or 36oC and hardly any wind. That latter is good as the ship has to be parked into a difficult spot. The warmth is not. I was hoping to go to a bookstore that sells Greek shipping books (very hard to get outside Greece) but due to our dock it will be a very long walk. So it will be a battle of the heat against the brain, whether I will go or not.

The problem with Rhodos is it is always windy. Windy nearly every day; but in an unpredictable way. According to the law of (local logic and routine) the wind should start to blow gently in the morning and then steadily increase during the day. So you should have a half decent arrival and a windy departure. The prediction for today was 10 to 14 knots and it was to remain that way for the whole day. For the latter we had high hopes but little confidence. But for arrival we could believe the 14 knots.

It was not to be. Up to 26 knots blew at times from the North West through the port and perpendicular to the ship when we came in. Thus all power was needed to push the Oosterdam alongside the dock and keep her there while the ropes where being sent ashore. That gave more fuss, as the linesmen here are convinced they know it all, that the ships crews are idiots, and they are very vocal in announcing that to the whole world. It is not only Rhodos where this occurs, it is almost over the world, except Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica are a strange exception; for some reason they are highly disciplined there.

We always say there is somewhere a Longshoremen Academy in the world, where they all learn the same thing and that is:

A. Being very slow B. Refuse to put the rope on the bollard that the ship needs C. Tell the ship to hurry up D. Make a scene if they have to pull  the rope too far (even when they use a car) E. Show a truculent attitude for the whole period that they are in attendance.

The three arrows: The offending broken bollard, the offending containers, the offending linesmen (just outside the photo)

I was on forward stations this morning with the cadet and he got a very good education today as A to E were all present. On top of that the wind started to breeze up at the wrong moment making it difficult to throw the messenger or heaving line ashore against the wind. Then at the last moment the pilot advised the captain that one (crucial) bollard was cracked and could not be used, it would have been helpful if he had done that before we started to put the lines ashore. Also some bright spark had parked containers in front of another bollard and the whole ship had to go forward for the lines to clear. So the captain was not a happy camper either. But of course we managed ………….. and then the wind died down again to normal for that time in the morning. Welcome to Rhodos.

I was planning to conduct tender operator assessments today for every sailor who had a Tender Proficiency certificate. But as we were now not certain how the wind was going to behave later in the day, we decided to postpone to another port. I am still on board until July 17^th. so there is time.

A caption from www.vesselfinder.com, (of today for Rhodos) which tracks nearly all ships in the world with an AIS. The Blue Star 2 is a ferry and we assume that the Orient Queen had switched off her AIS as she was docked just below the Golden Iris.

For a ship aficionado and historian, sailing in the East Mediterranean, has some interesting perks. It is full of old passenger ships that in other places in the world would have never found employment. Today was no different and we had the Golden Iris with us in port; built in 1974 as the Cunard Conquest and since 2009 operated by an Israelian company called Mano Cruises. They have a sort of pendulum cruise going between Haifa / Ashdod and Rhodos. Then there was the Orient Queen; built in 1989 as the small cruise ship Vistamar for the Spanish market. She is sailing from Beirut to Greek and Turkish ports. And then there was the Gemini. She was built as the Crown Jewel in 1992 for Caribbean Cruises, and then sailed from 1995 to 2016 in the Far East. Came back to Greece as the Celestyal Nefeli and today she is next to us under the colors of ETStur, a Turkish tour company, making Cruises from Izmir in Turkey. The amazing thing for the last one is, is that from 1995 onwards she always kept the same name Gemini, even when changing owners.

The smallest cruise ship in port the ms Orient Queen. Right in front the ruins from the old battlements which protected the old harbor, now the local Marina. This is the Tower of France. See explanation below.

As the smallest ship, she docked closest to the city where there is a small cruise pier that is adjacent to the Marina which is really the old harbor. The ruins on the dock here were a short advance wall / fortification for the larger city walls and protection of the port and city. Built upon the original Byzantine walls after 1309 by the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John. None of the walls were solid. The other skin was of strong stone and the inside filled up with rubble. Good to absorb gun fire but when the outer wall collapses, then the rubble also comes out and it makes for great ruins as can be seen on the photo.

