Of Pilgrims and Seafarers

Quite many of us actually did not witness the first landing of the day: At 7am we dropped a  sizable part of our guests in Villagarcia, Spain, to take part in a whole-day land operation which led to the very famous pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela, a hallmark of the European Catholicism. As crowded as it might be, there is a faszination to this sacred place that people find near impossible to ignore. That's on a normal day. Imagine our surprise to bump into the ceremoniy for the inauguration of the 800-year celebrations… Many more people there, all completely exited, especially when they did the "Abraza a sua Catedral", the group hugging of the famous cathedral. That was worth the long walk, indeed!

In the meantime, the others took it much more easy today, getting up just in time to catch breakfast while enjoying the scenic passage out of Villagarcia with hundreds and hundreds of slim, elegant boats that are tied up in the bay for the sake of clam cultivation, like a ceremonial defilée to honour MS FRAM on her way out.

On a calm ocean things went just veeeeery relaxed, attending some briefings and lectures that were picked suitably for the Portuguese/Spanish surroundings: History of Portuguese seafarers, Principles of Navigation, applied first by the aforementioned navigators, and Spanish art. Cap Finisterre lay far off in the distance; Spanish authorities did not allow us to pass close enough to take a peek. Inshallah. Only a little later, as it seemed, the landmark of the north-western tip of Spain appeared: The characteristic silhouette of the Hercules Tower, pointing skywards like a menacing finger. Only that this is no threat, but the worlds oldest lighthouse, commissioned by the Roman emperor Trajan and continously operated since almost 2000 years. It marks the entrance to La Coruña, friendly harbour town with beautiful architecture and uniquely glazed houses. 

While the "pilgrims" stormed on board to have dinner, the other party strolled to town to enjoy another mild evening in this small, but charming and vibrant place.

So everybody got his share and will certainly have a good nights sleep and be up and ready for our first full sea day.

A Portrait of Porto

A friendly weathergod spoils us in the morning, light breezes and sunshine accompany us all the way into Leixoes, the gateway to one of the oldest cities in Europe, Porto. The formerly used prefix "O"Porto is just the now redundant article, "The" Port. Whatever, we are here to see the sights, not to do grammar… The river Douro floats lazily under the big bridge that connects the old centre Ribeira with the rest of the city. To get a genuine impression of what this city's fame and riches were built upon, you better join the guided tour with the wine tasting. It's a real treat for eyes and all the other senses, and you can combine it with either a walking tour or even a Douro River cruise in one of the slim, traditional boats that populate the waters under the famous Dom Luis bridge.     However, quite many decided to explore the old, narrow and winding cobblestone alleys on their own. All they had to do was to catch a lift with the shuttle bus and then amble through the very pittoresque atmosphere, sneaking into a shop here, getting a sample of port wine there. And to benefit from an incredible warm, colourful day that offered far too many photo opportunities. (But then again, some can never get enough pictures...) A few of them we'd like to show you here without further explanations; just enjoy these shots as a leisurely declaration of sympathy to a beautiful city.

To new shores

Those of you who have followed the Blog recently will know that this is an important day: After three weeks on the open waters, after the crossing of the equator, after waves and waves and more waves, finally MV FRAM reaches the shores of Europe to start the season in the northern hemisphere. Not that everybody on board did not like the peaceful, calm course of the days, but now it is time again for some action! And Lisbon is the ideal starting point for probably some of the most colourful itineraries that will bring us to eleven countries in one month. Springtime in Western Europe is the motto of this week's trip, which will take us along the coast of Portugal, the northern tip of Spain, France and the British Channel Islands. 

And springtime it surely was for all the new arrivals, coming mostly from Norway and England, places that are just about to shake off winter's cold grip. A gentle 26 degrees and slightly hazy skies that gave the silhouetta of Lisbon's old town a nigh-oriental impression. Not much time to marvel, though, cause everybody is brought straight to the pier where their home for the next seven days lays fast. For more than just a few the sighting of MV FRAM is not a first, it also is a well-known routine to check in, activate your cruise card and receive the luggage at the cabin; some have been three times on the ship within the last twelve months… So, welcome back everybody, and a warm welcome to you who discover FRAM for the first time!

Eight o' clock sharp, the lines are cast and we make our way towards the mouth of the Tejo River, while the sun sets in the West. Warm air on the decks during the necessary saftey drill, cold champagne during the Captain's welcome. And suddenly it is already midnight, and the decks are getting quiet. A good first night to everybody!

Lisbon

We have arrived Lisbon, already the 3of April and the ship was filled with people who were doing all kind of annual audits and surveys, maintenance people from Italy, Norway etc and we are getting ready to get passengers tomorrow. For anyone embarking tomorrow reading this blog, an important message goes out to a few of you which we have not been able to reach. We have had a pier change to what it says in your documentation. The pier we are at is Santa Apolónia Jusante.

Lisbon is beautiful in Spring, after a long and cold winter in northern Europe, the feeling of proper spring and warm weather is soothing for anyone now. Recommendations are strong from us here onboard to make a spring journey in Southern Europe once. It is invigorating..pure! Sunshine, energy, wonderful.

Tomorrow the passenger arrive approx 1600 onwards to commence this journey we have planned for the last few weeks, and we hope they will enjoy it. We hope for a lot of good weather to enjoy the sights, all but one destination on this first voyage we go to have one UNESCO World Heritage Sight or more. Our lectureres will tell us more about during the journey. This is our main focus, learning as we travel with high qualified lecturers onboard, in a friendly, casual atmosphere.

April fool and Award night

This can be a dangerous day to believe in anything, and of course there is no exception on FRAM. Those who signed the declaration list for amount and state of clean shoes before we arrive to Lisbon, were caught by the "April-fool".

As we left Las Palmas yesterday afternoon we started to prepare for award night after more than 2 weeks with different games for single and group events, as we have described throughout the last weeks. The victorius ones were to receive their prizes tonight. Captain Rune Andreassen  handed out all awards, on the picture above Roy gets his 3 place in the Chess competition.

Housekeeping 5th place in the Olympic Games - Group Event

Galley 4th place in the Olympic Games - Group event, and by the way they deserve credit for having best group spirit, banner making, sponsorship and cheerleaders, with head cheerleader Mervyn in front left on the picture. Your pop-pom skills will go down in history Mervyn.

Restaurant 3 place . This team was close to win the whole thing, and they deserve credit for being the abolute best color coordiated team in the games, having color themes on their shirts every evening.

Left over team 2nd Place did not behave as "being left over", they were absolutely to be reckoned with, fierce competition spirit in this bunch.

Deck/Engine/Expeditionteam won the group events of the Olympic games like they did on the southbound crossing. You might guess the prize was orange shirts :-)

At the end of the evening the groups dismantled into one big group which is the crew on FRAM. We recommend you to take a look at the extensive work the galley team put down in that banner, and how many important sponsors they managed to get for the games.

We received a nice comment from Kjell Eriksmoen who will be one of our passengers from Lisbon the 7th. He is travelling together with a group of friends. Kjell, we are approaching Lisbon now, welcome onboard, looking forward to see you and your friends. We extend  that to all our embarking passengers for the upcoming voyage "Spring in Western Europe".

Todays interview is:
Name: Richardspn Quines
Position: Cabin Steward

How long time have you worked for Hurtigruten?
6 years

How many times have you crossed equator with a Hurtigruten ship?
6 times

What do you like best about the equator crossing?
I like that team work is developed in all departments and across department lines.

Is job different when the ship is crossing?
No difference in my job, the only difference is less or no passengers

Which tasks do you have during the crossing?
My tasks during the crossing is to clean, clean, clean the whole ship

Land in sight- Las Palmas

We have land in sight, we have used 17 days from Buenos Aires to Las Palmas. During the morning hours we arrived back to civilisation for a few hours. The Pilot boat arrived approx 0830 and at 0900 we were at pier to commence bunkring. In the early afternoon hours we were back out at sea. A couple of shipshandlers appeared on the pier, well aware of a crew who have not been shopping for almost 3 weeks. A little mini-mall on the pier made a nice diversion for many of the crew.

The evening games in the Group Olympics had its last tow evenings of competetive behaviour across all department borders the 30th and 31st of March.

