Mona Lisa Part 4

Saturday 29th August 2009

Being in Le Havre overnight meant we could leave the ship as soon as we liked in the morning and wait for the free shuttle bus into the town, and despite being in France we had to endure a typical British Bank Holiday weekend rain shower. In town we met a friend with a small house in Honfleur, over the other side of the River Seine, who invited us to visit for lunch, so that was the next excitement.

A big taxi took us all over the wonderful river bridge into that picturesque little seaside town for a French lunch in a French house, before exploring the town amongst the tourist crowds. A favourite shop had closed since my last visit, I noticed. A local bus took us back to Le Havre town, and we decided to do the long walk back to the ship in the sunshine.

Most of the other passengers seem to have gone on excursions to Paris (with the inevitable lunch boxes) so the deserted Caribe Bar was a welcome sight for afternoon tea, followed by a rest on a steamer chair on the aft deck. Ah, this is the life.

A tasty gin and tonic in the Riviera Bar prepared us for dinner, having had another fascinating day’s port of call on board MONA LISA. The ship sailed at 8 p.m. ready to sail the 275 nautical miles to our next port of Ijmuiden in the Netherlands.

Ships seen: Norman Spirit, MSC Rebecca (container ship)

Sunday 30th August 2009

How lovely, a morning at sea in sunny weather, before arrival at 2 p.m. at Ijmuiden. I haven’t been here before so it will be interesting to see this port. Meanwhile we had time to enjoy a leisurely deck breakfast and watch BLACK WATCH sailing fairly near us heading north. Another friend was sailing on BALMORAL in the Channel at the time so it was fun to exchange text messages with him. By a great coincidence we knew that BRAEMAR was also to be in Ijmuiden, so it’s a bit of a Fred. Olsen day today.

The Pilot guided us into the port and there indeed was BRAEMAR further along the water. On the other side of our berth was a fantastically long and sandy beach, stretching along the curve of the coast as far as the eye could see. People were flying high on sand kites, and a few were racing along on sand buggies, so there was colour and activity everywhere, and we were also part of it.

I wanted to be out to enjoy it but first we had a Bridge visit, thanks to an invitation by Captain Daoutis. His Greek flag flew from the Bridge in the high wind, and we could look round and take photos to our hearts’ content – more nostalgia coming up for me.

We saw the modern equipment designed to keep the ship safe in all the waters of the world, plus all the original woodwork of the flag storage, the chart drawers and tables under the front windows, the ship’s wheel, the speaking tube from the Bridge down to the Captain’s cabin (Captain Christopher Sample in 1999/2000),


the view up the white-painted mast against the cloudless blue sky, the views aft, the sliding door each side from the Bridge onto the Bridge wings with their scrubbed teak deck and varnished rails,













so there I was back on the VICTORIA’s Bridge again wearing my Centenary Voyage sweatshirt all these years later. What a weird sensation, remembering all the ‘blood, sweat and tears’ of that time



The only thing missing from the Bridge original equipment was the Beaufort Scale. I won’t ever forget that showing Force 12 against the backdrop of mountainous seas, but that’s a tale for another time. I had been on that Bridge so many times and this was probably my last visit ever, so I had a final moment of nostalgia at being on this lovely ship again, and left to collect my going ashore bits.


A brisk walk took me to the stern of the MONA LISA for an unusual view of her,
then up and over the sea wall towards the beach and the sight of her funnel appearing over the top of a row of beach huts.







Crushed shells crunched under my feet as I walked over the sandy beach towards the sea, where silvery waves were curling in gently towards me. People were in the air on sand kites, on land in sand cars, walking around the beach and admiring the endless curve of this North Sea coastline,



making sand castles and sand animals, having bare legs sand-blasted by the force of the wind, and enjoying the sunshine. I wrote in the sand, and then met up with a chum for mint tea in a beach side café.

Next though was to be the 5 p.m. departure of BRAEMAR and I saw this from the beach, with the ship appearing to glide along the sea wall as she left. Soon the next departure at 5.30 p.m. was of KING OF SCANDINAVIA and she too appeared to glide along the sea wall until clear water could be seen under her hull.

Walking back I came across a small bust of Cornelis Vreeswijk, Troubadour (what a lovely job description) which gave his name and Ijmuiden 1937 – Stockholm 1987.


Eventually home again on the ship it was the usual evening of a social gathering and dinner, bearing in mind that we were to depart at 9 p.m. and sail overnight the 177 nautical miles back to Bremerhaven.











Ships seen: Black Watch, Braemar, King of Scandinavia, Sea Worker (off-shore platform, local vessel), Bar Protector (1981-built dive vessel), Johannan Louisa, tug Amsterdam, Boatman 5, Dumlupinar, Lamlash, Seebad Zingst of Stralsund (built 1963), F.D. Incredible

To be concluded...