This is one of the major attractions of Rhodos, the extremely well preserved  city walls. From the ship we could see the Tower of France in front of us, which indicates that the ruins we saw were once constructed by the Hospitallers who were from French decent or spoke the French language. (Thank you Wikipedia)

We will sail today from Rhodos at 18.00 hrs. and then head west to Heraklion on Crete. Weather forecast is about the same, so we have no clue what to expect with the wind. But they are most likely correct about the sun. It was hot today but due to the strong wind, it felt pleasant. Very dangerous. Yesterday we saw the first “lobsters” already walking around the ship and I am expecting a few more today and tomorrow.

I find Santorini one of the most peculiar and spectacular places we visit. Where else in the world do you drive with a ship straight into a Volcano crater; and not a small one either. But that is what we do and then we spend the whole day “pushing” guests up and down the mountain. It is one of the more spectacular ports in the Mediterranean and I put it on the same pedestal as Glacier Bay in Alaska, Geiranger Fjord in Norway, Milford Sound in New Zealand and Saguenay Fjord in Canada. The views just take your breath away. The only small item that marred our arrival was that we approached from the West and thus we sailed against the sun into the crater; but we were compensated for that in the evening when we had the sun opposite the Crater wall when we sailed out.

Santorini from the air. The black line is the way we came in, coming from the West. The red line was the way out, turning to the East once outside. The green arrows indicate to o’Athinai and Thira.

Our approach started at 07.00 when we arrived at the South West entrance of the ring shaped crater top. Basically the whole place is just a volcano top rising steeply from the sea bottom with a few gaps on the West side for ships to sail in and out. The Volcano inner cone is still in the middle and everybody has to sail around it.  And that is what we did. As soon as the ship entered the Volcano, the anchor party went forward. Made up of the Deck storekeeper, who operates the anchor winch, a sailor who acts as communications man between the officer (who is on a platform) and the store keeper and in this case also my good self as the officer concerned was the cadet.  (There has to be a license forward for this evolution)

Today we only had a wind force 4 blowing and that was already enough to keep the ship laying behind a stretched chain all day long.

On the Oosterdam we have currently two deck cadets who are on their last weeks of training and who will get their 3/0 license in August. Enough experience gained in the last year to be able to benefit from a crash course in anchoring and docking by yours truly. All the water between the crater cone and the crater wall is deep, very deep water. Way too deep for anchoring; only very close to the shore there are some options but then only for smaller ships; and the best spaces have been taken up by the ferries that service the local communities. But there is one shallow patch, which we call “The hump”, where the water is about 30 meters deep and we can nicely lay an anchor with a lot of chain over the ground to keep the ship in place and prevent it from dragging. And dragging can easily happen here when the Etesian winds are blowing full pelt. The anchorage can only take one ship and if there are more, then the rest of the visitors have to drift and stay on the engines.

 Santorini on a busy day. The biggest ship gets the anchorage and the smaller ships have to drift. The very small ships (here the Ocean Majesty) can go on the mooring buoys. The speeding boats are the local tenders who ferry the guests to and from.

But we were the only ship today. Hurrah. I hope that the guests realized how lucky they were. No holdups at the cable car, no waiting times for the donkeys, etc. etc. There is not much Holland America can do about not being the only ship or not as the harbor master simply allows as many ships in as the local tender service can handle. We are not allowed to run our own tender service here. The whole happening is run by a local union or boatmen association. Nothing to complain about as they run a very efficient and effective service; to the great delight of our own sailors who otherwise have to run the ships tender service all day. When there are more ships in, Holland America ships first stop at Athinai in the South East to land the tours. There is a ferry dock there with sufficient room for the tour buses and that takes a good deal of pressure of the operation. The guests are then later dropped off at the Cable Car stop at the top. Today we where the only ship and that made this exercise unnecessary.

This is the way we like it. The anchor on top of the hump and the anchor chain nicely paid out in line with the wind. Maximum holding power.

