Stockholm

The dawn of a new day - we wait in eager anticipation of what it may bring.........

Nice to know we are in safe hands! A fully liveried Scandinavian......

A veritable seat of learning.

Vernacular architecture - Stockholm style.

A Stockholm harbour panoramic................floats my boat!

The Vassa Museum - shame this one sank!.....................

Tim - Third Officer - steady now Tim - not so close to the edge, this could be the end of a wonderful career - hands to stations for departure! There is a limit to what we expect for my blog camera!

Arcadia leaving Stockholm - no time to waste we need to be in Helsinki in the morning..

Lots of 'Homes & Gardens' to see along the scenic route on the sail out.

A simple pad....is that a Rockery or a County Estate?

I do so pine for a residence on the water's edge........................................

Hello Everyone,

It's a date we all remember, 11th September. Eight years ago today I was EP on board Aurora and what a day it was. We had just sailed from New York on the 9th September on a three day private charter cruise. We were due to return to NY on the 12th September to change over our passengers and do another three day private charter. This was not to be. We were anchored off Atlantic City at the time of the attacks on the twin towers. We had to up anchor and get on the move. The passengers on board we all from the financial district of New York. That evening at dinner Captain Ian Walters and I stood on the stairs of the Restaurant in sympathy with our passengers and observed a minute silence. I shall never forget that day.

We sailed to Boston where we disembarked all of our passengers and waited for two days before embarking others who had been off on tour in Canada, New England, New York and Washington. The passengers who had disembark Aurora to enjoy some time in the USA discovered that they could not get flights back to the UK. We made contact with them re embarked them to Aurora. We exchanged flight tickets for cruise tickets! Our family and friends back home were very worried about us all until they heard from us. All transatlantic communications were down for a period of time. Obviously the new joining passengers from the UK were not able to fly in to the USA, all flights were grounded. I kept a journal of the day in an A4 book in time ruining order and it runs to 40 pages - perhaps one day I will write more......

The last time I blogged we had sailed from Copenhagen, after this we enjoyed a smooth day at sea with fine weather - many people were sun bathing, and then on Thursday we experienced the scenic sail in to Stockholm. Stockholm is a jewel in the crown and well worth a visit if you have never been! You need to book a cruise to the Baltic!

Here is an extract from the Navigators 9th September broadcast for your enjoyment.....

With our pilot already on board and under his guidance we began our passage through the Great Belts, setting various southerly courses.The belts are a series of preferred traffic lanes, which meander their way through the narrow waterways which separate the Islands of Denmark. These waterways also separate mainland Europe from Scandinavia and the Baltic At 01:00 Arcadia passed under the Storebaelt Link bridge and at 06:30, with our passage of this area complete, our pilot disembarked. Through the rest of the morning we set various easterly courses past the coasts of Germany and Denmark.

Noon Position: 55 39.4’N 015 04.6’E
Weather: Sunny spells with few clouds
Wind: South by easterly force 6
Temperature: 20.0° C
Barometric Pressure: 1021.6 mbs

From Copenhagen until noon today, Arcadia had steamed a distance of 351 nautical miles, at an average speed of 20.2 knots.

Through the afternoon, various north easterly courses were set following the Swedish coast. At 11:30 we passed the Danish island of Bornholm over on our starboard side and will be passing the island of Gotland at 20:00 also on our starboard side also.

ends.

Hope you had a fruitful week and are no doubt looking forward to the weekend ahead. I won't disclose what today's adventures have brought - details to follow! To my esoteric readers - kindred spirits one and all.

Yours,

James.

A friend across the miles..........