On the pictures below you can see some of the final games. The first picture shows a game called hepp hepp hello. There are hand movements involved in it and you have to say the opposite of the one before you. The second activity picture shows an impressive effort by the galley team, as they won the game of  5 people dressing, running, undressing in jumpsuit, helmet, big-big-big boots and welding gloves.

The third activity picture shows a really messy game where both contestants are blind-folded and have to feed the opposite sitting person with whipped cream. Funny and messy.

The last activity picture shows an eating contest where the Chef has prepared a lot of things, you are not able to choose what to eat, but you draw two notes where it says what to pick up. 3 from each team participates. As you might see from the picture some of the food was tough to get down.

A couple of bumpy days

The last couple of days have been quite windy and bumpy. You feel the waves and adjust your movements for every few seconds, and in the end you do not even think about it. The human hard drive adjusts accordingly. Funny thing the human body as such. Onboard the many tasks are concluded in accordance to plan, others found obsticles and are running a bit behind, but overall we are en route with our "Crossing tasks". We are heading for Las Palmas, due to arrive Thursday morning for a couple of hours to get fuel. Next destination "Lisbon" April 3 until April 7th, where we start our "Spring in Western Europe Voyage", ending up in Dover April 15th.

We have a questions to our biologists out there if you follow the blog a bit, we have been passing belts of this seaweed several days both before the Equator and after.What kind of seaweed is it? We can see it's drifting far out in the ocean. Our current position is Latitude 24 degrees 3,2 N Longiude 019 degrees 7,2 W and current temperature is 22 derees Celcius.

The evening entertainment last night reached a new level when our sporty Hotelmanager Bjørn Erik performed his excellent story about the Italian "Antonio" visiting New York, and having slightly language problems when in the "Big Apple". Very entertaining performance by Bjørn Erik, before we continued with Olympic Games. Guess the song, longest clothing line and fetch 15 things were on the program. We were running after cottonpads, douvets, umbrellas, knifes, bandaids like our life depended on these items for  while there. Loud shouting and positioning of team members at strategic places were part of the game strategy.

Todays Interview is:

Name: Ardalyn P Villanueva

Position: Waitress/Stewardess

 

How long time have you been working for Hurtigruten?

6 Years

How many times have you crossed equstor with a Hurtigruten ship?

9 times

What do you like best about equator crossings?

Relaxed working durng the day and lots of fun and excitement during the evening.

Is your job different when the ship does crossings?

Yes

Which tasks do you have during the crossing?

General cleaning all over the ship

The last few days in a nutshell

How blue is the ocean? We can assure you this photo has not been "fixed!. This is how blue it is. Picture taken Friday 25th of March at approx 5 degrees north. It is incredibly beautiful!!

Friday was a quiet day after the grand ordeal of baptism the day before. The single events were concluded at night. On Saturday the 26th the FRAM Olympic games started. 5 teams Dining, Housekeeping, Galley, Deck/Engine, and the Leftover team (Officers and Medical Team).

First game out involved running up and down the entire ship answering questions, and the last task was to find a trapped stuffed penguin in a passenger cabin. The group answering the 7 questions first got a head start on the search after the trapped penguin. Left overs were leading for all the questions, Dining and Deck just behind.

When the search started Deck department found the penguin and won this first game of the Olympics. It took a toll on quite a few of us having to run like crazy people up and down the decks after ha heavy barbeque dinner. Chef  Eduardo shows how most uf us felt afterwards. On Sunday there were three new games amongst them were egg race and "Guess the Word". The score is now a tie between Deck and Dining, that can change, keep following the Olympics on the FRAM!!

Our current position is Latitude: 19 degrees 18.1N Longitude: 023 degrees 44.6 West

We have 25 degrees outside temperature

Todays Interview is:

Name: Janardhan C Bambulkar
Position: 2nd Engineer

How long time have you been working for Hurtigruten?
For the past 4 months.
How many times have you crossed the Equator with a Hurtigruten ship?
This was the first time.
What do you like best about the equator crossings?
The people singing karaoke in the bar at night
Is your job different when the ship does the crossing?
No it is the same
Which tasks do you have during the crossing?
Cleaning of coolers, condensors, sewage pipelines, blackwater tank cleaning.