MV Zaan Dam

Friday, March 22, 2019

The ship did not leave until about 6:00 PM so we wandered off to another part of town (“Puerto Madero”) for a light lunch. Back on board, we joined Lyn and Tony for a Bon Voyage drink on the fantail. The ship left port a few minutes late.

We like our ship (the “Zaandam”). Its “only” about 60,000 tons so about 40% smaller than the Norwegian Line ships we have recently cruised. I suspect its also a bit older – maybe launched in 2000 Which seems to make it feel a bit less huge and a bit more gracious? It really is beautifully finished and cared for. Plus, our cabin is about 1/3 bigger than our cabins on the Norwegians, with a big bed, a desk, a couch and lots of storage. (I still do not have a decent photo of the ship.)

Since we boarded in Buenos Aires, I expected a majority of the passengers to be Latin – not so. Mostly English, European and a sprinkling of Americans and Australians.

Friday night we accepted a “mixed” table and we ended up with 2 Americans, 2 Pommies, 2 Australians and 2 Australian-Americans (us). It was fun.

Saturday March 23, 2019

We docked in Montevideo at 8 AM. The River Plate was totally calm and very brown, and there was absolutely no feeling of motion at dinner or during the night. I am sure that will change over the next week or so.

After breakfast we walked into the “old town” and discovered it was not only old but also shabby. I have some photos but if I had been paying Kodak for film I might have put the camera away. There was a small unimpressive memorial to the Graf Spee. (When we leave this afternoon I hope to spot the wreck, but no one seems to know were it is.

After walking 10K steps we did find some good wifi and we were able to “face time” Kylie and Audrey. Lunch back on the boat. Deidre is having a snooze and I am catching up on the blog. So much for Montevideo.

I now plan to walk back into town to the wifi bar and upload these notes into the blog.

Range Finder from the Graf Spee

Sunday March 24, 2019

I slept like a log. When we woke the ship was moving around a bit, nothing serious, but as the day wore on the southerly wind built up to about 30 kts. The seas built accordingly and I was happy that we were not in Tide Hiker. The captain announced that the seas would get worse before they got better, and he was right! Deidre took a seasick prevention pill and I sucked on some ginger candy.

By mid afternoon it was pretty rough. The dance performance scheduled for that evening was cancelled and replaced with a “multi instrument” two man show. The promenade was open but hard to walk on. We spent most of the afternoon dozing in our cabin. The captain announced he was slowing down the ship and e might be late arriving at Port Stanley

We had dinner in the main dining room that is located in the stern on the 4^th deck. It was a bit bumpy, occasionally we had to grab our water glasses. I cannot imagine cooking with this amount of movement. Every now and again the ship hit a wave awkwardly and there would be a big bang and the whole place shook.

We went to the 8 PM “multiple instrument show” and it was decent. The theatre is in the bow and the bow was obviously moving up and down a lot all the time. The two performers were in their 50’s or 60’s and had a tough time holding on, standing with their lets spread-eagled to avoid falling. In the circumstances they did very well.

We were in bed before 10 PM.

Monday March 25^th

We woke to sunny skies and calmer seas. We ate a bit, walked a bit, read a bit, slept a bit. ….

The captain said that because of the storm we were running a bit late.

We had dinner and went to the 8 PM show and it was good.

Port Stanley tomorrow.

Tuesday March 26^th, 2019

The Falkland Islands were in sight when we woke up. They appeared just as expected – lowish and wind swept. I seem to remember that we were told there is two “major” islands and about 700 “other” islands. The ship approached Port Stanley along a very sheltered inlet, and dropped anchor with Port Stanley in sight, but “one bay over”. Apparently, we were a bit big to enter the actual port, although we watched as a fairly large freighter exited that bay. The day’s weather was “very good” for the area – about 50 degrees, some sun and about 25 kts of wind. “Just like a summer day in Hobart” according to Lyn.

We had our breakfast and obtained tickets for the launch at about 9:10 AM. Then we sat around and waited for two hours (!) before we actually loaded. The ship had dropped its 5 “tenders” to move the guests ashore. Each tender carried about 60 people. I do not understand why it all took so long.

The town also appeared as expected – lowish and wind swept, but tidy enough. We had been offered a selection of very expensive “penguin tours” but we declined – we have seen penguins before and preferred to keep the $500 in our pockets for maybe a beer and lunch in an English pub.

