Challenges

You're now reading the result of about a month of failed attempts to bring this blog out of a 6 month hiatus. There has been several reasons why I haven't felt like writing; first of all, I've found it hard for a long time now to keep this blog all about ships as it was initially intended to be. You may have noticed that when I published a row of posts about my World Gymnaestrada 2015 experience. So to solve that, I will call it a personal blog from now on. Afterall, ships are still such a big part of my life that they're surely not going anywhere; I'm just removing some limitations that I've set for myself and hoping that this blog will look and feel a bit more like me.
Secondly, as unlikely as it may sound, so much happened during those 6 months of silence that it simply became too much to write about; and on the other hand, at the same time, while exciting stuff was not happening, I've had a few obstacles to overcome and never found the time or energy to write anything at all.

However, as the happenings in the meanwhile have been far too exciting to just let slip and not share, I will start by getting this blog up to date.

The last thing I wrote down was a trip with my friend Sverre that I had in January. I have travelled with him numerous times since, both in the Baltics and in Norway. In spring, I had some of the most exciting courses at school, in summer I did 58 days of on-board training on Finnsun, a ro-ro cargo ship, and now I've started my 2nd year of school. And those are the topics I will soon post more about.

During my on-board training on the Finnsun I grew to enjoy sights of endless industrial landscapes; sailing into Antwerp through the Netherlands was great in that way, and so was entering St. Petersburg, as seen in this photo.

Kiss My Turku

It has now been well over a month since the beautiful sunny day when I packed my boxes, loaded them on a truck, took the Baltic Queen to Helsinki and continued to Turku.

Cruise ship calls in Tallinn & Turku 2015

It has already been some time since Port of Tallinn released their cruise schedules. Just as I did last year, I'm going to give an overview of what I'm awaiting most. Since I'm planning to move to Turku halfway through the summer, I will mention that place too. Though, to be honest, the only considerable downside about moving from Tallinn to Turku is having to switch from THIS cruise schedule to THIS one. I guess not many find it worthwhile to sail the archipelago.

Aidacara

http://www.schiffskoch.com/

The oldest of the lady-faced cruise ships has a rather interesting itinerary this season, stopping in places such as Visby, Mariehamn, Turku, St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Riga among others, but skipping Helsinki and Stockholm. For Turku, she is the first, last and most frequent visitor, as well as the only one to visit more than once. Did I mention I really dig the itinerary?
First call in Tallinn 7. May & in Turku 11. May. 

Norwegian Star

She's adorbs. And visits frequently for the third season in a row. 

First call in Tallinn 14. May

Britannia

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

The most recent P&O newbuild, also the first one with the cruise line's new uniform livery - one cruise fleet less of boring white ships.

First call in Tallinn 6. June

Mein Schiff 4

http://www.ihsmaritime360.com/

Under construction in Turku as I write this, the 2nd newbuild to TUI Cruises will most likely still have a slight smell of construction works when she first calls in Tallinn in early June. 

First call in Tallinn 8. June. 

Louis Aura

www.fleetmon.com

I'm not as hyped about the ship as the cruise line here. Louis Cruises, now known as Celestyal Cruises, has not been seen around here much. Celestyal Cristal from the same fleet has a rather colourful history here on the Baltic Sea (which I've even written down HERE) and many would be happy to see her back in these waters. Seeing the cruise operator around here sheds a ray of hope, although some superstition may still surround the ship, considering the bad luck she had in these waters. 

First call in Tallinn 13. June. 

Disney Magic

www.cruisemates.com

Also mostly about the cruise line - Disney has not been seen here for a long time. 

First call in Tallinn 15. June.

Azores

As well as last year; I barely got the chance to see her and fortunately she will be returning this year. Yet another ship from my narrow selection of vessels with a history worthy of writing down (HERE). Now under charter to Cruise & Maritime Voyages, she's sporting a white funnel and will be renamed to Astoria after this season here. 

First & only call 10. July

Some more ships I'm looking forward to merely for the looks, such as Island Sky, Voyager, Corinthian or Horizon. I'm also looking forward to Magellan, an ex- Carnival / Ibero ship recently acquired by Cruise & Maritime Voyages with her Carnival style funnel still neatly in tact, but her only two calls are in August and September. But speaking of Turku, besides AIDAcara - 

Serenissima, 2. June

www.infoniac.com
Balmoral, 15. July. 

