2004 Europe

Diana & Rod with Mt. Hecho, Tangiers

  

April 30 – For some reason I woke up early and so I went to breakfast about 7:30AM.  This morning we had a presentation by Obelio, the port lecturer, and one by Heather, the shore excursion manager, about our next ports.  The ports are: Ceuta, Spanish Morocco; Mahon, Spain; Barcelona, Spain; Sete, France; Ajaccio, Corsica; Livorno, Italy and then to Rome.



Well, there’s been a change of plans.  It’s too windy for the ship to safely enter Ceuta so we are heading to Gibraltar for an unscheduled stop there.  Ceuta is a small port and only has a little tugboat that would not be able to safely handle our ship getting to the pier.  The Noordam is an older ship and the thrusters that can move the ship sideways are not very strong, especially the forward one.  The captain explained that, after discussions with the port pilot, they decided that if the ship went through the breakwater fast enough to avoid being pushed onto the breakwater by the winds, it would be going too fast to stop before slamming into the pier.  This, of course, was unacceptable to both the Moroccan government and HAL and therefore our stop in Ceuta is cancelled.



We have been sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar for some time.  It’s been weird to look to starboard and see Tangiers and to port and see Spain and the Rock of Gibraltar.  They’re only a little over 14 miles apart.  At its narrowest point the Strait of Gibraltar is only 7 miles across.  The ship is in contact with the port agent at Gibraltar to see what arrangements can be made for a stop there.  We're all heading back to the Admiral's Lounge to hear in impromptu presentation on Gibraltar by out port lecturer, Obelio.  Considering the short notice, he gave a very good explanation of what to see and do.



Oops!  Another change of plans.  The Gibraltar officials informed the captain that it would be not wise to land in their country.  As you may or may not know, Gibraltar is under British control and Spain has been trying to get if back for a long time.  They held a referendum in Gibraltar a few years ago and the citizens voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the UK and rejected Spain.  Well, when the Socialists cowards took over after the recent elections they passed a law that any ship landing in Gibraltar may not land at any Spanish port.  If we had gone to Gibraltar when we couldn’t get into Ceuta, we would not have been allowed to land in Mahon, Minorca or Barcelona our next two stops.  Apparently Spanish socialists are no better or smarter than socialists in the US.  I don’t know why that surprises me; the alternative spelling for socialist in the OED is IDIOT!  A few little bombs go off on their trains and the cowards are cringing in fear, another main attribute of socialists.  If it’s not clear to you yet, I have no respect for socialism in any of its various incarnations.



So, off we go back to Ceuta to get customs clearance so we can land in the rest of our Spanish ports.  Back across the Strait of Gibraltar we sail.  The captain will anchor off shore and an immigration official from Spanish Morocco will come out on the pilot boat to go through our passports and clear the ship into Spain.  One side effect of this situation is that everyone on the ship is talking about the situation.  It’s like a big party with groups forming and moving apart only to reform with new members.  This is unusual behavior for a Holland-America cruise.  The passengers on HAL tend to form smaller conversational groupings and the groups are usually more stable.  This is more like what I envision as the style on a Carnival cruise.  I guess a little excitement can get these older more sedate people revved up.  It will be interesting to see if this will carry over to tomorrow.



One good byproduct of all this confusion is that I carried my cameras with me on the ship to get pictures of Gibraltar and Mt Hecho in Tangiers.  These two geographical features make up the ‘Pillars of Hercules’ past which ancient mariners were afraid to sail.  While I was roaming about I ran into K.C. and had one of the engineers take our picture.



Tonight’s entertainer was Jon Courtenay, a Brit.  He’s an excellent pianist and his show included some humor, singing and a little magic.  Tomorrow we have a day at sea, much like today except that it was scheduled to be one and we won’t be sailing in circles.

(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger