Day 57 - Suez Sunset

It's official - the pool is open. Today we swam in the Red Sea. Every day (until I suppose the water is too cold) the pool will be filled from whichever sea/ocean we are in. The pool isn't very large (just over 11 feet square) but it's a nice addition to the usual routines. We pretty much are guaranteed summer weather until Singapore. After that I suppose it will depend. There are nice padded reclining chairs up on the pilot deck (one above ours). You just find a spot and enjoy the day. Depending on who is around it's like having the deck to yourself.

Oh, the picture I took for today was actually frome the Suez transit. We're at the point of the journey where you just see the sea most days so I thought I'd fill in with a few other pictures.

Day 56 - Ship in the Desert

Today was spent cruising in the Red Sea. The Chief Engineer told us that the water was 23C today so it's likely that the pool will be filled tomorrow. It's lovely warm weather so it's time to get the chairs out of the bar upstairs and take some time to relax in the sun (and then the shade). The picture for today actually comes from out stopping point in the Suez Canal. While we were down on the lower deck supposedly shopping it was interesting to watch the ships going the other direction. If you waited until a certain point it actually looked like the ships were sailing through the sand dunes.

Day 55 - Suez Canal

We spent a good part of the evening waiting for our transit to start. We were actually going to be early to our pilot station so we slowed our speed. The captain told us that it was likely our transit wouldn't start until 3 or 4am and offered to call us when 'something interesting' was going to happen. Of course we're both too excited to sleep so we spent some time up on the bridge. I had been up there about 11pm and the sky was so clear. It's amazing when you're out in the middle of nowhere (i.e. no city lights) how many stars you see on a clear night.

Our transit didn't actually start until about 6am and I had just come on the bridge as the captain was calling my mother in the cabin. The morning was quite foggy and the early pictures didn't come out too well. The picture for today is actually of a bridge near Ismailia I believe. I'll have to wait until I perhaps have internet access to figure out where it actually goes as I forgot to ask one of the pilots. It's amazing to think that you're sailing 163km through the desert. It serves the same function as the Panama Canal but just looks and feels so different.

Just before lunch we pulled into one of the two-way bypasses (just about a third of the way through). Most of the traffic on the canal is one-way so at times you need to wait until it's your turn. We spent the afternoon doing a little shopping... well, someone did come aboard with wares to sell. I think in the end only one of the passengers bought anything. The rest of the day was spent watching ships come through in the other direction. It was actually after sunset when we pulled out and completed our voyage through the canal.

Day 54 - Getting the Pool Ready

We should reach Port Said tonight, which is the first step to the Suez transit. Then it's a combination of waiting for the convoy and the actual transit. I suspect, depending on the timing, we might be up a good part of the night. The best news would be to hear that the actual transit would be in daylight. The crew has been working on the pool the last few days, as it should be filled after our Suez transit.

I've had a couple of people ask about the accommodations and the meals on board so I thought I'd take some time today and write a bit about them. I know when I was looking for information about the trip these were things I was curious about. We have the owner's cabin on board, as it was the only one with two single beds. This gives us a lot of space and two separate rooms. The bedroom has the two beds, a dresser with a mirror and lots of storage space (including drawers under the bed). The bathroom goes off the bedroom with a good shower that has a handrail for the rough days. The living room has an L-shaped desk with more storage along the wall, including a big deep corner cupboard that took the suitcases. There's a television, CD/tape player, a DVD player and a satellite box for the TV. The satellite (so far) only worked in Europe with no English stations, so we're mainly stuck to the DVDs we brought. There's also a sectional couch, a coffee table fixed to the floor, an armchair and a small cupboard with a mini fridge. The cabin really is very well appointed and has been a good home away from home.

I'll break down the meals based on time of day. A fair bit of the offerings are constant and self serve. For example, there is always fruit juice, water, milk, cheese, cold cuts, seasonings, condiments, salad (lunch and dinner), salad dressings, and pickles on the rotating centrepiece on the table. There is always fruit on the sideboard along with jams and peanut butter (they go on the table for breakfast). Bread is added during lunch and dinner and sometimes the cook does some baking for the crew's afternoon coffee (bread, cake) and leaves a few pieces in our dining room. Coffee (and tea) is offered at all meals.

