The peculiar thing with Turku is that it is located deep inland and can only be reached by a number of narrow channels which connect wider lakes with each other. It does not stop with Turku having a regular ferry service with large and deep sea ferries going in and out twice a day. It has a regular ferry connection with Stockholm operated by two ferry companies and the crossing time is just short of 11 hrs. Why the fuss of going all the way inside the lakes to Turku? Because from Stockholm it is still a lot shorter in travel time and distance than for the ferries to go around the Southside of Finland to Helsinki.

Turku to Stockholm by ferry or by Prinsendam.

But the inland sailing is quite cumbersome as you have to slow down for a lot of turns and the ever present number of Sunday sailors which can contribute to high blood pressure for the officers on the bridge. The ms Prinsendam picked up the pilot last night as 23.00 hrs. and then it took her all night to get to Turku and she only docked just before 08.00 hrs. Long way in, long standby’s. While the ferries all have a pilot exemption because they go in and out every day, so the navigation officers can sail the ferry by themselves; we have to have a pilot on board as we only go here very infrequently. Thus the pilot does all the work and the officers are just checking if he pilot stays within the preset boundaries and safe zones. That is boring work and it is then very easy to lose the concentration. To avoid this, the captain is always there or the Staff Captain or the First Officer to make sure everybody stays alert.

For the guests Turku is a call out of the ordinary and you need an interest in more in-depth excursions to appreciate the place. It is not your run of the mill T shirt and Shopping Paradise destination. Thus the tours reflect that by offering Nature walks, Panoramic sightseeing, visits to a natural sheep farm (chemical free farming) and an historical sightseeing trip. There is a 13^th. Century Castle here, built to keep the Swedish out, who through the centuries were forever trying to conquer northern Europe and parts of Western Russia. Then there is a Beer lover’s research expedition to the various pubs in Turku. Although alcohol in Scandinavia is very expensive, it does not stop them from enjoying a tipple so there a larger number of pubs out here. They do not call this a Pub-crawl; and I fully agree with this as the cost of a beer is about 2 to 3 times as much as in the UK or Holland. So you are investing in “research”, not in just a having a drink. Some of these pubs are located in converted buildings and some have their own brewery.  That tour started at 10 am in the morning (*) but unfortunately I could not join in as I was otherwise occupied.

Sailing to and from Turku is similar to sailing to and from Stockholm. Plenty of summer cottages and holiday homes are scattered along the shoreline.

Because today we celebrated the 30^th. birthday of the Prinsendam, which  was delivered from the shipyard here in Turku in May 1998 and sailed from the port on the 10^th of June. That was yesterday 30 years ago. The Chief Engineer and previous Hotel Director had been instrumental in inviting a large number of shipyard employees who had been part of new build team 30 years ago, to come back for a visit and to have lunch on board. I was invited by the Captain to briefly recall the history of the ship of the last 30 years and ended up with the delivery video of the ship from 1988 as a gift. I hope that it still works but as the ships no longer have video players on board (even the Prinsendam has gone modern) it will have to wait until I get home. The shipyard is still there and they still revere the Royal Viking Sun as the ship that put the shipyard yard on the map, and now 30 years later the yard is building the largest cruise ships in the world for Royal Caribbean.

Cabin Steward Firmin poring champagne for Lesley who had come out to visit the ms Prinsendam after so many years.

Then we did something unusual on departure; and it is something you can only do on a small(er) ship. A block party. The Captain made the announcement at 17.00 hrs. and then all were asked to come out of the cabin. A bit like boat drill but then without the lifejackets but with an empty glass. As soon anybody stepped into the corridor, the cabin steward came running over with champagne and orange juice and then you meet the neighbors and have a knee’s up. A great idea and with officers on every deck joining in, in the conversation. It worked a treat and everybody was having a great time while the company was paying for the booze…………. And that cannot be bad either.

Guest Relations manager Maja, Cruise Director Stone, Captain Dag Dvergastein and Lesley getting ready for the Block Party.

