THE SOUTHERN MED

After sending the last posting from the internet cafe in Limasoll Cyprus, Linda and I toured the old town by foot, passed up the offer of a $54 bottle of olive oil, but we did buy some olives and chocolate cookies at a fruit stand on the way back to the port. When we arrived at the immigration entry gate to the port it was dark and locked, and the cruise ship that had unloaded 800 people earlier that morning had just begun sliding sideways away from the dock. We headed back to the entry gate of the port and were met by an official who opened the doors and let us through so we could go back to our ship. When we got close to the ramp we saw a bunch of the crew waiting for us, waving and encouraging us to run. The Captain had told us to be back by 9:00PM and it was only a little past 8. But we ran down the dock, hopped on board, and watched them begin to raise the ramp. They were waiting just for us! But the cruise ship had taken the pilot with them, and we didn't actually leave till 10:00pm after all.

The next day we sailed into the Israeli port of Ashdod, and were told by the Captain that we would be called soon into the ships office to be "interrogated" by Israeli immigration officials. The "officials" turned out to be two very young women in uniform, no weapons in sight, who asked Linda some very simple questions like "have you ever visited an Arab country", and "what have you heard about Israel". But they then dismissed us both without asking me any questions at all. Oh well, I guess I will have to keep my political opinions about Israel to myself.

When we were waiting down at the ramp to get our shore passes from Israeli immigration, we found our way into the control room of the engine room, and were promptly given a tour of the entire engineering department. We had to wear ear protectors, for even when the main engine is not running it was deafening in that four-story space. I would love to hear that engine running though, it is a 7 cylinder diesel engine that produces 16,000 horsepower running a shaft that is about 24" in diameter that ends in a variable pitch propeller. I did take lots of pictures, but it is impossible to get far away enough to take a photo of the entire engine. They showed us a spare piston that must have been 2 feet in diameter, it had a connecting rod that was at least 8 feet in length. And there were also five other smaller engines that ran generators, and dozens of pumps, some of which purify the diesel oil they buy in various ports.

Speaking of ports, Ashdod Israel is probably our least favorite so far, but then we didn't get out of the port itself. We did get to the duty-free stores where the crews from the other twenty or so ships in port do their shopping, but the prices were outrageous, even with the "duty free" discount. But then most of the crew who shop there can't get into town to the local supermarket. On the way back to the ship we did see a freighter full of wheat being unloaded, and another one full of what looked like sulfur, the result being there was sulfur and wheat all over the place. But the port itself was kind of trashy too. The German couple who are the only other passengers at the moment did go into town and came back disgusted with what they saw and experienced. Ashdod is a fairly new town but they saw a lot of decay and filth, and they were treated rather roughly by some security people who wanted to know who they were and why they were there.

We left Ashdod late that night, and by the next evening we were preparing to enter Alexandria. But then we were informed that due to bad weather the port at Alexandria was closed! The weather wasn't nearly as bad as it had been in the North Sea, but what can you do when they tell you they are closed? You anchor, that is what you do. And anchor we did, among 12 other ships waiting for the port to open. The one cruise ship present turned around and headed back out to sea instead of anchoring, which made us wonder, since our night at anchor was very smooth and comfortable.

The next morning we headed into the port of Alexandria, and immediately saw the disturbing sight of three sunken ships right inside the entrance. But then we sailed past them and tied up opposite the cruise ship which had entered just before us and was already discharging its passengers into tour buses that took them to Cairo and the pyramids. We settled for a tour by taxi with the German couple to the local sights, including some Roman ruins and the very old and very famous, but very closed, Alexandria Library. If I remember correctly this is the place were the Old Testament was translated into Greek by the 70 scholars, thus the name "Septuagint". And we got a tour of the waterfront and the fishing boat harbor, and of course, the obligatory tour and sales pitch of the gold, sliver, and papyrus emporium that the driver took us to because he gets a commission on anything we buy there. They did give us a good demonstration on how pypyrus paper was made, and then followed us around waiting to take our credit card for whatever we wished to purchase, which in our case was nothing.

Then it was back to the ship and a late lunch, and an after midnight departure. This morning the sea was glossy smooth as we entered the Herodus Abyssl Plain on our way back to Italy. But it was an interesting time to be on the bridge, for at about 6:00am everyone on watch was trying to spot through the early morning haze the ship or boat that was on the radar screen about two miles away heading in our direction at about 10 kts. But then suddenly, it disappeared! Makes me wonder if we were being watched by a submarine of the so-called "coalition" (read American) naval forces that are operating in the Med.