Breakfast (8am) - choice of eggs and meat of the day (bacon, sausage, ham) or scrambles (mexican, western) or omelette, cold cereal (not sure what type as nobody has ever taken them), hot cereal (porridge), and toast.

Lunch (12pm) - soup of the day (quite good), a hot dish (served with usually potatoes and a vegetable), fruit plate. Thursday and Sunday the fruit plate is replaced by ice cream (with chocolate sauce and whipped cream if so desired). The meats, cheeses, salad, and usually a nut bread (not sweet, likely a rye/pumpernickel blend) are another option if desired.

Dinner (6pm) - a hot dish with the addition of usually another type of cheese on the rotating centre table. No soup, no fruit plate, no ice cream.

It will be interesting to see if the meals change once our captain changes in Singapore. We'll be very sorry to see him go. We found out that the nice soups at lunch came about as a result of him telling the cook there were to be no canned soups. In Philadelphia the captain went ashore and bought the cook a recipe book with 1000 recipes in it. Up until that point the food had been okay, but not inspired. Since then the cooking has improved the offerings although I suspect this is with lots of studying at night. Although I did find out that he hadn't known that the ship carried passengers when he signed on. He would have likely brought some cookbooks with him if he'd known. Today we had a lovely chicken with feta and olives at lunch and will have beef with caper sauce (new to us) for dinner. The captain also brought aboard wine, cheese and a special Spanish ham while in Aviles. Our stop in Genoa added salami, mortadella, fresh parmesan, and even a panatone the first day out. I suspect these touches are very much captain specific so we'll see what the new captain brings. I was sitting in the dining room one night after dinner (my mother and I will remain and chat with the Captain and the Chief Engineer if they have a quiet even ahead) and they asked about how I found the food. I'm quite happy with it and said so. The Chief Engineer said it was quite good compared to most ships and mentioned that he'd been on some ships with some really bad food.

The one thing I didn't mention is that if you really don't find anything to your taste you are encouraged to ask the cook to make you something. When we first came aboard there was a fair amount of fish served. I myself don't eat most fish (although I'll take shrimp and calamari generally). The other passenger didn't eat any of it (as well I think as no lamb or duck, and I didn't quite catch it one night but I think nothing with cooked onions in it - she does seem to be exceptionally picky about food and some nights just eats cheese and crackers she's bought ashore, or peanut butter and bread). The nights that fish was on the menu I usually just asked what the crew was having. So I've also had oxtails and spaghetti on some nights. I've noticed that fish has slowly worked its way off the menu most of the time although I look forward to Sunday, which brings shrimp with feta and a pasta dish for supper. I've never bothered to ask for anything special (even though the cook himself has offered). One of the other passengers occasionally asks for something a little different and is accommodated. (i.e. a buckwurst-think german hotdog- and bread, some baked chicken)

Well, I think I've written enough about the meals. I haven't really mentioned the wine, which some nights adds just a little atmosphere to the after dinner conversations. It's funny, but it's to the point where I can predict the nights. It's never on a night a pilot is due, or during rough seas, or even the night before ports. It's usually on the nights that the seas are calm and we're effectively in the middle of nowhere. I suppose those are the evenings that the Captain and the Chief Engineer can relax a little bit.

That's enough typing for now. The sun is out so I think I'll check to see where we are (on the bridge) and then maybe go down to the main deck to see if I can find a sunny spot without much wind. I was outside earlier and the upper deck was sunny, but windy. The direction we're travelling today puts the windless section of the upper deck in the shade, so lower down might be a better idea.