Now the Prinsendam is retracing her route through the Finnish Inside passage again. Then she will make a quick dash across the Golf of Bothnia and then enter the Inside Passage to Stockholm which takes about 3 hrs. We are scheduled for a berth in downtown and we are also on schedule for another sunny day so all is well in the world.

(*) The bus company advises everybody to take the coach back to the ship once all pubs have been visited, otherwise you have to walk back and that seems to have created some challenges with previous tours.

If we still have guests on board who are rumbling and moaning about the weather then we have to send them home as this morning the weather was picture perfect. Full sun, no wind and the sun from the east shining over the fortresses and islands in front of the city. So the good old Prinsendam was gliding like a blue swan into the port of Helsinki and wedged herself in between a Ferris wheel and a municipal swimming pool. We docked as far in downtown as you can possibly go and if you inhaled deeply you could smell the famous fish market at the corner of the harbor, where downtown really starts (or ends depending on your point of view).

The refurbished dome of the St. Nicolas Basilica towering about the base.

But as promised first an update about yesterday’s sailing away from St. Petersburg. The only challenge with nice weather is that the ship is sailing against the sun and thus you need to look towards the stern to see the sun illuminating the landscape. After 90 minutes sailing we came to Kronstadt, and as was the case with the Marine Façade, they have been building here considerably and we also saw some newer navy ships. The golden dome of the St. Nicolas Basilica had been repainted or redone with gold leaf and large apartment buildings, all in red, erected at what looked at the edge of the navy base. Wikipedia tells us that the two modern (at least reasonably painted) war ships in port were: ……………………………….Quote:

Photo taking from the same location as before in 2010 as published yesterday. Most of the old ships are gone and two  navy ships still in service were at the main dock.

The 530:

Soobrazitelnyy (Сообразительный – Smart/Astute) is the second ship of the latest class of corvettes of the Russian Navy, the Steregushchy class. The ship was being built by the Severnaya Verf shipyard in St. Petersburg and was laid down in May 2003. It was launched in late March 2010 ^[3] and joined the Baltic Fleet in the 2011.

The ship is the first of the class to be fitted with the Redut system intended to increase its anti-aircraft capabilities with respect to the Kashtan CIWS previously used. The corvette was shown to the public for the first time at the Fifth International Maritime Defence Show (IMDS-2011) in St. Petersburg.^[4]

And the 620 For which Wikipedia does not have any details:

Bespokoynyy (620) (Sovremenny-class destroyer) (1991) (I do not know anything about warships, so I just hope that the experts have it right)

……………………………………Un-Quote.

(I do not know anything about warships, so I just hope that the experts have it right) As they looked well painted but with patches I assume they were in a major overhaul project and thus parked here.

The major old fortress guarding Imperial Russia from the (Swedish) attacks coming from the Baltic.

Centerpiece of the base is the round 3 level fort which dates back to 1704 when the Tsar Peter the Great founded Kronstadt as a defense against the Swedish. It became of secondary importance in the 19^th century but it is still there although it could do with some TLC. Thus it looks as if the old base for the Russian Baltic Fleet has received a new lease of life as some of the buildings had clearly been restored and painted and there was also work underway to repair the crumbling seawalls which separate the base from the open water.

The sea barrier is a very long dyke which runs for miles with a  gap for the ships. The fairway can be closed of by two quadrants, one of each side, seen here in white. With the current un-settled weather they have been put in use already quite a few times.

Once past the base, one is at once at the Sea Barrier which indeed has now been completed and according to the pilot is closed 5 to 6 times a year to stop spring tide floods or westerly storms pushing too much water towards the City. What had not changed was the pilot station where the “Lootsenman” left with a smaller boat which then returned to the mother ship where the pilot can take a nap until he is on the roster again.

The planned maneuver. As you can see there is enough room but not much more than that. This morning the captain decided to swing around the other way and bring the nose into the wind, instead of the stern.

And so this morning we arrived in down-down town, where the Prinsendam has about the maximum length that swing around in the port and as it was wind still that was exactly what the captain did. As with wind in the port this would have been an interesting maneuver and so it is always better to be ready with the nose out.

