Kathie and I returned a couple of days ago from our trip to northern Europe, which included a 14-day cruise of the Baltic onboard the Holland-America Line's Ms Prinsendam and a visit to see nephew Mark Drake and his family in Sweden. Unfortunately, we both came back with colds and coughs, even though we tried to avoid that with constant hand washing and use of the ship's convenient hand disinfectant dispensers. Nevertheless, I thought I should begin to get something posted about our trip and thought I'd start with a little information about the ship itself.
Here is a shot of the Prinsendam docked in Estonia and another of her docked in Oslo.
The Prinsendam covered 2,718 nautical miles during the course of our cruise. We visited (in order) The Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Sweden, Poland, Germany (again), Denmark, Norway, and back to The Netherlands. She is 38,000 gross tons, has a length of 673 feet and width of 106 feet, and can reach a maximum speed of 21 knots; during the cruise, speed ranged from 10.7 to 19.2 knots. She is powered by 3 diesel generators and four main engines. Propulsion is via two propeller shafts with total power of 8,020 horse power. The Prinsendam burns up to 100 tons of diesel fuel per day (26,420 gallons). She can produce up to 750 gallons of potable water/day; average consumption is 450 tons/day. The ship is staffed by a crew of 448 persons, including engineering and navigation, housekeeping, food and beverage service, and entertainment. There were 773 guests onboard. About 400 were from the USA, another 150 from Canada, another group from Australia and Great Britain, and the rest from various other countries. The Prinsendam is the smallest ship in the Holland-America fleet. Other ships are generally twice her size in terms of passenger capacity. You can read lots more about this ship by clicking
here, including views of her deck plans and amenities. We were in cabin 436, in case you want to look for that on the deck plans.
An important step in advance of any cruise departure is the mandatory lifeboat drill. Here are a couple of shots of Kathie and me taking part in that exercise. And, yes, it is true--women and children first. Passengers are ordered to line up in a specific way, with women and children near the outside of the ship to enable them to board lifeboats first. Men must stand at the rear and wait their turn.
The vests are very high tech. They have lights on them that blink and attached whistles that you can blow. They also have a flap on the back that would float up to hold your head. Nevertheless, the North Sea and Baltic Sea are pretty chilly waters, so we didn't want to test them. On the other hand, the lifeboats are also very high tech. They are powered, have radios, and are completely enclosed to protect passengers in the event of heavy seas.
Another thing I enjoyed watching during the cruise was the work of tug boats and pilot boats. Tugs are used to help with the maneuvering, and pilot boats are used to lead a ship into port. Frequently, an actual pilot (a person) is transferred from a pilot boat to the ship to guide the captain and crew in special circumstances, such as when we traversed the Kiel Canal or when we entered selected ports via narrow passages.
Below is a shot of a tug pulling the stern of the ship. On the morning of the second day, we had been anchored to await our turn to enter the Kiel Canal. Once that clearance was given, the ship had to do a sharp 180 degree turn in order to head into the canal entrance. Evidently "turning the ship on a dime" was easier with the aid of the tug, though these big ships also have thrusters to aid in sideways movements. (Thrusters are essentially propellers in the sides of the ship that can be exposed via doors that are opened below the water line.)
Next are a couple of shots of a pilot boat that pulled along side us as we neared one of our ports (Travemunde, Germany). While the Prinsendam continues to steam along, the pilot boat moves alongside the ship. In the first shot, you can see a black platform that allows the pilot to step from the moving pilot boat into an opened door of the moving Prinsendam. We couldn't help but wonder about the risk of falling into the sea between the two vessels, but this must be a routine procedure. They probably used lines and vests, though we didn't get a very good view of that. (I took these pictures from our cabin window, which just happened to be very close to the door they would open on the side of our ship.) The second shot shows the pilot about to board the Prinsendam. In the final shot, the pilot boat is pulling away after discharging the pilot.
Finally, here is a shot from the Promenade deck looking forward toward the bow of the ship. This picture was taken the morning we entered the Swedish archipelago leading to Stockholm. This was a particularly pretty morning as we steamed for several hours through the many narrow passages leading to the city. It was something of a parade that morning, with two more cruise ships ahead of us and two others behind us. You can see at least one in the picture. Some of these are essentially ferries that run overnight services, including transportation of vehicles, between the Baltic states.
Watch this space for more stories about our trip over the next many days!!