Day 53 - The Sunny Med

Today was spent cruising the sunny southern Mediterranean. That's said a little tongue in cheek as the sun never really did make an appearance. The sailing was smooth, however, the weather covered a variety of conditions - dull, misty rain, light rain, dull, hint of sun, back to rain. I spent part of the afternoon working on the cook's computer. I made the mistake of mentioning my education in computer systems to the Chief Officer the day before. After lunch today the cook told me that his laptop wasn't working and wondered if I could look at it. I thought of trying to explain the difference between the programming and systems design courses I took but decided I could at least look at it. With a couple of warning that I could make no promises I took the computer upstairs to have a look at it. The only option I could eventually offer was to reinstall the operating system, as the system files were corrupt. It wasn't a perfect solution but at least this way he could boot the machine up. Next thing I know I'm down in the crew mess answering a few more questions about computers. Oh well, I really didn't mind as it helped pass the part of the afternoon.

Day 52 - Stromboli

We spent the day sailing down the coast of Italy, although far enough away that it feels like you're again in the middle of nowhere. The end of the day brought us past the Stromboli volcano in the Lipari Islands. Once again I'm seeing only part of an Italian volcano. Five years ago we visited Mount Etna (on Sicily) and although the tour guide pressed on, the mist never did clear. We picked up a pilot to guide us into the Straight of Messina about 7pm. The islands of Sicily and Calabria were beautifully lit up as we made our way into the straight. A short while later we were back into the dark night, sailing further south.

Day 51 - Port of Genoa

We went back into Genoa today and had a look around. The Chief Engineer was off to do some shopping so we started off with him as a guide to getting out of the port. We easily made our way past the ship and the cranes that have been working non-stop since last night. As we got to the railway tracks he stopped (as something had changed). A quick chat with some workmen and he came back to tell us that legally we couldn't get out this way but he thought it would be okay. I think probably a better word would have been technically, since I think they were working on the side of the tracks we should have walked along. We parted ways with being shown a shopping mall quite near the port.

As we didn't have a full day we decided just to wander around, without attempting a bus or a train ride. The captain had given me a full list of contacts, taxi numbers, and a very specific address to come back to (in case we needed a taxi). We walked along to one of the passenger ferry terminals (quite far away from where we were) and decided to work our way back. We still hadn't seen an Internet cafe so we took a slightly different road back and did manage to locate one. It wasn't until later that we found out that the government had imposed rules for them. You could not get online without government identification. I thought our shore pass might do, however, they wouldn't accept it. Luckily I was still carrying my driver's license, which we had used in the US ports. They did accept it and I managed to get the blog updated. The Chief Engineer wasn't so lucky as we found out that night that he hadn't managed to get online himself.

A late afternoon sailing out of Genoa gave us a last look at the city. The picture I took (I hope) shows how much this city is a port city. The waterfront here serves container ships, numerous ferries and pleasure craft. Now we're off down to the southern Mediterranean and Port Said.

Day 50 - Maritime Alps

We are heading towards Genoa today with today’s picture being taken of (perhaps) the Maritime Alps in France. There’s also a chance it’s of the Imperia province in Italy (also part of the Maritime Alps). And if you look closely – yes – there’s snow on the top of the mountains. Thankfully, we’re not going to those mountains! We might be a little later in than originally expected, although only by an hour. I still think our time might be tight in Genoa (i.e. in too late to do much exploring and out too early tomorrow) but we’ll see. I just thought I’d get this ready now just in case.

If I do get this updated the next update will likely be from Singapore. I’ve kind of lost track when that stop will be, however, the Rickmers’ website will have that information for any interested. There is a stop planned in Thailand just before Singapore so perhaps I’ll get online there as well.

(Just an aside. We did find an internet cafe in Genoa, however, for the first time I was asked for documents. As we are ashore with only a shore pass I did eventually convince them to take my driver's license.)

Day 49 - Ibiza Shore

I keep thinking that the Mediterranean seems bluer that the other oceans/seas we’ve been in, however, looking back at other pictures I think it’s my imagination. The weather is quite warm with only the wind making it necessary for a coat on the upper decks. Late afternoon brought us past Ibiza so I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures. Actually I took the pictures first and then went up onto the bridge to see what I’d taken pictures of. My mother went down onto the main deck to walk around and came up later completely soaked. If I thought she would stand still long enough I’d have probably taken a picture of it. Even the slightly less rough seas are deceptive. You still get some spray up on the lower decks and an occasional wave. The only good thing she says is that the weather is warm today! After a shower she’s now off to the laundry to wash the salt water out of her t-shirt and jeans.