Saga Sapphire, 29. August - definitely a nice birthday present, thank you!

But hey- Turku gets Viking Grace every single evening and a nice shipyard letting out shiny newbuilds every now and then. Though, for some years to come those shiny newbuilds will be exact copies of the Mein Schiff 4. 

P.S. Something totally epic is coming up in about a month.

Meanwhile in Tallin(n/k)

Yet another docking season has come to an end and although some of the happenings have been reflected on my Facebook page, I'll sum them up once more.

First of all, Viking Line's Rosella came to Tallinn for several weeks in January. Among other changes, her livery was refreshed and she now has stripes on her sides similar to those on her newer fleetmates. At first it caused a wave of excitement but when she left the dock and started service again, it turned into disappointment. Many believed that she would look good with stripes, but definitely not the way they were done, the company logo on her sides was also complained about.

Rosella in Mariehamn, photo by Mikael Aaltonen

Protest groups were formed and petitions signed and angry letters sent, many photoshopped-painted their visions of how she should have been done and some mocked:

Actually looks good on the Grace, doesn't it?
By Jonny Albert Hietala

Eventually, we received a confirmation that Rosella is getting her stripes fixed in spring; the shipyard  commented that the mishap happened due to their inability to see the ship from farther away while she was in dock. In the meantime, there is still some time to travel to see her with her current look.

Meanwhile in Tallink - the Romantika, having received more of a negative response from Estonians after her route change, went to a long drydock and still continues to be refit while serving. However I can't say much about the changes happening, because I've never been on board at all.
Many other ships had their regular maintenance. Today Tallink made two announcements.
Firstly, they have sold Regina Baltica and Silja Festival. Both of them had already been chartered for a while, which means that Tallink's own regular service is not affected.

Both the sold vessels in Tallinn, November 2013

Secondly, the intended third Tallinn-Helsinki shuttle vessel was ordered from Meyer Turku. She will be significantly larger than the first two and will be delivered in 2017, 10 years after the first one, the Star, was delivered. She will also run on LNG. 

What she will mostly look like

In addition to all that, the Finlandia was also retouched, but I'll write more of that in my next post.

  

End of peak, start of another

By now, the cruise season is long over, but I'm still yet to share some happenings from before and after it ended; besides the long journey I had in August which I reported very thoroughly, I have been lucky to attend and photograph many interesting events and visiting ships.
For example, early in September there was an event, during which Port of Tallinn was offering bus excursions to the harbour of Muuga. The bus took us to the entrance of the harbor where we had to pass through radiation detectors and get back on the bus. Although I would've liked to walk to look around beyond the places where the bus took us, the transport was still needed because the distances there are really long. From the bus windows I saw many different buildings with various purposes.

Ammonium fertilizer storage, built to minimize the damage in case of explosion by directing the force upwards

Cranes. One of these can still be seen in the passenger harbour in the center of Tallinn as a remain of it's former purpose as a cargo harbour.

Oil storage tanks

Logs...

Grain conveyor..

... and storage building, which can be seen from very far away.

container terminal

coal terminal, currently not in use

View from farther away. The guide's talk about all of the facilities being directly linked to the piers made me wish to actualy see a pier, but that was unfortunately not possible. The harbour is large and very efficient and it could apparently serve many more ships than it's currently serving. 

In addition to that, about a week ago three warships and a submarine from the Netherlands visited the passenger harbour and two of the warships were briefly opened to all visitors. The security at the harbour was surprisingly strict, all the visitors were taken to the ships by bus; before boarding Amsterdam, the largest of the ships, visitors had to leave their bags and movement on board was allowed in only one set direction.

Evertsen

Equipment

Another ship, the Zeeland, was berthed alongside; Victoria on the background.

Star backing out...

... and turning around

Tanker Viimsi leaving the harbour after bunkering Victoria

Busy day

Tug life

Corridor on the Evertsen

From the Netherlands. Helicopter deck on the Amsterdam. On the right the single crane in the harbour, which I mentioned earlier.

Viking XPRS arriving

No zoom; great way to see a bulbous bow in action.