Then on orders of the captain, the cadet signaled the anchor to be dropped in stages. Every time one length (15 fathoms, 27 meter or about 90 feet) at the same time the ship moved sideways so the chain was paid out nicely over the holding ground. We ended up with 5 lengths in the water and about 4 + the anchor on the sea bottom. What is there to learn for a cadet? Communication; in such a way that the captain on the bridge can visualize what the anchor is doing and where the anchor chain is leading (direction) and how hard the ship is pulling at the chain (weight or strain at the chain) Good communication makes a perfect maneuver and thus a perfect anchoring possible.

The cadet did really well and the chain went exactly over the ground as the captain had attended. I could limit myself to ensuring that “in all the excitement” the cadet followed all the protocols. At 18.00 hrs. we sailed out and the sun with bathed the white houses of Thira on top of the Volcano wall in a golden glow. A perfect ending of a perfect day.

Tomorrow we are in Rhodos for a full day and the weather gurus have promised us a sweltering day with little wind. 92oF / 33oC and no clouds. A good day for me, as apart from being forward with the cadets, I have tender driver proficiency assessments with the sailors.

Santorini. The houses on the top of the mountain basking in the evening sun light.

Stromboli was not very active and the guests did not miss much. I also do not think that many guests were up and about as it was just off midnight and we had one hour forward to get onto “Greek time”. The next item of interest was Messina Straits which happened shortly after 05.00 hrs. in the morning. So it was a short night for the captain, from after departure, with an hour forward, and being up and about by 04.00 hrs. for the Messina approach.

Due to the tight schedule for reaching Santorini, the passage had to be early in the morning and it was thus only for the real brave that the scenery unfolded. When we were racing through, the sun just started to lighten up the Sicilian side of the Strait and it showed a clear sky day again. By 08.00 hrs. it was already warm on deck as we had following winds and that made it nearly wind still on the ship.

This picture show the amount of traffic as observed over an certain time period. You can clearly see the trade routes which all use Messina Straits to get from A to B. We nowadays have these overviews as each ship has a AIS transponder which everybody can track.  (Thank you Marinevesseltraffic.com)

Messina Straits is a fairly narrow passage between the island of Sicily and the Italian mainland which is called Calabria in this area. All the shipping which comes from the region of the North Mediterranean from the south of France, curving over to all the North Italian ports, use this Strait to get to the rest of the Mediterranean or to the Suez Canal. (And back of course). Because it is fairly narrow, a Vessel Traffic Scheme has been introduced to keep the two flows apart. But due to the extensive ferry traffic to and from the island of Sicily this was not enough and pilotage has been compulsory for a long long time. On top of that it can be full of fishing boats which are all coming out at sunrise and then fish while floating with the tide. Thus with a south going tide we know that they are south of Messina and with a north going tide they are floating towards the north of Messina. But wherever they are, they tend to be in the way. That is part of the fun when going through. Although the Mediterranean is an inland sea, it is not completely tide less and there is always a difference in the amount of water North of the Sicily and to the South and that creates a considerable flow through the passage.

The Vessel Traffic Separation Scheme which also shows the Ferry routes. (Thank you Italian Government)

Because the pilotage is such a short distance and because there are so many ships to serve, the Messina Pilots are always in a hurry. Where in the rest of the world, pilot boats want you to slow down to 5 or 6 knots and create a lot of fuss of making a good lee; here they come racing alongside while the ship is going at a speed of anything between 14 and 18 knots. I always found that it was in a way easier for a pilot boat to come alongside with a high speed than with a slow speed. With high speed, the ship creates its own wind that flows along the hull and the ships bow wave creates quite a nice flat area behind it for the pilot boat to sit in. It is very, very seldom that a ship has to make a lee for the Messina pilot to come on board. The speed of the ship normally takes care of it.

One of the newer pilot boats at Messina. As you can see, it is going full speed and that is also the way they come alongside the ship for the pilot transfer. Quite un-nerving if you are not used to it. (Unknown photographer on the internet, but thank you)

Then the pilot runs to the bridge, asks for the course and gets going. His main job is to figure out what the ferries are doing. When they are leaving and when they make their crossing. But as the captains of the ferries all belong to the same brotherhood it all works out fine. Normally a pilot goes through a whole Master / Pilot information exchange about what sort of maneuvering capacity the ship has, how fast or how slow it can go, etc.etc.