I hear from the captain that we should be in Genoa tomorrow by about 7pm, however, we’ll likely only be there until noon the next day. The chief engineer tells me that there’s a bus into town quite near where we dock, so we’ll probably do the same as we did in Avilés – try and go in twice if we can. Hopefully I can update the website during one of the trips.

Day 48 - Back at Sea

More lovely sailing today with a planned passage into the Strait of Gibraltar this evening around 9pm. We went up onto the bridge before to see what we could see. The weather was actually warm and we could have seen just as well from the deck, however, it’s nice to be on the bridge with the occasional information passed from the captain and crew. The best sight was the coast of Morocco (near Tangier). There were numerous ships in this narrow area and the crew was kept busy at times (our job is to keep out of the way). We passed (just before Gibraltar) a massive cruise ship headed in the opposite direction. The captain told me that it had 2400 passengers and 1200 crew. The ship itself was about 100m longer than us. The strange thing is that I preferred being up on the bridge of our ship at that moment. We passed Gibraltar shortly after that and sailed into the darkness.

Day 47 - Spanish Sunset

The pilot wasn’t kidding about the weather outside the port. Last night when we came out of the mouth of the harbour you could see the swells headed inland. A smaller ship behind us seemed to dip down and disappear into the wave and then come up quite far out of the water. I suppose we were doing the same. Today was spent in an almost zigzag pattern of sailing along the coasts of Spain and Portugal to try and find a less stormy path. I’m not sure if this is common or not but the captain always does seem to try and find a less rough patch of sea (within reason). This may be to accommodate the passengers or just to lessen the chance of anything rolling off the decks.

After dinner, following far too much wonderful Spanish wine, the winds abated and the seas calmed down. This is hopefully a good sign for heading into the Mediterranean tomorrow.

Day 46 - Town Square in Aviles

As we were supposed to leave early (i.e. back on board by noon) we made an early start back to Avilés. We went to the train station (which did in fact have a train) and took it into the city. It turns out that it stops next door to the train station we were in last night. It was almost funny. I’m sure in years to come it will become funny. We looked at the schedule and decided that if we didn’t catch the 10:54am train back we’d have to try the bus. We actually saw the bus this morning while in the train station (although we have no idea where it stops). We walked to a local restaurant and had coffee and a pastry for breakfast. Although there seemed to be a lot of little places open this seemed to be the only real option.

After that we basically just walked around for a couple of hours. I took some pictures; we picked up a few things at a local market and went into the Internet café. I got my updates done and we made our way back to the ship. We were back by noon, however, the pilot had decided we wouldn’t go out until 5 or 6 pm (because of the weather – nice inland but quite rough outside the port. I took some shots after dinner of the lovely sunset we had. (Using that for tomorrow’s picture.)

Day 45 - Lighthouse at Aviles

Well, we came into Avilés tonight just at 6pm. We were told just after dinner that we didn’t need to clear customs or carry our passports. It’s a small town, small port, and everybody knew who we were. Since it was still daylight we went upstairs and grabbed our coats and just went for a quick walk. It’s unclear how long we’re going to be here but we found a little train station and took at the morning schedule. We walked back to the ship and met the captain who was talking with the local agent. The agent said if we could wait a few minutes he would drive us into town. You would think by now that we would know better.

Anyway, we did go into town and walked around a little. I found an Internet café although the system wouldn’t recognize my USB card and I couldn’t drop to DOS to mess with it as I have before. I’ll break down and burn a CD tonight and try it again tomorrow. It will serve as a backup for the pictures I’ve taken as well. I brought some blanks just for that purpose.

