Tuesday, 9/13/15 9:20AM
As I write this, we are at 46° 33.44′ N and 007° 37.25′ W traveling SW at a compass bearing of 204°, it’s 9:20am…which I had to re-confirm because we keep passing back and forth between Greenwich and Euro time.
Clocks moved forward after we left Harwich and moved back when we entered the Atlantic. Present air temperature is 54°. Seas are ROUGH…but were rougher since we emerged from the Nieuw Maas river that connects Rotterdam to the North Sea.
Yesterday and today are seas days, spent in open water. We’ve left the English Channel and are technically in the Atlantic, skirting along just outside of France’s Bay of Biscay. The rough seas we encountered while traveling through the English Channel were fierce. And conjured images of small landing craft bobbing over the swells while heading toward Normandy. It also gave some sense of the accomplishment that is the Chunnel.
The Rotterdam sail-away lived up to its billing. We were serenaded by a vocal chorus of costumed singers on the dock. And all along our way out of the river to the North Sea, which took over an hour, people lined the riverbank and waved, flashed their headlights. Ships we passed, mostly huge cargo ships, barges and freighters, carrying stacks of shipping containers, would blast their fog horns — three long blasts. The Ryndam would reply. Then the other ships would blast their horns again. It became reminiscent of the scene in Close Encounters when the mother ship arrives at Devil’s Tower and tries to communicate with the humans.
I found our sail-away out of Rotterdam to be a very emotional experience. And evidently I wasn’t alone. I saw several people wiping away tears especially the four hundred or so Dutch passengers who had just boarded. The Ryndam was once young and beautiful but has clearly seen better days. The plaintive sound of her horn will stay with me forever.
Since emerging into the North Sea and making our way through the English Channel, we have faced very rough seas. When you see the containers hanging from the railings around the ship holding the ubiquitous white vomit bags, you know it ain’t gonna be pretty.
I have made friends with the future cruise consultant who has been with Holland America for 29 years, 26 of them in their marketing department. She shared with me a memo that had gone out to the staff and crew after we left Rotterdam in which the weather we’d soon be facing was described as “gruesome.”
We are currently under clear skies but the wind has been ruthless, blowing at 35 kts. and creating large waves. It has rained on and off. Mainly on.
Tuesday, 9/13/15 1:03PM
The Captain has just made an announcement over the PA system advising us that the weather was going to get worse…much worse…before it got better. Getting the ship into port at Leixoes, Portugal — our second scheduled port-of-call — would place the ship and passengers at too great a risk. So, Leixoes (it sounds just like Lexus) has been scratched.
We are high-tailing it at maximum hull speed — just under 20 knots — for Lisbon where we will now enjoy a day-and-a-half instead of one and spending the night in port. The captain is urgently trying to get her into port because we have two passengers who are suffering from some form of medical emergency and need to be removed from the ship ASAP. The ship has a mini-hospital onboard with a real doctor and two real nurses who are equipped to handle most minor issues that may arise. This reporter has delved deeper into this story and found out that we have a passenger suffering from a cardiac situation and one of the female front desk crew members fell due to the rough seas and has a possible broken ankle/leg that needs attention. This information was provided by a source close to a member of the medical staff who spoke to me under conditions of anonymity.