Tomorrow we are in Turku, also Finland, and the Prinsendam is going back to her place of birth from 30 years ago. We going to have a party and are inviting a number of people who were working at the shipyard 30 years ago and helped build her.

Tomorrow we are looking at another glorious day. Sunny with temperatures of 73oF / 23oC and a gentle breeze.

Also the Russians are good in forecasting weather and the real weather was exactly in line with what had been predicted. A little bit warmer than yesterday but still quite chilly when out of the sun. Perfect weather for sightseeing and our guests went for it in large numbers. As those full day tours mentioned yesterday start very early, the cooks had to get out of bed early as well as the Lido opened as 06.00 hrs. It was also almost empty again by 07.30 hrs. Only those who had seen it all and bought the T shirt or were going on the afternoon tour were still lingering around.

This is what we woke up to this morning. The north side of the Marine Façade. The rocket shaped building is the head office of Russia’s largest Oil and Gas company Gazprom. I wonder if you would light the gas, if the whole building would take off as a rocket. Maybe a good way to escape disgruntled share sholders or something. Yesterday was  a quiet day with cruise ships but today we got the full whammy. The Navigator of the Seas came in, the Sapphire Princess, the Marina and the little Wind Star (ex Seabourn) went inside all the way up to the Leutenant Smith dock in down town. So those people have all the luck as it is really easy for guests and crew alike to get to downtown from there. (Basically because you are already in downtown) Here at the Marine Façade, the Russians had promised two years ago that they would start up a Water Taxi service to downtown but I have not seen anything happening yet. They are still busy with building houses, roads and now there is a plan for an indoor swimming pool. All very nice but that does not help us as we have our own pool. But a water taxi would be nice as it would offer some sightseeing at the same time while getting to down town easily. Maybe the Cab drivers don’t like it.

The nice thing for the crew for overnight is that they do have the chance to go ashore as there is more time to plan it. So last night groups of cabin and dining room stewards made it ashore to have a look around. We ask them always to go in groups as there is safety in numbers and not every local is necessary friendly to people with a darker skin. The other nice thing, because there are no standbys for arrival or departure, is that the officers from deck and engine can catch up with paper work and with maintenance that cannot be completed during a normal day call. Hence paperwork was flying around in the deck office and discussions about valves and plungers abounded around the engine room.

This is our way out. We are coming from the lower right hand red fork and then join the Vessel Traffic separation scheme which merges with a route from the ports on the North East side of Finland. Everywhere where ships might do stupid things (like cutting corners), a little highway at sea has been created (see the purple arrows) to ensure that everybody behaves themselves.

At the same time preparation was going on for departure and the rest of the cruise. The ship will have to retrace its route to sea as for getting to Helsinki there is no other way in or out.  Sailing the same way out will offer the guests some sightseeing as it was so early when coming in. Tonight will be better and around 19.30 we should pass Kronstadt which is the old navy base of imperial Russia; with is fortifications and a large Basilica dedicated to St. Nicholas the patron saint of all the seafarers. (There is a similar church in Amsterdam opposite the Central Station).

Laid up navy and exploration ships with the Dome of the church towering over the island. This was 2010.

During my last visit they had just put the Flood Barrier into place and were in the process of completing the whole set-up. So tonight we should be able to see the completion of the project. To go here is still on my bucket list but it might be one of the un-full filled ones as it is hard to get there. Although the “Top security” flagging has been removed it is still not so easy to get in the former base for non-Russians although they now have a road running to the area. A road that was enlarged when they started constructing the Flood Barrier.

Also in 2010. They had just installed the large (white) closing doors which were to seal off the fairway during a flood surge.

I will post tomorrow what the changes have been, if any. Once past Kronstadt it is another 45 minutes to get to deeper water and to disembark the pilot. Then we are heading through various vessel traffic systems towards Helsinki. We are scheduled to dock in downtown, so deep in downtown that we can drop our anchor on the fish market stalls. This means that around 07.00 hrs. we will sail through “the hole” a narrow passage in between the rocks, cliffs and islands which form a natural protective wall around the south harbor of Helsinki. One of the reasons why the town was founded there. A nice sheltered harbor and nearly impossible for the enemy to get into.

The good weather is holding. Partly Cloudy skies and the temperature is going up to 66oF or 19oC with a gentle breeze.

The ms Prinsendam arrived at 04.00 hrs. at the pilot station and the pilot, called lootsenman came on board. That is an almost a Dutch word and that is correct as it dates back to the days of Tsar Peter the Great. He was the man who founded St.Petersburg and it was his aim to open up feudal Russia to the modern world. As those who ruled feudal Russia were not that interested Peter had to push hard and started with building a new city with about as many canals as Amsterdam; and also came to Holland to study shipbuilding so he could build a fleet of commercial and navy ships. By luck he brought a lot of Dutch naval words back that got incorporated in the Russian language. If you lay the names of all the ropes of a square rigger in Dutch and Russian next to each other then they are easily recognizable as almost being the same.

St. Petersburg was built in a swampy area same as much of the cities in the west of Holland and also more under water level than above. To deal with the problem of flooding’s caused by winter storms in the Baltic, the Russians have now built an enormous dyke with a water barrier at Kronstadt the old naval base. More about that tomorrow.

The Marine Façade a major development work started around 2007. The port has been finished for some years, they are still working very hard on the white parts on either side.

From the pilot station it is 2.5. hrs. to the dock. The dock we are nowadays using is the Marine Façade, purpose built around 2007 / 2008. It can handle with ease 8 medium size ships or 5 mega liners. They have put more mega liners alongside at the same time but that was so tight (3 feet from stern to nose) that the captains complained and I believe they are now regulating it a bit better. In the good old days we either docked in the cargo port, if you were a big ship ( what is now medium size up to 60.000 tons) or at Leutenant Smith all the way in down town, if you were no longer than 180 meters.  The very small ships are still going into downtown but the Prinsendam is just too big for it, as there is a 90o turn while going stern up the river as you cannot swing around there when over 180 meters.

This is the route from the white part – deeper water – through the muddy shallows to the dock.

We need almost three hours from the pilot station to the dock as St. Petersburg is laying deep in this swampy lowland area and thus there is a vast expanse of shallow water before you reach the deeper water (which is not so deep either) of the Gulf of Finland. In the beginning ships followed the natural rivers flowing out of the St. Petersburg area but when the city grew and the ships got bigger, they started to dig channels to the open sea. They are not that wide and thus it is one way traffic for the larger ships when coming in or going out. Often we see smaller ships skipping out of the channel when a big ship is coming by and then moving back in once they have passed each other. Small ships still like to use the channel as the more water you have under the keel the faster your ship will travel. When ships move, the propellers push them down, what is called squad, and if the distance between the keel of the ship and the canal bottom is not so much there are problems with the flow of the water displaced by that ship. If that happens you can give as much power as you want but the ship will not go any faster as it cannot push the water away any faster.

This is the last part of the voyage, there were the “cruise channel” splits away from the channel going to down town following the old river bed of the river Neva, while we went a bit to the north to the Marine Façade cruise terminal.

Thus the Prinsendam can also not charge in with 20 knots as it would never attain that speed. It goes through with a sedate speed between 10 and 12 knots and thus it takes a considerable amount of time to get to the dock. We were happily docked at 07.00 hrs. ready to provide the guests with two days of Russian experience. We will sail tomorrow afternoon again and that is what most ships do. I have not come across a cruise ship yet that has come in for just one day. Even with two days you only scratch the surface of what St. Pete’s can offer, even a week would barely be enough. But cruise ships cannot do a week; it would not sell, so the cruise ships average is two days, to give the option to tour some of the highlights of the city. Winter Palace, Hermitage (that alone takes a week to see all the 1000 rooms); Peter and Paul Fortress and then we do not even mention the city itself or the ballet and other cultural options in the evening. Holland America offers a two day immersion package to the city with a 9.5 hrs. tour one day and a 10 hrs. tour the next day. This part of the new in-depth EXC tours that we offer, tours that go beyond the regular, see a church, take a photo excursions. Hard work to do, but fascinating.