So now we come to our usual ‘how to get back to the ship’. According to the main train station there is no station out where we are. Now we were at it (didn’t write down the name), and saw train tracks. We think we saw the right bus to take, however, it was after 9pm and that was the last bus. So we thought a taxi would be a good idea. The first taxi suddenly lost his command of English when he heard where we wanted to go. The second driver was more blunt, telling us he didn’t go there. Finally with the help of a local resident we did get a fourth taxi to take us (the first driver the local fellow spoke to said no as well). It’s not that long a drive (7 Euros total), but I guess it’s not a popular place.

And yes, tomorrow we will go back – by train or bus so we know where we’re coming back to.

Day 44 - Antwerp Central Station

We’re at sea once again. Since neither of us chose to get up between 6 and 7am we yet again missed the white cliffs of Dover. Oh well, I suppose they’re still there. It’s another slow day at sea although the weather has been fairly calm. Late afternoon we turned into the Bay is Biscay and the sea started to get rougher. I suspect tonight we’ll find out what few things aren’t as well secured as they should have been. According to the limited encyclopaedia I have with me Avilés is a city of between 20,000 and 99,999 people. I don’t think we’re going to have much time to explore it. We will be picking up the pilot tomorrow about 5pm, with at least an hour transit time (more when you include tying up and clearing customs). I was hoping we’d be in earlier and perhaps at least try and have dinner ashore. The plan is to load cargo through the night and leave early on the 9th – perhaps as early as noon. I suspect that Genoa may be the same (as I saw this originally when booking) so I’ll try keeping the pictures/commentaries up to date so I can perhaps update the blog.

Day 43 - Interesting Cargo

The four days in Belgium were very interesting. This is the first port we’ve been in that actually runs a bus into the port. It’s made getting around very simple. And since the last bus stop was only a short walk back to the ship it made shopping easy as well. With a very few exceptions we’ve stuck to our ‘only consumable’ purchases rule. The inter-city trains were easy to use as well. It seemed like we just went from one to the other with almost no waiting time. (Germany was the same as well.)

The picture I took here is part of the reason choosing this ship was a good choice. The cargo has been a mix of steel pipes, boxed components too large to go into a container, bags (not sure what was in them), and odd pieces of machinery (as pictured here). This often requires more time to load, precise placement, and sometimes rebalancing of the load. These things are what give us our extra time in port. I asked the Supercargo what this piece of equipment is. It turns out that it's the base of a 3000tn crane that will be used building offshore pipelines.

We spent the first part of the transit up on the bridge tonight. This transit required a pilot to take us into a set of locks, another for the river and a third to take us to open sea. We should be a day and a half at sea before the next pilot comes aboard for Aviles, Spain.

Day 42 - Cathedral

Well, it was another foggy day in Belgium. While walking out for the bus we passed the stevedores who had a fire going in a metal drum to take the chill off. We went into Antwerp today just to see a little more of the city than we'd already seen. This piece of statue was on the side of a cathedral near the main square. It's a tribute to the workers of the country I believe. We walked down to the Schelde River; however, even at noon there was still a fair bit of fog. I think our many days of sightseeing have caught up with us as we actually made it back to the ship for dinner tonight. We found out that we don't need to be back on the ship until about 1pm tomorrow, however, I think the most we're thinking of doing tomorrow is walking to the mariners' centre or the nearby duty-free shop. Maybe it's even a morning to sleep in and miss breakfast.

Day 41 - Grote Markt

041-Grote Markt
Originally uploaded by realcdn.

The day started off very foggy. In fact, there was little scenery on the way to Brussels, although thankfully it burned off. It left us with a very lovely day to explore this interesting city. With limited time we took a city tour that showed us many things – palaces, the European parliament, and even Chinese and Japanese pavilions. After lunch we spent time walking around the city streets – including the Grote Markt (which is today’s picture). The architecture is very ornate and one building seems more impressive than the last one you’ve seen. Tomorrow we will spend in Antwerp, as we should be sailing either late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. That is, unless something has changed. Next update should be from Aviles in Spain (perhaps 2 or 3 days after sailing) or in Genoa, Italy. That’s always assuming I find Internet access.

