The North Sea lives up to its reputation!

After going through the Dover Straits and seeing both England and France at the same time, we headed into the north sea on our way to Denmark. We docked in Esberg Denmark at about 10:30pm on the 19th, and loading and unloading went on all night. And then we headed out back to sea at 6:00 the next morning, which left us no time for exploring Denmark! Frank, the other passenger, missed getting his "cheese Danish". He gets off at each stop to try out the local cuisine.

We were due to arrive in Wallham Sweden late the next day (the 21st), but by afternoon we were in a typical North Sea gale, winds from 40 to 50 kts, and big seas. Amazingly, the ship rides very smoothly even in these high seas, and when we came around the north end of Denmark and headed for Sweden that made the wind come from on our starboard side (that's the right side), the system automatically pumped water from one side to the other so the ship rides evenly once again. But the winds were so high it would have been dangerous to have tried to enter the rocky and narrow fiord that led to our port. So we spent a day and a half tacking back and forth in front of the entrance to the Swedish port of Wallham, a port which is wholly owned by the Grimaldi shipping line. We are told that they have a "factory" here where they prep the cars that they unload, and then deliver by their own trucks directly to dealers all across northern Europe. It snowed all that day and the shoreline was white when it finally cleared and we could see more than a mile or so.

Finally at 9:00am this morning (Saturday the 22nd) the pilot met us about 5 miles offshore, climbed aboard up a rope ladder, and then took command from the captain and led us through the maze of rocks and islands up the channel to our dock. The islands are rocky with few trees or other vegetation, but there are red and white houses scattered all along the route to the port. We can't imagine what these people do for a living, but suppose some fish or commute by boat to work near here.

By the time we entered the harbor itself the wind had dropped to 20 to 25kts, but it was blowing right across the harbor and it took two tugs and both the bow and stern side thrusters running full blast to get us over to the dock. We are told that since it is Easter weekend and the dock hands can only work so many hours on holidays, we will be here until tomorrow evening. We have machinery and containers to unload, and then a warehouse full of paper to load that is going to Alexandria Egypt.

And Alexandria Egypt sounds very warm and inviting to us, because there was ice on the decks last night and tonight it is supposed to get down to -10 degrees Centigrade. We are now four days behind schedule, and the other passenger is starting to get worried about missing his flight home on the 25th from London. And we are starting to wonder ourselves how we will make up four days in the next month. We are told that sometimes they skip a port or two depending on what there is to unload or pickup, maybe that will be the case this time. We shall see.

One more thing about meals, and this is from Linda. She is very happy not to have to cook, but yesterday's lunch was a bit unusual even for us. The first course was fetuchini with small mussels in it, the second was grilled squid (the whole squid, about 8 inches long), and the third was "tripe" and potatoes, with the tripe being easily recognizable as the stomach or intestine of some mammal, we don't really want to know which. I (Lynn) thought it was all great, but Linda wasn't too sure about the squid or the tripe. But the last course is always either a fresh fruit (pears, apples, or a very blood-red orange), or cheese, or both!. And the cheeses have been wonderful! One night it was a brie that was very soft and had blu-cheese mold in it. Another night is was a very soft fresh cheese like motzarella, and last night they called it a "cottage cheese" but it was very unlike any cottage cheese we have ever had. It was smooth and a little sweet, and went really well with the apple slices from the fruit bowl.

Now, in case you need to contact us directly (we can only see comments to this blog when we are in port and have the use of a computer) we can receive e-mails on the ship, even while at sea. But please do not send anything with an attachment, it is very, very expensive. Receiving an e-mail message is free (and it costs us just 1 Euro to send one). The address is,
>shipoffice.grel@am.grimaldi.napoli.it>, and just put our name in the subject line. But no attachments, please!

Happy Easter everyone,
Lynn & Linda