Everything a navigator needs to know to be comfortable before he or she can handle the ship. Nothing of that here in Messina.

It is Full-Ahead maneuvering speed and there we go. The secret of only needing minimal information lays in the speed. Even the most cumbersome tanker or bulk carrier steers quite well when it is doing 12 or 14 knots. So the pilot can change course and that is all HE needs.

(I have not come across a female Messina pilot yet)  30 minutes later and he is off the ship again, having been yelling for the last 5 minutes to an approaching ship about when he was going to be there.

The remainder of the day we sailed eastwards towards Santorini in nicely open waters and where we will arrive around 08.00 tomorrow morning. Approach will start a lot earlier as the ship has to sail into the Volcano crater, what Santorini basically is. It will be an early one for me as I am going to teach the cadets how to drop the anchor at the right time, the right place and in the right way. The ones we have on board at the moment are on their final days of their cadet year and in the near future they will come back as 3^rd officers. ……………. And then they have to do it by themselves. So a bit of pre-input from somebody with 39 years of experience at sea, might not be a bad idea.

Weather for Santorini:  Sunny 28oC / 82oF and a moderate breeze over open waters. It is going to be warm, but the guests should be happy as we are (supposedly) the only ship in port.

Today the weather was even sunnier than two days ago; Vesuvius loomed crystal clear over us. I think the gentle breeze was just enough to keep any haze away which normally develops here if it is a real warm day. We have a regular port call so the good ship Oosterdam was docked at 07.00 hrs. in the morning and will sail at 18.00 hrs. today. Provided that everybody is back on board.

Vesuvius, well known Volcano from Pompeii and Herculaem Fame. As seen from the aft of the Oosterdam.

If that is going to happen, I do not know with the large number of family’s that we have on board. Sometimes comprising of three generations, normally this means that we have more independents going ashore and then there is a heightened chance some will get delayed. Sometimes because little Johnny got back on the Big Red Bus (*) and it can even be that they lose Granddad somewhere (*) then there can be delays as the whole family is stuck at the police station because they lost a cell phone or worse. (*) I have held up the ship for both of these occurrences in the grey mists of time. Granddad’s case was funny though, as after a domestic with his wife, he walked away and was not in a hurry to be found… when he finally came back, there was another domestic………………….. )

We docked in the same position as 2 days ago. Swung on arrival and docked nose out.

A captain looks at a cruise completely differently than a guest for which each port is going to be an adventure of a life time. Because we always have to think about a plan B, in case something happens, and the “cruise brochure plan” does not work out as planned.

So this is what the average captain thinks about all the coming ports during this cruise:

Civitavecchia……………………. Wind or no wind………… squalls are dangerous here…….. More ropes ashore

Naples……………………… are there ferry’s in the way or can I shoot straight in?

Santorini……………….. Are we the only ship……………….. YES………… so we can anchor, hurrah

Good for the ship and good for the guests, no tourist jams at the cable car.

Rhodos………….. if the Etesian winds are blowing, hopefully, straight north to south in line with the dock.

Iraklion…………………… Please no wind on arrival, we have to make a 90o turn.

Piraeus…………………. Does port control have its act together about the traffic so we can adjust correctly

Nafplion………………… Nice and calm seas please for our tender service

Argostoli……………….. See Rhodos

Kerkira …………………… Hopefully we will have the dock close to the city

Kotor…………………….. We are the only ship, so we will dock; now we need sunshine to make it perfect.

Venice (noon arrival) ………………..   No Six pack Navigators in the Laguna please……………………………..

If there is a lot of sunshine in the area and on the Balkan, then the Mediterranean south of Greece gets very wind. A high pressure system builds up in the Balkan and then the Etesian winds start blowing. Therefore most docks are constructed north to south so the wind only pushes the bow or the stern but does not let the ship drift sideways. But the wind is not always straight north/south and then you need a lot of engine power to compensate.

We will sail south from Naples at 18.00 hrs. Around 20.00 hrs. we will see Capri and then for those who are still awake by midnight, Stromboli might put on a little show. From there we race on to Messina where will embark the pilot around 05.00 hrs.  A quick zig-zag trough the Straits of Messina, pilot off, and then pedal to the Metal to Santorini. This is a tight run to get to Santorini on time and the grey area is always: how much delay, if any, will there be at Messina Straits due to opposing traffic or slow traffic ahead of us.