Day after tomorrow we are due in Salerno italy, and since this ship too far behind schedule to get us back to England in time, we need to decide before we get there if we stay on till Setubal Portugal and fly home from Lisbon, or if we get off in Salerno and take the train to Rome and fly home from there. One advantage to staying on is to experience the cooking of Giovanis's replacement, for we are losing our hilarious cook who is going on shore leave back to his family for a while. What a hard decision to make, spend time in Lisbon or Rome? Lets take a vote, e/mail us your recommendation here at shipoffice.grel@am.grimaldi.napoli.it.

Lynn & Linda

Fun off Cyprus

After a day and a half of sailing after we left Izmir Turkey, we finally saw the island of Cyprus at about 11:00 am today. But before we could get to the turning point to head for the harbor at Limasoll, we were surprise to be buzzed by a British Royal Air Force Rescue helicopter who requested permission over the radio to drop two people aboard as part of an exercise. Since our top deck is now free of cars (they have all be driven down two or three decks in preparation to be left in Cyprus) the captain gave the go ahead. And for the next half our we were treated to the sight of a helicopter hovering right over the ship and the lowering of two men, one at a time. Once they were aboard, the heliocopter circled the ship, and then came back to pick them up, but this time both of them hanging from the same cable. I was quite a sight, and the crew was all on deck taking pictures all the time it happened.

We arrived in the Limasoll harbor an hour later, but we had to wait another two hours for Immigration to let us leave the ship. Then we walked the two miles into the center of town, where we are sending this post. We finally found some ATM machines to get some Euros from, and are now spending them in this internet cafe.

Meals on board have improved since we left Salerno, we have a larger selection of fruit and even eggs for breakfast. And today's lunch consisted of a seafood salad that had very small octupus, squid slices, and potatoes in it. Of course that was the second course that followed a pasta dish, and then it was followed by a ham & hotdog & potato stew. Where they come up with these selections is beyond us, but it is all good. And Giovani, the cook, is a really funny and expressive guy. He always comes in the dining room and speaks loudly to us in rapid Italian that he assumes we all understand. And we do seem to get what he is talking about, most of the time. Our messman (waiter) BocBoc Noly left us today to fly back to the Phillipines, and we will have a new messman for the rest of the trip.

Speaking of which includes Ashdod Israel tomorrow where we do not expect to be allowed to go ashore since Israeli immigration is very picky who gets in and who doesn't. We have been warned that we will be interoggated by them as to our political opinions, and the want to know if we know any Palestinians, etc. I am afraid my politics will not be what they are looking for.

Then it is another overnight sail to Alexandria Egypt where we will unload the hundreds of newsprint rolls we took aboard in Sweden. Then it is a two day sail back to Italy, where we might have to leave the ship inorder to get back to London to make our flight home. But that is all to be determined by how much time we make up on the way back to the north. We were 6 days behind at one time, and now are only 4 days behind. This is like a horse race, but we are not sure who wins this one.

More from Egypt,
Lynn & Linda

What a trip!

At the moment we are in an internet cafe in Izmir Turkey, almost a week after our last posting. The delay between postings is because first we could not find an internet cafe in the three hours we had to spend ashore in Salerno Italy, and the second reason is because Greek immigration would not let us leave the ship when we docked in Volos Greece yesterday. But we are getting ahead of the story.

After a nice day going past the Rock of Gibralter, which by the way only looks like it does in the Prudential ads from the east, and its not really as big as the ad shows it to be, we had another day of stormy weather heading for Italy. But then after an fairly calm day, we entered the Salerno harbor at about 4:00am the next day, and we headed ashore after breakfast. Salerno is a nice seaside city with lots of yachts tied up to the promonade stern-to, and downtown is not too far from the commercial docks. But at 8:30 in the morning everything was closed except a few coffee shops and the post office. But we did manage to buy a postcard, and mail it even, although the ATM machine at the Post Office bank refused to give us any Euros even though it took the card and the password. Hmmmm.