GEMS OF THE AEGEAN SEPTEMBER 2009 Part 6

GEMS OF THE AEGEAN SEPTEMBER 2009
Part 6 THE AEGEAN PEARL

Monday 14th September 2009
Ugh, up before dawn again at 5.30 a.m. back in Piraeus, for early breakfast and then reporting to Reception by 7.a.m., but it was worth it. Our group of 10 were personally escorted from AQUAMARINE, round the quay, through the terminal and onto our home for the next 4 days: The AEGEAN PEARL.



Luggage and passports had all been taken from one ship to the other for us, so we were on board by 7.20 a.m. – wonderful attention – and free to do as we chose until we sailed at 11 a.m. This time my outside cabin 203 was well forward portside on Caribbean Deck, the lowest passenger deck of 7,


and the dropping of the anchors at our ports was to prove a most efficient wake-up call. That lasted about 4 minutes each time, and I usually fell straight back to sleep again until my alarm clock went off later.

This little pearl was built in 1971 as M/S SOUTHWARD, in Italy, to carry 732 passengers, at 16,710 gt, for Klosters Rederi, Oslo; she went to Miami and with her sister ship SEAWARD, joined the highly successful SUNWARD and STARWARD with which Mr Knut Kloster was building his Miami cruise business, as Norwegian Caribbean Cruise Lines.

In 1995 she was sold to Airtours Sun Cruises, renamed SEAWING, and in 2004 sold to Perla Navigation in Piraeus and renamed PERLA. In July 2007 I sailed on her with friends and delighted in our time on board. By then she had lost her forward looking lounge, which had now become the smelly Crow’s Nest disco with only side windows, but had retained on Beach Deck the lovely Swimming Pool and also the highly original tapering funnels, which were also angled outwards.



The Ship’s Master now is Captain Stathis Goumas.

Passenger cabins were on Caribbean, Biscayne and Atlantic Decks; Boat Deck above them had the elegant Eldorado Restaurant; Mayflower Deck above that had the Clipper Lounge forward,



with Library, Internet Point and Beauty Salon on the port side, and Children’s Club and Fitness centre on the starboard side. The Casino was midships aft of them and the full-width Piano Bar aft of that.

That proved to have such cold air-conditioning that our group tended to meet outside on the covered open deck aft of the Piano Bar, which had a Bar with efficient and pleasant staff. Many a happy hour was to be spent there enjoying our time at sea or in port, or leaning against the ship’s rails and chatting or enjoying the sea air and views.

So this was the ship I left for a short time in Piraeus that morning to go and visit the Telstar book shop along the main road, and say hello to the proprietor and his colleague. They stock a wonderful selection of maritime books and newspapers in many languages, so we received a pleasant welcome. Coffee at a pavement café followed, and then it was time to return to the ship for 11 a.m. departure. We could see the lovely AGIOS GEORGIOS (ex-HENGIST), GRAND MISTRAL with that unfortunate logo on the bow, and NORWEGIAN JADE, as well as other ships in the harbour.










I must have had a rush of blood to the head, because I decided to have a swim in the pool before the deck became too crowded. It was so cold I nearly lost my nerve, but the water looked so clean and inviting that I got in, and managed not to scream. My feet immediately became cold and despite swimming in the hot sunshine for 10 minutes, they became even colder. I knew when I was beaten, so got out, changed and sat in the sunshine with more coffee, feeling pleased with myself. That turned out to be the only swim of the trip!

Later that morning I remembered swimming on BLACK WATCH and BLACK PRINCE where the swimming pool water had been heated during its route through the Engine room to the outside pools – ah well, that was then and this is now.

Restaurant lunch followed, in that wonderful full width Dining Room, with the original light fittings that I remembered from her PERLA days. Each day the food was varied and plentiful, although some of the menus proved to contain the same choices as those on AQUAMARINE. Greek meatballs featured heavily, but were delicious and when in a particular country I do prefer to eat local dishes and try local wines.

My cabin beckoned for a while, so I unpacked and returned on deck for afternoon tea. There was a big choice of tea flavours and food to stave off hunger until tonight’s open sitting dinner at 8.30 p.m. First though we had another port of call, in the island of Mykonos, this time with sunlight.





Tenders took us ashore with the chance to walk to the famous windmills, and photograph the ships and surroundings in that lovely time before nightfall.







Then it was back to the ship to prepare for our first evening meal on board, which was excellent and lengthy. I went to see the dancing entertainment but it didn’t hold my attention for long so went to my cabin to enjoy the facilities.

Ships seen: Romilda, Agios Georgios, Daliana, Marina, Diagoros, Festos Palace, Vincente, Rodanthe, Blue Star 2, Superfast XII, easyCruise Life, Aquamarine, Grand Mistral, The Emerald, Apollon Hellas, Phedre, Jet Ferry 1, Blue Star Ithici, Norwegian Jade, Celebrity Solstice

To be continued...