But we will have another sunny day tomorrow, with gentle North Westerly winds and that should result in no wind at all on deck.

Civitavecchia is a major cruise port for everybody who wants the visit Rome while on a cruise ship. But it is also a turn around port for cruises due to the availability of Rome airport. And then of course there are a lot of ferries going in and out; calling at ports along the coast and the various islands, the same as what happened yesterday in Naples. That makes for a busy port. We were today in port with 2 other cruise ships, the Costa Diadema and the Celebrity Reflection. We were at the Breakwater side which can take two big ships or three medium sized ones, while the Reflection was at the Container Terminal, which is not easy for the crew to get in and out so we were well off today.

Civitavecchia is since the 15^th century the major port for Rome and important enough to have a large fortress built here a 100 years later by Michelangelo. This time no statues or other art but high walls, tricky corners to make defending easy and with nasty defense moats. The moat is gone and replaced by a road and a roundabout. Before Civitavecchia, the main port of Rome was Ostia, now known as Ostia Antica and now more in use as a seaside resort. Apart from the fall of Rome, the port and river also silted up and thus the ships had problems getting in and out. The only setback is that Civitavecchia is about an hour’s drive from the airport. The roads / motorway are very good but the drive is a bit boring as the land in this area is mostly flat.

The port of Civitavecchia. As you can see straight line in and out. although it can be a very nasty place when the wind is blowing.

For a navigator, sailing into the port, is quite an experience. And that is not the sailing in itself. That is just bending around the corner and braking on time. No it is the pilots. Together with the Messina Pilots they are the most hurried pilots I have ever seen. Very skillful but also very hasty. They hop on board at the last possible minute, run through the bridge, say a quick hello and then start doing their job. They have all been Ferry pilots it seems as they want to charge into the port as fast as possible and then put the brakes on only at the last minute. Not unsafe but we are normally not that much in a hurry. So part of the captains job is to calm the pilot down and take it a bit gentler. Once the ship is alongside, they normally want to leave sea-side so they can drop straight into the pilot boat and race off to their next job. Only once in my career I managed to get one of them to say yes to having breakfast on board after arrival; and then only if he could have his wife come and join him as he was going off shift. He indeed called his wife and she was in a hurry as well; I have never seen anybody driving a Fiat 500 so fast over the dock as she did.  (The pope drove one of those little bubbles, when he visited the USA a few years ago and it looked like shopping trolley when he followed Obama who was sitting in The Beast)

Today we said goodbye to about 90% of our guests and by 11.30 the new guests were arriving. And they are going on a 12 day cruise around Italy as we will end up in Venice eventually. But we will also call at the Greek Islands, Dubrovnik and Kotor. If everything goes well e.g. according to the port scheduling, we will have the luxury of docking in Kotor which is not that usual for larger ships. So we will see and hope. Dubrovnik is also going to be of interest as the authorities are in the process of reducing the crowds. Thus far, not yet with blocking ships or overland buses from coming in but by asking the tour company’s and cruise companies to stagger their arrivals. There are days of 7 cruise ships and at a certain moment of the day all of those on board are in that one square which makes up the center of the old town. That is not good for anybody, let alone those who live there, and thus the authorities trying to deal with it,……….. but with a gentle touch.

This evening, we will retrace our steps and go back to Naples. We will be sailing at least an hour late due to late arriving guests but for that we have leeway in the schedule. It will only make the chief engineer unhappy as he has to crank up his beloved engines a bit more. I think I have never in my whole career left Rome / Civitavecchia on time. Not during a regular call (coaches stuck in rush hour traffic in Rome and on the motorway and neither during a change over day, guests coming late from the airport and still stuck in traffic.)

Weather for Naples: Another warm day 85oF / 29oC and no clouds or wind expected.