We headed back to the ship early since we were supposed to leave at noon, but it didn't actually get underway until 2:30pm. Once outside the harbor entrance we headed south toward the Messina straits, the narrow passage between Italy proper and the island of Sicily. It was dark by time we entered the passage, and with a pilot guiding us we managed to weave our way around several ferries and even passed another freighter going the same way. There used to be electrical cables stretched between the two tall towers on either side of the entrance, but they must have been replaced by underwater ones since we saw no evidence of anything above us as we passed by.

We then headed east for the day and a half run to Pireaus Greece, but quickly discovered that we were going instead to the port of Volos on the far east side of Greece instead because there was a dock workers strike in Piraeus. We docked in Volos at about 2:00pm yesterday, and got ready to go ashore to find an internet cafe. But to our surprise and dismay we were told by the 2nd mate that Greek immigration would let the other passengers, all EU members from Britian, go ashore, but that "the Americans" were not allowed off the ship. At first we thought our government had done something offensive to the rest of the world again, but the Captain later informed us that it was just because the immigration office was closed on Saturday afternoon and didn't have anyone there to process us. So we spent the afternoon reading and relaxing on board, and were pleasantly surprised when one of the British passengers brought us back a chocolate bar for us (we had mentioned that getting chocolate was one of our tasks when we went ashore).

We did see a lot of things from the ship however, including a long sleek white ship at least 6 decks high above the main deck that was named the Prince Alaweed and had the name of Jedah as its home port, probably the second home for one of the Saudi Arabian royalty. And across from us were two ships that had just unloaded a huge amount of scrap metal that was being loaded onto trucks, which means that not all scrap steel is going to China afterall, and that there was probably a steel mill somewhere near Volos.

We left Volos around 2:00 in the morning, and after a nice day of crossing the Agean sea we entered Turkish waters soon after noon, and docked here in Izmir around 3:00pm. Izmir is a huge city, with minarets everywhere you look. But the population here in the waterfront downtown area is very young and modern looking, with very few women wearing veils.

A few random observations and things we have noticed the last few weeks at sea.
We tend to wake up to the rather unpleasant smell of the disenfectant they use when they swab (mop) the hallway outside our cabin.
The pilots and harbor masters all seem to get gifts of cartons of Marlborl cigaretts or bottles of wine from the Captain when they leave the ship.
After leaving Salerno the menu has gotten more varied, with large Kiwis and bananas joining apples for the fourth course of fruit. And all of a sudden we are getting eggs and bacon for breakfast!
The five British passengers are all emmigrating to Cyprus, selling their now high priced real estate in England and buying a lot more for their English pounds there, a lot like Californians who come to the Midwest. And we were told that the Germans tend to emmigrate to Spain or Italy, no one seems to be content to live where they are currently.
And watching cars being unloaded has become a sport of a sort since everyonce in a while one of them will turn up with a dead battery, or some other problem. The the other night in Volos it was a new Jaguar with a dead battery, they had to push it down the 6 decks to the ramp. And this morning it was a Mercedes, but we got that one started by jumper cables from a lowly Ford parked next to it.
And a wake up call to the realities of sea travel came yesterday with a request for all ships in the region to be on the look out for a ship with 20 people on board that reported it was sinking, and then late a report of wreckage seen in the water and a request for ships in the region to look out for "persons in the water". We did get a good look at the inside of our life boats this morning, so we feel pretty safe, although one of the Grimaldie line ships did run aground recently, and another hit some rocks on the way into Pireaus,

Weather in the upper regions of the Med has been cold and rainy, not anything to be jealous of. But we hope by the time we get to Cyprus in a few days it will be warmer, and then Alexandria Egypt will seem like Florida, we hope. We are at the moment five days behind schedule, so we might have to disembark in Italy or Portugal and find a quicker way back to London to make our flight home. We shall see.

More in Limasoll Cyprus,
Lynn & Linda

Land, Ho!

Actually, Land Ho! Ho!, because after three days of nothing but Atlantic Ocean, we can now see both Africa (Morocco) and Europe (Spain). And after two days of force 8 gales with winds of 30 to 40 knots and waves from 10 to 20 feet high, neither of which have helped Linda's sense of being a blue-water sailor, we are now sailing in bright sunlight into the Straits of Gibralter. On our port side is Gibralter, and our starboard side is Tangiers. And if you have read any of the Patrick OBrien novels or have seen MASTER AND COMMANDER you will recognize these waters as those that Jack Aubrey sailed his brig in while plundering commercial shipping on behalf of the British Empire. I have been trying to read that book here as we are in those waters, but frankly can't stomach the killing and plundering that went on in the name of patriotism so I have quit reading and intend to be satified with what I can actually see. We are allowed the run of the bridge here on the ship, and can use the binoculars and look at the radar screens all we want.