But first Lyn, Tony and I went for a walk. After an hour or so in the wind we gave up and headed back into town (also against the wind) and headed for one of the pubs where we planned to meet Deidre. We found two pubs and they were both as u inspirational as each other. Both had the same two meal choices – “fish and chips” or “chips and fish”. The same tired joke in both places. We made our choices and regretted it shortly thereafter.

Back on the boat by 5PM and dinner and the 8 PM show, which was good. Please remind you to tell you the joke about the three young snakes that were sent to hiss in Mrs. Potts snake pit, because I remember when Mrs. Potts did not have a pit to hiss in!

Wednesday, March 27^th, 2019

Sea day today. This evening the ship enters the Magellan Straights, but in the dark a bit before midnight. Tomorrow we visit Punta Arenas, located in the Straight. The port does not seem that interesting, but I do hope to take my laptop ashore and have a chance to load this onto the blog and send a few emails and texts.

Its amazing how time just slides by on these sea days. One way of thinking of it is as breakfast-reading-morning-tea-walking-lunch-walking-coffee-reading-dinner-show and bed. However, I am managing to get my steps every day by walking a few laps on the 3^rd deck promenade each day. But as we go south its getting colder and requires more rugging-up, although the captain is telling us its still “mild”.

We really like the ship. The facilities, decoration and service are all excellent. The food is good quality and abundant. The hardest task we have is not overeating. The biggest negative with the ship is the wine and spirits pricing - beer is about $10 a glass and the least expensive bottle of wine about $35, which is preposterous. I just will not pay prices like that and this will end up sober for two weeks. I think they are shooting themselves in the foot because in my observation, very few are partaking.

Today we enjoyed a Q&A with the Captain, and that was entertaining. Tonight the “singers and dancers” are putting on a rock and roll show.

Thursday March 28, 2019

When we got up the ship was parked on a dock paralleling the shore, with a substantial city in the near distance. Our immediate view was stacks of containers. The city center was a few miles away so we took a taxi.

On the drive into town the city looked neat enough, and the downtown garden/square was also pleasant and cared for. There was not much to see, the usual statues and a few modest colonial type buildings. We wandered around a bit aimlessly but found a coffee shop with wifi, and we were able to get on line and catch up on emails and discover that Collingwood had won the first match of the season. All good.

We had heard of a “maritime museum” with a replica of Magellan’s ship so we found a cab and headed back towards the water. The “maritime museum” was a bit shoddy but did have full size replicas of the Nao Victoria and Darwin’s ship the Beagle. We had seen better.

Back on our ship for lunch and a snooze.

The Captain interrupted dinner. Very stern voice. “I am sorry to tell you that there is bad weather coming. This region can expect Hurricane force winds in the next two days. The winds will be 80 MPH and probably gust up to 100 MPH in the narrow fiords on the western side. We have to avoid the ocean and the fiords on western side.  Sorry that we will miss Ushuala, Cape Horn, Canal Samiento, the glacier fiords and etc. My message will now be repeated in German, Spanish and Japanese. (This is when I new he was serious – all announcements to this point had been exclusively in English.) I will give you a new report tomorrow at 10:00 AM”

The ship left the dock on time at about 7:00PM and headed south. Its now 10:50 PM and in the last few minutes we have turned 180 degrees and now heading north. We are in a wide section of the straights, so now I am thinking that maybe we will be doing race track circles all night. What would Tide Hiker do?

Friday March 29, 2019

In fact, Zaandan did racetrack circles all night, and we slept well. After breakfast just about the whole complement of passengers attended the special captains briefing at 10 AM in the main theatre. Standing room only

The Captain is popular with the passengers, amazing how that happens for some people. He explained that the winds were 80 to 100 MPH in the fiords on the other side of the mountains and at the Cape, exactly where we had planned to visit. So, he had decided to stay put during the night and head north in the fiords today. With the extra time and to compensate for missing the Cape and the Beagle channel etc, we would approach a tide level Glacier Saturday morning, a few hundred miles north of our present location. We would venture out into the Pacific at about 4 PM today, but by then the worst of the weather would be south of us, and then be back in the protection of the fiords by nightfall.

We followed the Magellan Straights North West for most of the day and reached the Pacific as expected, and it got a bit rough for a few hours, but not as bad as the afternoon heading to the Falklands. By dinner time we were back in the fiords, generally headed north.

Saturday March 30, 2019

Deidre and I left our curtains open so that the sun would wake us in the AM. Dawn was expected at about 8:10 AM. Quite late when compared to the east coast at the same latitude. We were up and warmly dressed by 8 AM and on the forward deck as we approached the glacier. The glacier was “OK”., but having seen images of glaciers in books and TV, being there in person was a bit of a “ho hum” moment. What was impressive was taking such a big ship into such a narrow waterway.

