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.

Zeebrugge is an entry port for Belgium, same as Antwerp but on a much smaller scale. Although with Antwerp you dock in the middle of the city (as long as your ship fits in the turning basin) and in Zeebrugge you are in the middle of nowhere but it is much less time consuming than the run up and down the river Scheldt and the whole long stretch over the Westerschelde through Holland. Zeebrugge is the Gateway City for Bruges and Bruxelles but is not so bad itself. The port runs a shuttle bus service to downtown Zeebrugge which is a small but homely town with a nice shopping street. But it also has a boulevard with a beach and that is very nice in the summer time. Especially if you like Mussels and Frites (= the Belgium version of French Fries). Today the weather was not that great for a beach day, with a light but cold wind and occasional rain but it was still good enough to be able to enjoy the tours to the hinterland.

The light blue is the relative deep water of the North Sea (150 feet or more) and then where the light blue continues among the red and green buoys is where dredging keeps the wandering banks at bay. The big circles indicate various sorts of  lighthouses. The blue line straight down is the canal to Bruges for the smaller ships. We do not fit in.

Getting into Antwerp might take a long time compared to getting into Zeebrugge but also this port has its challenges. And that has to do with all the sand banks in front of the Belgium coast and the amount of traffic that goes up and down the North Sea, in and out of the Scheldt, and in and out of Zeebrugge port. The challenge with the sand banks is that they move. One of them, after which the pilot station is called, is called De Wandelaar, or The Wanderer, and that indicates already that it is moving all over the place. To avoid this there is constant dredging going on. In the approaches, but also inside the port itself.  For a while the main cruise ship dock was not accessible for ships with a draft over 8 meters. They had to go to the container terminal opposite. Not much of a problem as the port is big enough but challenging on a busy cruise ship day.  Today that cruise dock was occupied by one of those dredgers so we also went to the container terminal but one that is used for overflow and no containers were present. It did give plenty of space for our shuttle and tour buses.

You do not dock at a container terminal for the view. But it does offer a lot of space for coaches and long gangways.  In the top right of the photo the church spire of Zeebrugge, about 10 minutes away with the shuttle bus.

Because of the sand banks, the pilot boards far out at sea and they even have an accommodation ship out there so pilots can sleep while waiting for their turn. Once they have completed their shift there is a fast boat that brings them back to solid land or more comfortable they can step off the ship that they brought in. That was the case today with our pilot; he was going home and the captain could not even tempt him with breakfast on board. Either he was in a hurry or he had had too many cruise ship breakfasts already in his life.

Although the pilot only has an advisory duty, most of the time he/she sails the ship in and gives direct orders (which are then acknowledged by the captain as being correct) to the bridge team. In a port like this where wind, tide and sandbanks can change by the hour that is the best way forward. Once it then comes to docking the Captain takes over again and parks the ship where pilot, harbor master and agent thinks it should go. If you go in and out of a port on a very regular basis, you can get a pilots exemption, so your ship can sail when it needs to, without delay. Most ferry captains have such an exemption as they are going in and going out as often as the regular pilots do. But you still need the local knowledge due to the moving sands, moving buoys and other things that Mother Nature can throw at you in these dangerous North Sea areas.

We will sail from here to Rotterdam and the weather is again going to be very windy. There is another weather front coming over which will bring a lot of rain and wind to the Netherlands. On one side I can live with it as I am going home tomorrow, on the other hand I hope that it will not affect the flights from Schiphol as my wife wants me home before cocktail time.

The Captain and his navigation team produced this North Atlantic Chart for the Guests. Marking the noon time position for everyday of the cruise. This was voyage 549 for the ms Rotterdam.

It is also the end of cruise 549, the ms Rotterdam’s Trans-Atlantic Cruise which has turned out to be quite a good one. We did have to cancel a port because of bad weather, the crossing was nice and quiet and we were just a bit unlucky with the rain during the last few days. But can be expected during a spring crossing. Now the ship will make a number of European Cruises, then make three Atlantic crossings between Rotterdam and Boston; and then start on August 25 a series of Canadian Maritime cruises to Montreal.

This is my last daily blog until 02 June. Then I will join the ms Prinsendam for three weeks and the first week is rather special as the ship will be celebrating its 30^th. Birthday and we will visit her place of birth in Turku.

While I am on leave I am involved in something that seldom happens to a ship’s captain: opening an exhibition. As the Dutch King was not available, neither the Queen, nor President Trump, it was decided that I was the next best choice to do so. The exhibition is about the four Veendam’s the company operated and the predecessor of the first Veendam, the W.A Scholten. I was captain for four years on the Veendam IV (from 2004 to 2009) and thus I am somewhat qualified to be involved.

https://www.veenkoloniaalmuseum.nl/nl/in-het-museum/tentoonstellingen/veendam-in-de-vaart-1

I will post something on the blog once the exhibition has been opened.

Thus is it time again to say goodbye to all my regular readers and those who tune in on occasion. I hope that you found my daily ramblings, interesting and on occasion diverting and maybe even educational. I thank you for your support and interest.

And I promised a Dutch “Art Deco” on the HAL ships.

This is the Grand Hall of the ss Nieuw Amsterdam of 1938.  The decoration is much more subdued than on the Normandie but the coloring is not that much different.

Again the Grand Hall of the ss Nieuw Amsterdam of 1938. Now in Black and White and seen from the other side. It is a mixture of styles. Some Art Deco, some Bauhaus and something what they called the “Dutch Style”. Still trying to find out what that is. Most famous is the ceiling with a number of nude sculptures, which gave quite a shock when the ship entered service. The ceiling still exists and is now owned by the Rotterdam Maritime Museum.