Speaking of the British Empire, we left Southampton three days ago with two more passengers, a British couple who are taking their other car to their other home in Cyprus. It seems that the Mediterranean Islands are full of British expatriots who are selling out their suddenly expensive real estate in cold and rainy England, and moving to the warmer climates and cheaper lifestyles of the Med. In fact, probably a hundred or so of the automobiles headed for Limassol Cyprus are used cars owned by British expats who don't want to drive down and then have to ferry them from Greece. By the way, this couple also owns a Citroen C3, the car I found in Honduras that gets 76 mpg with its four cylinder diesel engine, and they love it, especially for its higher seats that makes getting in and out less of a contortionist's trick. Funny how the American car companies have convinced our congressmen that more than 33mpg just can't be done.

The meals on board continue to be excellent, but the cook is getting a little worried about his dwindling supplies. We are still about 5 days behind our published schedule, and we are not getting into Salerno where he takes on food supplies for three more days. Who knows what we will be eating for dinner on Wednesday.

The ship is steaming steadily across the smooth waters of the straits at 18 knots now, but in the gales of the past few days we were slowed down to 13 knots just to keep the bow from being buried in the seas that we were headed into. Even at that speed there would be a loud bang everytime we hit one head on, and then the ship would shudder and slow a little at it struggled up through the front of the swell. Its a funny feeling that I remember from my Navy days, there is no escape from the wind and the seas, you can't stop at the next motel and call it a day. All you can do is hang on and hope for the best. Its not a comforting feeling to know that you have no control over anything at all, but its probably a good thing to get used to since much of life is that way as well. You take what you get and from that you make the successes or failures that mark your life.

We are looking forward to seeing a little of Italy, and then some of Greece before heading for Izmir Turkey. But being so far behind we don't expect too much land time, maybe a morning in Salerno and a few hours in Greece, But its fun walking onshore and exploring at least the harbors, and a little bit of the nearest town.

Time to head back up on the bridge for the passage past the Rock of Gibraltar,

Lynn & Linda

Antwerp and back to England

After two days of unloading and loading cars and containers in Walhamm Sweden we left for Antwerp Belgium late the day after Easter. We expected to go back to the normal four course meal after Easter Sunday, but who knew that the Italians celebrate the day after Easter as well. More great dishes, more special citron cake! And more miles on the excercise bicycle to work off the extra sugar!

Going into Antwerp two days later was interesting, mainly because of the suspense. At first we were told that the only way a pilot could come on board was by helicopter, then we were told that there were no pilots available at all and that we were to anchor and wait. So we headed for the anchorage area off the entrance to the river that leads to Antwerp where there were five other ships already anchored waiting for pilots. But then over the radio came the message that there was indeed a pilot for us, and sure enough, over the horizon came the pilot ship which came near, lowered a small boat, and delivered the pilot to the side of the ship where he climbed aboard up a rope ladder. And he turned out to be only the first of three pilots we needed! First there is the river pilot who takes the ship within sight of the city of Antwerp, then the harbor pilot who took us past the city to the locks that lead to our docking area, then a final pilot for the few remaining miles to our dock.

And what a dock it was! I forget how many thousand square meters of parking there was, but there was at least 20,000 cars parked there in front of us, and buses, and heavy machinery, and boats on trailers, and containers almost as far as you could see. There were two other ships loading cars and containers at the same dock, and it was quite a sight. Linda and I passed on the opportunity to pay $55 one way to take a taxi to the city center, but we did do some serious walking around the docks. I found an interesting antique seaplane that was dismantled and loaded on skids that was going to be shipped somewhere. Its amazing what gets shipped from Antwerp.

But not all the cars were new ones going to dealers, and not all the construction equipment was new either. There were at least a few hundred older model used cars that were filled with matteresses and other consumer goods that were on their way to West Africa, and a large area of junked construction equipment that was also going to Africa, apparently it pays to send junked stuff just for the parts. It was a sober reminder that what Europeans don't want anymore is still useful to someone somewhere, and it reminded us of the old worn-out yellow school buses from the US that get sent to Honduras for public transportation.