We spent the rest of the day traversing the fiords, generally headed north. Its pretty rugged and deserted territory, not much to see in the way of wild life or civilization, but certainly interesting. There seem to be hundreds of islands, channels and peninsulas.

Sunday March 31, 2019

Another day at sea, mostly in the fiords, occasionally popping out into the Pacific and then back into the fiords, still basically heading north. The weather is overcast and cool, but not freezing. Since we are just a few days into autumn/fall, I guess that this area is rather cold in the dead of winter.

Today we passed north thru the “Darwin Channel”. Not really any different than any other channel, but we did see some more wild life – seals and whales. We seem to have plenty of time, the ship is just ambling along at 10-12 Knots

Monday April 1, 2019

When we woke up the ship was approaching the city of Castro in a river-like fiord. The captain had explained last night that the last few miles to Castro was so narrow and twisting that he would delay the ships approach to the city so that he was navigating the last few miles in daylight. Tony and Lynn commented that the area reminded them of the Huon river in Tasmania.

The city looked interesting from the ship so we were in the line for tender passes straight after breakfast. Once ashore we headed around the coast road on foot. Sadly, the place looked in better shape from the ship. After a mile or so, Deidre and I “bailed out” and decided to catch a bus “up the hill” into the city proper. The fare was 400 Pesos, about 60 cents.

We wandered around the downtown area - typical for the area – banks and shops and a few government buildings around a garden square. I was keen to find internet access and we ended up in a café offering coffee and internet. We only had about $10 in Pesos, so we were a bit limited, but managed a couple of lattes and a piece of cake and 30 minutes online. Sadly, I forgot to upload the latest blog entries.

Back outside we wandered back to the waterfront via a craft market, but with basically zero cash it did not take long until we were back on the ship for lunch. The ship is quite a palace compared to this rather sad town.

Tuesday April 2, 2019

We were up early – in the dark - this port (Porto Demott) we planned to rent a car and max our time on shore! There was two volcanos, a pretty lake to circumnavigate and some touristy towns to check out. Lyn and Tony met us for breakfast at about 7:45 AM and we picked up our tender tickets as soon as they were announced at about 8:15 AM.

Then the waiting started – again! I don’t get it – what is the issue with the tenders? They have 5 in the water, each can take about 80 people, so the first cycle would total about 400 people! Maybe one cycle takes about 45 minutes, so by 9:00 AM 800 people should be on shore or on their way? At about 10 AM I called the front desk and complained. The lady said that the waves were slowing them down. Looking out the window it was calm as a millpond. I just don’t get the problem and expressed my point of view. (The tender service was as issue at Stanley, but since there was nothing to miss in Stanley, there was no great disappointment. But we had big plans for today!)

We eventually arrived onshore by about 11AM and after walking from one end of town to the other, we had our rental car by 12 Noon, about 2 hours later than planned. Porto Demott was bigger than we expected and quite a busy place. We were soon out of town – I was driving and Tony was navigating- , heading for Fruteller – “Fruit-loops” for short. We had no local currency so step one was to find a bank in Fruit-loops and get some Pesos.

We stopped for a bite of lunch in Fruit-loops on the lake, settled by the Germans 100 years ago and struggling to look like a German village. Tony and I asked for a small beer and a huge mug of beer was provided.

After lunch we headed off around the lake towards the first volcano, and ran into some sort of road works on the dirt road. About then we realized that our plans were dashed and we needed to head back or face the risk of missing the boat. So much for plan A.

Tomorrow is our last day on the boat. It is a beautiful and well-run boat, but I have developed two strong negative opinions:

1.       The price of beer and wine: A single beer costs a bit over $US10 and the cheapest bottle of wine about $US35. Those prices are not just expensive, they are a rip off. I will not cruise again with Holland America and be ripped off.

2.       The tender service: Everything on the ship seems to run like clockwork. The food is good and hot, the staff are friendly and efficient, the Captain is charming, we really like our cabin and the ship looks like new. What’s with the tender service?

The captain said we would be back in the Pacific by about 11 PM, and we have started to roll, right on time. 

Wednesday April 3, 2019

Day at sea. Fair well champagne with Lyn and Tony. We would arrive in port tomorrow morning. We needed to get packed and place our bags outside the cabin by midnight.