Cartagena, Spain … No Go

Lost another port today to the vagaries of Mother Nature. This is the second port cancelation due to weather since embarking Oosterdam in Istanbul on 21 October.

With Oosterdam scheduled for an 11:00a arrival in Cartagena, we were having a quiet morning at sea … one that had started with a colorful sunrise. When Captain Rens’ P/A announcement came over the speakers in the cabin at 10:45a, we immediately knew it was not good news. And it wasn’t.

As it turns out, Mother Nature was going to force Oosterdam out to sea. Apparently, we got as far as picking up the pilot for the final run into Cartagena. Captain Rens said that he wanted to confirm the conditions with the pilot instead of canceling the call based just on what the weather reports were telling him.

Conditions were such that we might have made it into port. Perhaps even managed to dock despite winds gusting up to 50 knots. But the chances of being able to get out at the end of the day were nil as the storm was expected to increase in strength. The culprit for these conditions … a stationary low pressure front in the English Channel, which is moving in our direction.

Alrighty then, a day at sea it would be … swells in the 12-15 feet range to keep us on our toes.

As soon as the announcement was over, we rushed to the starboard side, which was in sight of Spain, to check if there was a cell signal … to update friends and family; check emails and social media, and catch up on the news. The signal was still strong when we put our phones back on airplane mode an hour later.

Captain Rens has indicated that we still have a shot at Malaga tomorrow as winds are forecasted to be gusting to only 20 knots. But he did say that it will be congested as several other ships are trying to find alternate ports and Malaga seems to be the choice du jour. The good news is that Malaga has been on our itinerary from the get go, so we should have priority for berthing. Czytaj więcej