Delphin in Helsinki, 11 May 2012

Delphin

IMO 7347536
Name history: Belorussiya, Kazakhstan II, Delphin
Built 1975, Wärtsilä Turku, Finland
Tonnage 16 214 GT
Length 156,27 m
Width 21,90 m
Draugth 6,20 m
556 passengers
2 Pielstick-Wärtsilä diesels, combined 13 240 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
Speed 21 knots

The Delphin, one of my all-time favourite ships, is back in action. The ship had been laid up since their owners Delphin Seereisen went bankrupt in late 2010. For a history of the ship prior to this, see this entry. In December 2011 the laid-up ship was sold to Passat Kreuzfahrten, a new German-market cruise line owned by the Indian businessman Pradeep Agrawal. Subsequently the Delphin sailed from Venice, where it had been laid up, to the Viktor Lenac Shipyard in Rijeka (Croatia) where the ship's interiors were refurbished. However, her exterior livery was kept almost entirely unchanged, except for the painting of Passat Kreuzfahrten's logos under the ship's nameplate in the superstructure, in the same place where Hansa Kreuzfahrten's logos were previously located. The funnel symbol remains that of the now-defunct Dephin Seereisen (confused yet?). In April 2012 the Delphin entered service with Passat Kreuzfahrten. I would love to sail on this ship, but her being marketed exclusively at the German-language market places some restrictions on my ability to sail on her.

The Delphin called in Helsinki on 11 May 2012. Previously she had always departed very early in the afternoon, which is very impractical in terms of lighting. This time she departed later, at the lighting-wise more practical time of 16.00 - however, this time around it was quite foggy. I decided to head out to Suomenlinna to photograph her anyway, without realising that the fog would be even worse out at sea. The photos are interesting anyway.

I admit I did treat these photos heavile to get the ship visible. This is taken at the narrowest point of the Kustaanmiekka strait - you can almost see the other shore, which really isn't that far away at all.

Watching the ship glide out of the fog and back into it again was quite magical - made me wish that I would have had a video camera, it would have made a rather splendid little clip. Presuming of course it could have made anything out of the fog. It was a big challenge for my camera.