We left Antwerp late the next day and headed for Southampton England, a port we were supposed to be in 5 days ago. But with the storms and the Easter holiday holding up loading and unloading in Sweden, we are doing the best we can. The trip down the river back to the North Sea was a lesson in navigation and signal lights. Three red lights in a vertical row mean this vessel is limited to what it can do by its deep draft, and a black cylinder flown during daylight means the same thing. And you have to keep reminding yourself that the channel markers are reversed in Europe from the US, if you go "red, right, returning" over here you will run aground very quickly.

This morning we boarded the Southampton pilot off shore of the Isle of Wight, and before long we were alongside the pier, within sight and walking distance of downtown and the sights and shopping. We were supposed to leave from Southampton on an earlier ship, but that one ended up in drydock in Sicily, so they had us leave last week from Bristol. We now know that Southampton is a much better port to board a ship in. There are three hotels within sight of the dock (no $20 taxi ride), and one of them advertises a £32/night rate, which is half of what we paid near Bristol in the only hotel available. And the National Express bus terminal is within sight of the dock and our ship. Our friend Frank who left us this morning is now on his way to Heathrow airport to catch his 7:00pm flight home.

Our time on the library computer is almost up, so we will post this now, and add later.

Lynn & Linda

An Italian Easter feast

Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed!

And at the risk of being slightly blasphemous, my gut has just risen as well. After taking a long walk around the docks in Walhamm Sweden this morning while the dockhands were busy loading KIA cars made in Slovakia, and Hyundai's made in India, we entered the officers dining room expecting the normal three-course lunch. Boy, were we in for a surprise!

First there was a wine and fruit drink with crackers and potato chips. The came smoked salmon, followed by a large plate of boiled shrimp. Then came fetuchini with shrimp, followed by three different kinds of baked and boiled fish. The next course was a citron cake, then a melon slice, and finally a small cup of expresso. Oh, did I mention that during all this we had three different kinds of red and white wines, and finally a glass of champaign! The Captain made several toasts during the two hour lunch, and the officers of the crew took a number of photos of each other. These people know how to celebrate Easter, or at least how to relax. This was the first time we have seen the crew having wine at a meal, company rules we were told.

It was cold last night, there was ice on the surface of the harbor when we went ashore at 9:00am. We walked around the thousands of Volvos being sent everywhere around the world, many to Japan. And we saw Kia's, Hyundai's, Fiats, and yes, Fords. But the Fords tended to be small delivery vans, and not any we have ever seen in the US. In deck #10 right behind our cabins there are probably fifty or more Ford sedans going to Southampton, but also not a model we have ever seen in the US.

At one end of the harbor there is a big green canvas covered building out of one end of which there is a long black tube that goes into the water and heads for the channel for many hundreds of feet. I stuck my nose into the building and found out that it is a plastic pipe making machine that is making a potable water pipe for Russia that is about 16 inches in diameter and about two inches thick. The finished section is sealed at both ends and is floating in the water, and we suppose that since they are too big to roll up and too long to stack on a barge, when they are finished a tug will tow them around Norway to Russia.

In this harbor there is also a fiberglass boat manufacturer, and alongside a locked warehouse is a set of aluminum masts for what must be one humongous sailing ketch, the main mast is over 120 feet long and the stainless steel cable stays are over 1 inch in diameter. I would love to see the hull that they belong to, but its all locked up and it is Easter weekend with no one around.

On the way into this Swedish fiord we saw a number of windmills up on the stoney ridges, and right outside Esberg Denmark about 5 miles offshore we passed a "windfarm" with 96 windmills. We were told by the Danish port agent for Grimaldi that wind power produces 20% of Denmark's electrical needs. We were also told that they were out in the North Sea because the Danes don't want them messing up the scenery onshore. I remember hearing that the good folks of Nantucket not wanting windmills offshore for the same reason. O well, what can you do with humans?

We are due to shove off for Antwerp at 9:00pm, which means we will be there sometime early Tuesday morning if all goes well, but you cannot count on a schedule on a freighter. One more thing we finally figured out, you can book shorter sections of this voyage directly with the Grimaldi Line throught their website, you don't have to use a booking agent like Maris. Looking back on it I think we might have saved some money by flying to Rome or Pireaus and catching a freighter there. It would have been cheaper to stay on shore, and it certainly would have been warmer!

Bye till the next time we can find a computer to send a post to the blog,
Lynn & Linda

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