Monday, May 2, 2011
It wasn’t hard to guess what was going on in the wee hours of the morning. The ship was rocking and rolling and lurching and tipping and bouncing and jumping and twisting and dipping. The furniture on the verandah was scraping and banging and creeping. I’m sure that no one on the ship was sleeping. Barney got out of bed only to be thrown back on to the bed. We had a pretty good idea then, that we would not be stopping at Motril, Spain. We called and cancelled room service for breakfast and tried to get some more sleep.
That wasn’t working so we turned on the TV and of course, once we saw the news about Osama bin Laden there was no more sleep to be had. We went to the Lido and the entire area had an air of jubilance. No one seemed to know what the status of the port was, but no one seemed to care.
We soon heard that the wind was blowing at 50 knots and the attempts to board the pilot onto the ship were not successful. It was obviously not possible for the ship to approach the dock in these conditions This was to be the Prinsendam’s maiden call on this port. Most passengers, including us, had trips to Granada and the Alhambra scheduled, but that wasn’t going to happen if we didn’t get to dock.
The captain explained that the storm had come into the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar and that had acted as a wind tunnel. We don’t know for sure if the ship sustained some damage but we know that mechanics and engineers were busy about the ship.
There were no other port options because the storm was covering a large area and was slow moving. The captain decided to push on to our next port of Cadiz, Spain in hopes of an early evening arrival tonight. He said we would all no doubt like a good night’s sleep safe and sound in port.
The only good news was with the new schedule we would be passing by the Rock of Gibraltar during the daylight hours. Frank, our trusted travel expert, gave a “blow by blow” travel log as we passed the rock during the lunch hour. The seas were calming, but it was cloudy and windy. We were much closer to Gibraltar on this western route than we had been on the eastern route a few weeks ago. We could see the northern coast of African from the port side. It was approximately nine miles away.
Our view of the rock was better and we were able to see the high-rises, roads, and mosque. We are toying with the idea to hire a driver in Cadiz and drive to Gibraltar. Since our driver would originate in Spain, we would have to switch to a British driver at the border. It may be more of a hassle than we want so we may just stroll the old city of Cadiz.
There is a lot of talk about the State Department travel warning to US Citizens, but we are leaving that matter in the hands of the ship. They obviously have our safety as their highest priority. This priority is witnessed by the fact that we have missed three ports due to safety concerns. Holland America is to be applauded for their concern.
If we arrive at Cadiz early enough we may leave the ship in search of some Spanish tapas and nightlife…want to place a bet?
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