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Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line

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19 April 2019: Al Aqabah, Jordan.

April 19, 2019 / / 3 Comments

Today we are in Aqabah which is located at the end of the Gulf of Eliatt.

The Northern part of the Red Sea which splits in two parts here by the Sinai Peninsula. (Courtesy www. GraphicMaps.com)

The Jordanians call it the Gulf of Aqabah and may the best PR. Department win the battle of whatever the best name is.  Aqabah is the only coastal city of Jordan which is for the rest land locked between Israel and Syria.  Ancient Aqabah was once called Eliath but that name now only exists on the Israelian side. And that side is quite close. As a matter of fact the border runs right along Aqabah itself and the same at the other side for Eliath.

Jordan and Israel are on reasonable terms and thus the border is in frequent use and most cruise ships do crew exchanges here. So connections can be made from airports on either side of the border. What a funny part is, is that there is no direct transport over the border. Thus if you leave the ship in Aqabah, the agent will bring you to the border, then you pull your suitcase through the border and show your passport and then on the other side another agent (same agency) with another car takes you to the airport. Going the other way, goes the same. But this is only done if there is no flight available from the airport at Aqaba which connects with the international airport in the capital of Amman. Continue reading

18 April 2019: At Sea, Day 04.

April 18, 2019 / / 2 Comments

Another Sea day, the last one before we reach Aqabah and the wind his changed. Before it was in the back or stern and it increased during the day time which is normal for winds generated by landmasses warming up. That changes about half way up the Red Sea. And we were halfway yesterday afternoon. At about 1600 hrs. we passed Mecca with its port, Jeddah, on our starboard side. We had 50 miles to starboard and 50 miles to port so our course stayed as far as possible from all the land around us. Now we are coming closer to Europe and Asia so other landmasses, read temperatures are starting to play a part in the weather equation. And thus in the early morning hours the wind breezed up and is now against us with a nice wind force 4 to 5 blowing (20 to 25 knots) and the ship is “bumping” into it with 16 knots of speed. This gives a bit of movement as the Seabourn with being smaller does not have all the options of a larger ship, with a bigger bow, to ride over everything. Continue reading

17 April 2019; At Sea; Day 03.

April 17, 2019 / / 0 Comments

We are slowly making our way up the Red Sea and as the waters are quite wide here we do not see that many ships. We have also left the piracy waters behind us and our extra security friends have been stood down by the Staff Captain and are enjoying a well-deserved rest. Our guests were trying to do the same but their morning tranquility was interrupted by a full safety drill. We try to do the drills nowadays in port so it does not affect the guests and also because we can then involve all the crew in the drill. Now larger groups had to be excused as the guests still needed to be served. The crew that missed this drill will attend the next one in a week’s time. Legally each crewmember has to participate in one fire and one abandon ship drill each month. Plus they need to attend trainings drills and thus most ships have now gone to Full Drills each week so it can all be done in one go and nobody falls by the way side. (And crew is often very good in trying to fall by the wayside………) This system works very well, except on sea days when Hotel Operations continue in full swing. Also we have to conduct a Fire Drill (Or First Stage Response Drill) every seven days and thus there is no way around it and we had to impede on the guests restfulness a little bit this morning. So I pulled one of my specials today for the fire teams and they responded very well. Continue reading

16 April 2019; At Sea, Day 3.

April 16, 2019 / / 3 Comments

This morning at 06.00 hrs. we passed the Cape & Island of Bab El Mandeb, which forms the official entrance to the Red Sea.  This is a fairly narrow strait and when going in we sailed only about a 1.5 miles off the coast line of Yemen.

The Bab El Mandeb entry into the Red Sea. (Thank you Wikipedia)

This is an area where there has been a lot of piracy in the past and in 2018 Saudi Arabia closed the Red Sea off here for a short while as there was a political dispute going on. Bab El Mandeb is also known as the Gate of the Tears due to the many shipwrecks and related havoc that took place here in the bygone days. When the British established control over the routes to India one of the first things they did was to put a light house on one of the islands here to guide the ships safely around the small islands and reefs.  I checked and the light house was still there, although I could not see if the light was still working as the sun rose right above it. All in all an historic area to cross. Continue reading

15 April 2019; At Sea, Day 2.

April 15, 2019 / / 3 Comments

Today we are sailing along the South East part of Yemen and tomorrow we are turning into the Gulf of Aden and from there into the Red Sea. Bab El Mandab should be visible tomorrow afternoon if we continue with this speed. So hopefully we will be able to see the rock formation but it will depend on the traffic which all has to converge there due to the narrowness of the fairway. More about that tomorrow.  We are still quite a ways from land and thus there is not very much to see except that the wind picked up during the night and we now have white caps with a wind force 4 (up to 16 knots)  sometimes breezing up to  6 (20+ knots).  It is a following wind so it does not matter for the ship as the ship is traveling with the same speed as the velocity of the wind and thus it is nearly wind still on deck.  The wind is from the North East and has been blowing over warm areas and thus it is a warm wind, making it nice and toasty outside. Continue reading

