Holland America Blog
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Holland America Blog Has Just Posted the Following:
I said yesterday that it was more or less a straight line to our next port of call at La Coruna. For that one you have to put the emphasis very much on the less. A straight line would have been possible if the western part of France, consisting out of the Normandy and Bretagne, would not have been in the way.* But because it there, is the ship has to make a major course change once west of France and then it can sail on a straight line down to the North Coast of Spain. This run between Southampton and La Coruna is for the Navigators very interesting as it goes partly through one of the densest Traffic Areas of the world. Once out of Southampton and clear the Isle of Wight, the ship joins the Vessel Traffic Separation Scheme VTSS)* for a while, following the South Westerly flow of ships coming from the Dover Channel. Then it has to cross this flow and join a new VTSS for a while, the one that curves around the west point of France. Also here a VTSS has*been created to guide the flows of traffic coming and going from Portugal, Spain and the deeper Mediterranean? This West point we passed at 11 am. this morning and then we arrived on our final straight course down to La Coruna across the Bay of Biscay. On this course we are not deep inside the Bay of Biscay but stay more to the North Atlantic Ocean side. So we will observe more of the regular weather for the North Atlantic than anything else.* That weather is today in our favor. The wind comes from the land side, so it blows against the waves and that keeps the ships movement down. Wind against wave’s means they cannot continue to build up as would be the case if wind and waves would go in the same direction. So the waves are relatively low and the wind force 6 from the continent side to keep them that way. As a result the ship only slightly moves and […]
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I said yesterday that it was more or less a straight line to our next port of call at La Coruna. For that one you have to put the emphasis very much on the less. A straight line would have been possible if the western part of France, consisting out of the Normandy and Bretagne, would not have been in the way.* But because it there, is the ship has to make a major course change once west of France and then it can sail on a straight line down to the North Coast of Spain. This run between Southampton and La Coruna is for the Navigators very interesting as it goes partly through one of the densest Traffic Areas of the world. Once out of Southampton and clear the Isle of Wight, the ship joins the Vessel Traffic Separation Scheme VTSS)* for a while, following the South Westerly flow of ships coming from the Dover Channel. Then it has to cross this flow and join a new VTSS for a while, the one that curves around the west point of France. Also here a VTSS has*been created to guide the flows of traffic coming and going from Portugal, Spain and the deeper Mediterranean? This West point we passed at 11 am. this morning and then we arrived on our final straight course down to La Coruna across the Bay of Biscay. On this course we are not deep inside the Bay of Biscay but stay more to the North Atlantic Ocean side. So we will observe more of the regular weather for the North Atlantic than anything else.* That weather is today in our favor. The wind comes from the land side, so it blows against the waves and that keeps the ships movement down. Wind against wave’s means they cannot continue to build up as would be the case if wind and waves would go in the same direction. So the waves are relatively low and the wind force 6 from the continent side to keep them that way. As a result the ship only slightly moves and […]
Click here to view the article.
