Sailing South to the Canaries

A day that should have been a port of call, is a day at sea instead.

But I explained all that in yesterday’s footprint when we first learned of the changes to our itinerary from the Master of the Vessel.

Captain Rens had said that despite the deviation to our planned route to avoid the storm, we’d still feel the motion of the ocean. It just wouldn’t be as rough. In fact, we started feeling the swells around midnight last night … when we were transiting the Strait of Gibraltar.

No, we didn’t see The Rock, since it was to Oosterdam’s starboard. Nor was Africa visible in the pitch dark of night on the port side.

The ship was still rolling quite a bit when we woke up this morning. Later in the day, Oosterdam switched things up and started pitching instead. The ocean looked deceivingly calm … lots of dead swells.

I managed to set myself up on the veranda to do a bit of writing once the sun moved off. From my vantage point, the swells didn’t look particularly big. In his noon announcement, however, Captain Rens said that they were in the 15-16 feet range. He also said that he had checked the weather and sea conditions off the Portuguese coast and the swells there were in the 30-36 feet range … worse than he thought they would be when he made the announcement that we were re-routing to a more southerly route for the crossing.

One of the nice things they do on HAL ships is the port presentations. Aside from what’s available on the TV, the Cruise & Travel Director leads a session geared towards independents like us. The session includes logistical information for the port, tips on local sightseeing ideas and how to get around, recommendations for places to explore that might be a little further afield, and a Q&A wrap-up.

Tonight we went to the session for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It was standing-room only. We now have a loose plan that will take us in one of two directions in Las Palmas. Which one? We’ll decide that once we arrive in port.Read more