The nice thing about most ports in this area is that we dock with the nose right into downtown. There is a security gate but that fence is the only obstacle between the ship and the city itself. Today was no different. The ms Oosterdam parked itself right at the foot of the city again and from the gangway it was not more than 800 feet; before you had the chance to be run over by a speeding Italian scooter. “Colour Locale” they call that. I have not posted this time our cruise diagram as I hopped on board right in the middle of the current cruise. After Palermo we have only one more port to call at, Naples, before this cruise ends in Civitavecchia. From there we will start a 12 day Civitavecchia to Venice cruise.

How close do you want to be ? Palermo at your feet.

To my utter amazement we were the only cruise ship in port today and still we docked at a cargo pier. It turned out that the Stazione Marittima is under reconstruction and Restoration. Looking at what is going on; it turned out to be some sort of expansion with fixed marques and new parking. It is clear that the old building from the early 20^th century was not big enough for the mega liners. The ms Oosterdam is not a mega liner but we only just fitted alongside one of the old piers right in front of the city. But because we were docked at the cargo pier, we could not look at a beautiful passenger terminal but had to make do with a series of very ugly grain silos that had all seen better days.

The Official Cruise Terminal, once the regular passenger terminal for ships sailing to the rest of the world. Many Sicilians left from here for America.

Palermo is considered an easy port to get into if you have good ship handling skills and a bit of experience; easy…….. as long as it does not blow hard with wind. Today we did not have much wind and then it is for the Captain an excellent chance to let a junior officer do the driving: as A. not much can go wrong that cannot be quickly corrected and B. it is still difficult enough for a junior to need to have his/her wits about him/her while bringing the ship to the dock. Today it was only a him, as the deck department of the ms Oosterdam does not have a Lady in the team at the moment. Very unusual for our fleet.

So, what is making this such a nice port for training purposes? Well it has a wide open approach, a fairly wide entrance but you have to make two 90o turns to get to the dock. If the navigator overshoots, then the captain does not need to get a heart attack as there is still plenty of room to play with and thus plenty of time to correct.

The overview of the port on the nautical chart with the radar overlay.

To plan a proper maneuver you first look at the overall picture. Oversight: for Palermo you have to make two 90 turn’s and slow down from about 12 knots outside to about 3 knots when turning to the dock. Then you start looking at the details by breaking up the approach maneuver. Every captain does it slightly different but I would split this approach up in four significant steps.

1. Approaching the pilot station and slowing down so the pilot can step on board. Meet with the pilot. Here in Palermo the pilot is often quite happy to just assist and does not need to sail the ship in. Absorb the latest news from the pilot, tell the pilot what the plan is, and continue.
2. Here we have two things; we have to slow down to about 6 knots to make the turn and we are going from wide open water to more confined water. We now have to figure out how fast we turn the ship, to stay on track, and sail gracefully around the breakwater located on the starboard side.
3. The turn at B will helps us to slow down automatically but now we have to figure out how to get down to 3 knots or maybe 2 while not losing too much time by slowing down too early. Big question is here; do I start the turn on the Azipods or do I push the bow over with the bow thrusters. Both options work, it is a matter of preference.
4. We are now entering the slip, the stretch of water between the two docks. Because of the length of the berth we have to push the nose all the way forward. We have to maneuver close to the dock so the linesmen can receive the ropes and at the same time we have to listen to the officer forward who is calling out about how far we still can go, and the officer aft who is calling out about how far we still have to go. Then we also have to listen to the security officer at the gangway, who does not want a bollard in front of the break door as otherwise his gangway does not fit. And then please stop on time, so the ship does not go…bump.

So junior has enough on his mind, while pulling at the handles, to make this for him a challenging port while the captain has a plan B up his sleeve for each situation.

What is the plan B at each step?

A = turn the ship around

B = help with the thrusters or the Azipods to control the turn, if the ship turns too fast or too slow

C = there is room to go straight forward in case the turn is started too late and if started too early, one touch of the thrusters and we are back on track.

D = A timely kick to full astern will ensure we do not bump with the nose into the boulevard.

Tomorrow we are in Naples where we once again dock almost in downtown. Only difference is that the Stazione Marittima is much more elaborate and bigger.

Weather for Naples: 28oC or 82oF, no clouds and no wind. It is going to be a sweltering day inside the old town. I hope most guests have opted for a tour into the country side (with sun block 35) or a visit to a castle which is always cool inside.

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.