It was a chilly but sunny day today, but that is not so bad, if you have to walk a lot to see the sights. Tomorrow the weather will be marginally warmer going up from 57oF to 60o F or from 14 degrees to 16 degrees Celsius and the sun will remain shining.

Tallinn has developed itself, since the Iron curtain was lifted, to one of the most popular ports of call in the Baltic. As far excursions it cannot offer as much as St. Petersburg but it certainly makes up for it in quality. Plus the people are very nice and friendly and they have been working very hard in restoring their city as much as possible. When I came here for the first time in 1993 it was quite a grey place and the streets where not in a very good shape. When I came back in 2001 the old city had already been spruced up considerably and they had made a start with the roads in and out of the city and started looking at the more normal houses. Now the place is a jewel among the Baltic cities. As a result of all that hard work, Tallinn remains the preferential port for a lot of cruise ships before they head to St. Petersburg or when they are coming from St.Petes. Helsinki is then the other port option in the same way as we will do after our two days in St. Petersburg. I am really waiting for ports such as Riga (Latvia), Klaipeda (Lithuania), and Gdansk (Poland) to start attracting more cruise traffic even if they are not that close to St. Petersburg.

The port of Tallinn, stock photo from the internet. 2 Hall ships, an RCI ship and an Seven Seas ship at the cruise piers, with one Seabourn ship in the old port. The rest are ferries and some of them are the same size as a medium cruise ship.

Tourism is helping a lot and cruise ship tourism as well. In 2001 when I came here with the old Noordam, we docked in the old harbor and had to take our turn in between the arriving and departing ferries and also having to deal with nervous pilots who were afraid that we would not dock quickly enough and would hamper the next ferry coming in or going out. Ferries had preference as they were on a (tight) sailing schedule and they still have preference. Now they do not have to deal with the cruise ships anymore as the port of Tallinn has built two beautiful long cruise piers which can handle the longest cruise ships that are out there. Not that this was needed today, we only had three “small” ships in port. The Viking Sun, the Windstar and the Prinsendam. (48,000 tons, 10,000 tons and the PRDM 38,000 tons) All ships meant to provide high quality cruising and together they put no more than 1900 guests ashore and that meant a quiet day in Tallinn. They are used here to having something 4 mega liners in port at the same time, releasing over 10 to 12,000 “invaders” during one day. But when they built the piers they did something right. The cruise piers are as close to the old town as the old port, now the ferry port. So if you are ambulant then it is an easy walk of about 10 minutes to get into the city walls.

Our approach to the port of Tallinn. Swing around just north of the piers and back in.

We started approaching the port just before 7 am and it is quite a long approach as we take the west route between islands and reefs, while most ferries come in from the North West which is open water. But it is best to stay away from our ferry friends as they can get quite excited if they think we are in the way. That approach takes about 30 minutes and then you can shoot straight in or first swing around and dock nose out. We did the latter, so we could shoot straight out on departure. As explained before, if possible, nose out is always the best solution. If you never know if the weather will take a turn for the worse or if something unforeseen happens during the day and then it is better if you can get away without delay.

I did not make it ashore today as there were safety drills to assess in the morning and the proficiency of our tender drivers to evaluate in the afternoon. But I will be back as there are quite a few maritime attractions still to visit as thus far (in all those years) I have only visited the Maritime Museum which is housed in one of the big city guard towers. But we will be back.

After departure we will go straight up the west coast of Estonia and then bear right into the Gulf of Finland heading towards the pilot station of St. Petersburg. We will board the pilot at 04.00 hrs. and then it is 2.5 hrs. through a narrow canal towards the dock.

Weather for St. Petersburg: 57oF or 14oC and partly cloudy with a light breeze. If the schedule of the port is correct then we will be the only cruise ship in port. The summer season is only just starting so the port is having every day only one ship. By next week it is already two a day on average and by July the cruise port will be full every day when all the cruise ships have arrived for their Baltic Season.