Friendly crew

the submarine Bruinvis

In the meanwhile, Silja Europa sailed to her final destination in Australia. After my previous post about her she sailed to Naantali for a refit and briefly returned to Tallinn, sporting a new Bridgemans livery. I last saw her on the 11th of September while volunteering on a sailboat named Lulu. I planned on taking pictures of her, but as soon as we got close enough, thick fog rolled in. The next evening she set sail towards Australia and arrived at Barrow Island on the 24th of October.

Photo from www.laivakuvat.com

Now for the news. In late September, Tallink and my favourite band Nightwish announced that two Nightwish cruises will take place in June 2015, on board the Baltic Princess, starting from Turku. Now, anyone who knows me even a little should understand why missing that was simply not an option. The major obstacle was the fact that booking opened up in early October, with earlier booking advantage to members of Club One and some mysterious Nightwish fanclub, of which no one I know had heard anything. Fearing that the tickets would sell out before I manage to get the funds to book myself a cabin, I put up an announcement on the Finnish Nightwish forum looking for cabin mates using my Club One advantage. Although it turned out that I wasn't getting the advantage code due to being a member of the Estonian Club One and not the Finnish one, it was still successful. Three people contacted me within a reasonable time willing to join, I got the code from a Finnish friend (Thanks Olli), the negotiations went very smoothly and I booked the cruise within the advantage time. I have already met two of my cruise mates face to face and I consider them new friends. I have also added a countdown ticker to the blog. 

Fare thee well, Silja Europa

It has been well over a year since I've done ship introductions but in the light of recent news I think it's needed. 

This is also the 50th post to this blog. 

Name: MS Silja Europa

IMO number:  8919805

Built: 1993

Lenght: 201,8m

Beam: 32,5m

Draught: 6,8m

Tonnage: 59,914 GT

Type: Cruiseferry

Speed: 21,5 knots

Capacity: 3644 passengers, 932 lanemeters

Status: Chartered, currently in Paljassaare Harbour

Silja Europa was built in the Papenburg yard of Meyer Werft, which is known as the birthplace of many great passenger ships, among others many Costa, Norwegian, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean ships, the whole AIDA Sphinx class, but also the late Viking Sally, finally known as Estonia. Ever since her delivery she has not gone any farther than her birthplace, nor outside the Baltic Sea at all. She was initially built for Rederi AB Slite, which was a part of Viking Line, and was to be named Europa. She was the world's largest cruiseferry by gross tonnage until 2001 and still remains by far the largest by passenger capacity. In fact, she carries about as many passengers as the Royal Princess. She was also the location of the first ever floating McDonald's restaurant until 1996.

Europa at the shipyard in Viking Line colours, almost complete.
http://www.simplonpc.co.uk

She was almost ready to be delivered, but then the Swedish krona was devaluated, leaving Slite unable to pay for her. She was then chartered to rival Silja Line, who finally bought her from the shipyard. She was initially placed on the Helsinki - Stockholm route. In September 1994 she was the first one to receive the mayday call of MS Estonia and her captain Esa Mäkelä initially led the rescue operation. In 1995 she was put on Turku–Mariehamn–Stockholm route where she served until early 2013, with minor exceptions. During her service she saw some incidents, just like all ships do. For example, in 1998 she collided with a small sailing boat in thick fog. The boat sunk and Silja Europa rescued the passengers with a lifeboat. In 1998 she crashed into the pier in Mariehamn due to strong winds. In 2000 she had problems with one of her propellers and was taken out of service for five days, in 2001 her autopilot broke down and she had to cancel a cruise. In 2009 she damaged her steering system and was taken to Gdansk for repairs.

In 2006 Silja Line was bought by Tallink, along with the Silja Europa. She continued sailing under the Silja Line brand until early 2013 and in her first 20 years of service she had the Silja Line livery with only minor changes over the years.

Silja Europa in her early years with white funnel and back doors.
www.simplonpc.co.uk

In 2012 she was repainted with the new Silja Line logo; the funnel had been painted blue in 2000.
© Kalle Id

In January 2013 she swapped routes with Baltic Princess and started serving the Tallinn-Helsinki route, mainly cruises directed for the Finnish market. In addition to changing route she was transferred from Silja Line to Tallink. During that era I had the honour to go on board twice, first with the purpose of transport and a year ago I celebrated my birthday on a cruise. She still remains one of the mightiest and most impressive ships I've seen.