Day 40 - Canals in Bruges

040-Canals in Bruges
Originally uploaded by realcdn.

Okay - so this morning we discovered you can actually see the stern of the ship from the bus stop. I'm not sure I should admit this. Anyway, we had a good laugh about it and took off for the day. This time we headed for Bruges, a very medieval town with cobblestone streets, canals and lots of chocolate shops. Well, lots of shops in general. The captain's wife, Iva, is leaving the ship here to go home so it gave us a good excuse to buy chocolates. She's very nice and it has been fun having her aboard. Iva is a bit shy about her English; however, it's much better than she thinks. I told her the other day that her English is considerably better than my Croatian. That's something we were discussing on the train today - that my mother and I both wish we were better with other languages. I found out that I could still read French fairly well (I downloaded the Belgian train brochure in French while in Hamburg and could understand it). I discovered that I just don't have a clue in German or Flemish. We are so lucky as tourists that we've run into many a local who is fluent in, or reasonably good in, English.

We're likely off to Brussels tomorrow. Hopefully the weather is as good as it was today. I'm keeping the pictures and the blog information up to date so I can pop into an Internet cafe on Monday. There are four of them between the bus station and the train station. And to think I was worried about finding places!

Day 39 - Gravensteen Castle, Ghent

039-Gravensteen Castle, Ghent
Originally uploaded by realcdn.

We tried staying up last night to see our arrival into Antwerp. The first pilot came aboard early and we started our trip in. He was quite chatty and during the trip suggested a trip to Ghent. Since we have 4 days in Antwerp we decided we would go there today. So in our usual confused tourist routine off we went. We had to visit immigration here (so far we’ve been cleared on the ship) so the driver dropped us off at the central station downtown. We had seen a sign for a bus on the way out of the port so we tried to get more information on it at the bus terminal. Well, this didn’t go well. We did manage to buy a 5-day bus pass (from a machine) so it wasn’t a complete loss. In the end we got the best information, and a map, from the information counter in the train station… that didn’t give information on the trains.

Anyway, we did manage to catch the train to Ghent, and find a streetcar to take us closer to the centre of town. (We had 2 stations to choose from in Ghent and we chose the one further out.) Armed with a map we bought at the train station and later a free one from an information kiosk, we spent most of the afternoon just walking around Ghent, eventually walking back to the station we should have originally stopped at. In Antwerp we found the bus stop (well, almost) and waited for the bus. After missing the first one we found out that the bus actually stopped around the corner, not at the gate marked on the electronic sign. (See what I mean about confused.) We found the bus, which took us back to the port, near to our ship. The bus driver gave me directions back to our specific wharf, however, at some point we figured we were going in the wrong direction. Some very nice people at the New Holland tractor plant drew a circle on the map (i.e. where we were). I really didn’t want any more directions at this point. Shortly after this we found our wharf and were home (it really does feel like it now). We had prepared for our late arrival by purchasing some meat, cheese and bread so we had dinner in the cabin with the addition of some fruit and a little Jack Daniels and lemonade.

Tomorrow we’ll start all over again. Although this time we’ll walk out to the bus stop in day so it should be easier getting back. We saw a couple of Internet cafes in Antwerp; however, at the moment the plan isn’t to use one of them until probably Monday. I’m just getting this ready in case our plans change.

Day 38 - Back at Sea

038-Back at Sea
Originally uploaded by realcdn.

Well we’re back at sea today although with the occasional ship in the horizon we don’t feel like we’re in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty grey until just about lunchtime when the sun finally made an appearance. Afternoon walking on deck was pleasant although fairly cold. At 3pm the crew take a coffee break and it was a good thing to join them today. The pilot came aboard for the trip into Antwerp tonight although there’s not much to see at the moment (just darkness). Last night when leaving Hamburg we were up on the bridge – just a little warmer than standing out on the deck. It was amazing to watch the crew (with some local help) take the ship out backwards under a bridge with probably less than a meter clearance on both sides. It probably looks closer than it was; however, after we were through the captain came over and commented on how tight the bridge was.