14 April 2019: At Sea Day 1.

April 14, 2019 / / 5 Comments

We are now on our way to Al Aqabah which is a five day sea voyage up the Gulf of Aden and then into the Red Sea. Eventually I hope to report if the Red Sea is indeed red or if there is something different going on (Or was going on, when they came up with the name). But that will take a while as of lunch time today it was still 500 miles to the Bab El Mandab rock formation which forms the official entrance to the Red Sea coming from the south. We are sailing at a considerable distance away from the shore line, to stay in international waters but also to stay away from fishing boats and other mayhem which tends to congregate on the edge of the deep water to shallow water. That is where the fish tends to come to the surface and might swim straight into the nets. Continue reading

13 April 2019: Salalah, Oman.

April 13, 2019 / / 1 Comment

Today we had a later arrival as the ship is staying until late in the evening to facilitate a dancing under the Stars program. There is not much reason to arrive any earlier as Salalah is an industrial port so it takes quite a bit of effort to get away from that port and into civilization, either old or new. And for that we have the various tours. In this area there are only two options. Either tours to the city which include looking at the Sultan’s palace, visiting the Sook and driving through the more greener area of the place; Or go and visits Job’s Tomb. This is the Job from the Old Testament and who is important to both the Christian and the Muslim faith, hence his tomb has been preserved very well.  But today we had a lot of guests who happily stayed on board and lounged about on the balconies or around the pool. I cannot disagree with them; there is only so much sand you can handle during a cruise. No doubt after having been well rested today, they will be out in force this evening for this party under the stars. Continue reading

12 April 2019; At Sea, sailing along the Coast of Oman.

April 12, 2019 / / 0 Comments

We are following the recommended deep sea route so we are quite far from the shore. This makes sense anyway as it keeps us clear all sorts of Sunday sailors and fishing boats who are normally hovering on the edge of the shallow and deep water line as that is where the fish tends to come up from the deep. We are in deep water, very deep water. In relative distance the depth of the sea increases quite rapidly from being shallow and below us we have about 4000 feet of water and that is not even the deepest part.

The tectonic plate movement in the area (Thank you wikipedia)

The cause is another continental divide. We are here at the eastern rim of the Arabian Tectonic Plate which is crushed against Europe by the African Plate. I have blogged about this before, explaining the Wegener theory (not a theory since a long time anymore) that the continents are a sort of parts of a large dinner plate (broken in to the continent pieces a long time ago) that mainly drift westwards but not always. Far down at the sea bottom the two plates meet and slowly but steadily the Somalian Plate pushes the African Plate to the North East. So the distance from South America is getting larger by a few centimeters every year. The Arabian plate has nowhere to go but follow and here the mountains are getting higher. (Wait a million years and you can see the difference) This is caused by the west moving Somalian plate which is pushing under the African plate and that gives these very deep canyons under water.  And we are sailing right over the top at the moment. Continue reading

11 April 2019; Muscat, Oman.

April 11, 2019 / / 2 Comments

And thus we arrived in Muscat; the capital of Oman, with approx. 1.5 mln inhabitants. The port is called the Sultan Qaboos port and is not very large. Looking at the activity it is mainly used for ships bringing goods in and thus the cruise terminal doubles up as a container dock. Two piers are fully taken over by the Sultan’s private yacht and a secondary yacht which is used for his guests. Then to these two ships belongs a dedicated navy ship to keep the Sultan (full name Sultan Qaboos Said al Said) safe. The navy ship was nowhere in sight so I assume the sultan is not planning to go sailing in the very near future.

The Yacht of the Sultan. The “Al Said”. and it is not even the biggest one in the world.

The yacht, although it is more like a ship, is called Al Said after the family name and was built in 2006. It has a volume of nearly 16,000 tons which makes it 2/5 of the size of the Seabourn Ovation but that is only because is the less wide and less long, as it has almost the same height. I never entertained the idea of having my own boat or yacht as it is as if you are married to two women at the same time. Very expensive. With the yacht having the worst mother-in-law called “maintenance at sea”, but if I had the Sheiks bank account, I could settle for this. More than enough room to store all my books and memorabilia and with room left for a home cinema to please my Lord and Master. Continue reading

10 April 2019; At Sea.

April 10, 2019 / / 2 Comments

Today we have a sea day and the ship is on its way from Doha to Muscat. This means we are sailing out of the Persian Gulf into the Strait of Hormuz and then further south. Thus we go North East  until we reach the coast of the United Emirates again where we started our cruise and then this afternoon we bend around the top of the area, called Al Khasal also written as Khasab, in the early afternoon and now we are in Gulf of Oman.  This is one of the areas where there is a lot of political noise about. On occasion Iran threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz and then the other parties threaten something in return; and vice versa. Continue reading

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