Today was day 2 of our visit to Hamburg after a quiet overnight alongside the Altona Landing Stage. This is the major cruise ship dock in Hamburg which is normally used by all the cruise ships. The small Prinsendam can dock further up the river when there is space. That dock is almost in the center of the city but it is only available when there are no festivities or activities going on, on the river front. And in Hamburg there is nearly always something going on and thus we are at the large cruise terminal.

The Hamburg Cruise Terminal. As you can see the river flows straight down along the dock making it very easy for the current to get between the ship and the pier. One of the swinging areas for ships turning around is just south of the floating black dry dock to starboard of the ship.

We docked nose in yesterday afternoon, for two reasons: the captain wanted to reduce the delayed arrival to the absolute minimum and the current had only just turned so we could still do so. Swinging around takes at least 10 minutes but if the current is very strong than that has to be done. Unless you use brute force with a few strong tugboats. Normally you always respect the force of the river current and use it as your friend.   So you keep the bow into the current and towards the dock, and the current will push the whole ship towards the dock. Then when you have your forward mooring ropes ashore and ready to bring tight, you use the propellers and stern thruster to bring the stern in. That normally pushes the bow out, something we do not want as then the current can get in between the ship and the dock again and to avoid this we need the forward mooring lines ashore to be able to heave them tight and prevent the current from pushing the ship away again.

The electronic chart for the area. the Prinsendam is docked in the black lined area and all to the south, to starboard are the various cargo docks of Hamburg. As soon as the tide becomes favorable, there will be a lot of traffic going downstream.

When we leave early tomorrow morning, we will use the current as our friend again. It will be low tide at 03.58 tomorrow morning. We have all on board at midnight so the Prinsendam can leave when it is best for the traffic on the river and for the time needed to get down river to Brunsbuttel at the entrance of the Kieler Kanal. When we leave it will still be ebbing and that means a down flow of the river. We will use the river as our friend by bringing the bow off the dock and the current will push us away to the middle of the river, it will almost go by itself. Then it will depend on the pilot to decide what is the best place to swing around. Most of the time we travel a little bit up river, to just under the floating dry – docks and swing there, which gives a bit more room as during the swing the river will also push the ship downstream. But the river is so wide here that the Prinsendam has plenty of room to play with.

It might raise a question about why we can only leave when it works with the traffic but that has to do with the size of the port of Hamburg. After Rotterdam and Antwerp, the port of Hamburg is the largest in Europe. That means a lot of traffic. Traffic that likes to leave and sail down river with the ebb; with following tide. The Elbe River is tidal for 148 km. and if you can use the current as your friend you save a lot of fuel. When we came up the river yesterday, we had the current against us and thus we had to use more power to maintain the same speed while traveling. It is not allowed to go full speed everywhere on the river  to catch up with the delay that one might have and that can then result in later arrivals. In the Hamburg area the maximum current can be as high as 2.5. knots and that means if you are only allowed to travel with a maximum speed of 10 knots through the water, then you only make progress of 7.5. miles distance. Going with the flow, you get those 2.5 knots as a bonus while still going at 10 knots through the water and complying with all the speed regulations. And these vary while traveling along the river. So I expect to see early tomorrow morning a lot of eager captains trying to get their ship on the way to take advantage of the most favorable current and the ms Prinsendam will have to find its place in the parade.

We will put the brakes on after we have traveled about 4 hrs. down river and then make a sharp turn to starboard to enter the locks of the Kieler Kanal at Brunsbuttel. Contrary to the Panama Canal, cruise ships here cannot book a transit time, it is first come, first served but in all the years I have been going here, we were always slotted in around 07.00 for the locks so the guests could see it all in day light. In the past we had an Umpa–Umpa brass band on board to play during the Bier Fest but that is this time done tonight while we are in port. A good thing as well I think, as during my last transit, one of the musicians fell down the gangway as he had also been participating in the Bier Fest while performing. If it happens tonight we can always roll them ashore in a wheel chair.

The weather looks perfect for tomorrow. 71oF / 220C partly cloudy skies and very gentle breeze. No very low hanging white clouds expected.