Approaching Helsinki in her latest livery

A bit less than a month ago I heard rumours that she would be taken out of service soon and later those rumours turned out to be true, as stated in the following press release, published on the 21st of July: 

AS Tallink Grupp and Bridgemans Services Ltd. have entered into a charter agreement to charter the cruise ferry Silja Europa to Australia from August 2014 as an accommodation vessel.

The period of the charter is at least 14 months with an option to extend up to 48 months. In relation to the above initially the following re-routings are planned in our operations: Baltic Queen which is operating on Tallinn-Stockholm today will change to Tallinn-Helsinki route presumably on 7 August 2014 and Romantika which is operating on Riga-Stockholm route today will change to Tallinn-Stockholm route. Isabelle will continue the service on Riga-Stockholm route.

On the 6th of August she did her last crossings and since then she has been laid up in Paljassaare. From what I've heard, she will leave Tallinn in early September, possibly for good. The changes in the rest of Tallink's fleet may not be final either; I'll keep you updated. After she leaves the Baltic Sea, she will go farther than she has ever been before.

Leaving for her last scheduled voyage to Helsinki

Next day in Paljassaare

Silja Europa and the Moon

The Livery Post

Although Silja Serenade is still docked, both Viking XPRS and Cinderella have returned to service and first photos are spreading: Viking Line continues to refresh the look of their fleet and now both of the mentioned ships have hull stripes, similar to those of Amorella and Grace. That means only Mariella, Gabriella and Rosella are plain red now, and it's likely that they'll be given a paint job during their next dockings as well. Although the change is small, I'm very excited about it and today I went to the seaside to watch Viking XPRS arrive. It's also kind of cool that I have some photos that are history now.

Viking XPRS before...

.. and now!

I've always found Viking XPRS to be one of the most beautiful day cruise ferries around here, and the white stripes make her even better. Beautiful, isn't she?

Scars from the past

Some dock photos of Viking Cinderella from www.skanskan.se have also reached me. I hope I'll get a chance to see her and take my own photos sometime this year.

Sitting dry

Red stripes and new writings

In addition to these exciting news, the topic of ship liveries has caused a lot of debate in the Cruise & Ferry group I'm in on Facebook. I must admit it's a topic I'm quite passionate about and I've wanted to write about it ever since the creation of this blog so now seems a perfect time to do so. I've seen people who only like their ships all white or with a very modestly coloured hull. With all respect to them, I don't see how it's possible to ruin a ship just by painting her. I personally find an all white ship a bit boring, if not a pointlessly empty drawing space and I prefer an original solution to an empty space anytime. In fact, a good hull art could really save a ship with a bad shape. On the other hand, I do like the ships that look as if they've been dipped in paint, like Cunard or Holland America Line, but to leave a ship all white it needs to have either lots of big windows or an outstanding shape. That's just my opinion though. And now I'll allow myself a bit of judging. 

Superstar: The livery is often said to contribute to seasickness. Not my favourite either, but I wouldn't call it ugly.

Mein Schiff 1 and Finlandia: Both really well done, and the majority seems to be with me on this one.

Ryndam: What I meant by "dipped in paint". Although not very outstanding, she looks great.

Norwegian Star: Her and her fleetmates go quite high on my list for their efforts of avoiding a plain white hull. Without the paintings they could easily be confused with MSC, Costa, Carnival or P&O, if you cover the funnel, of course. The Star and her sisters actually have quite an interesting shape.

Since I already mentioned P&O,  I should mention that they're all getting a new uniform hull art, starting from Britannia.  I like it, and I'm glad there will be less cruise ships that could easily be confused with each other.

Star: Another "dip", just unusual colour. Some find that outrageous, but I find her a bit boring. 

Celebrity Constellation: A great example of the shape and the livery complementing each other to make an original looking whole. I haven't heard anyone say anything bad about her or her fleetmates either. Some, like the Eclipse, are mostly white but still very interesting.

Silja Europa: Great as she is, wouldn't look any worse if she was all white. On the other hand, I doubt a "dip" would look good on her.

AIDAmar: Obviously I love her as she is, the idea of painting a face on the ship is great and the result isn't bad either.  Although she and her fleetmates owe most of the fame and love to their painted faces, I'm well convinced that she -as well asthe whole sphinx class- would stand out and still be my favourite even if she was all white.

To sum up, when it comes down to either loving or hating something with no inbetween option, I usually choose to love it. But that is my opinion and you don't have to agree with it.