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.

Fram in Helsinki, 8 May 2012

Fram

IMO 9370018
Built 2007, Fincantieri Trieste, Italy
Tonnage 11 647 GT
Length 114,00 m
Width 20,20 m
Draugth 5,10 m
Ice class 1 A
500 passengers
318 passenger berths
4 MaK diesels, combined 7 924 kW
2 azipods
2 bow thruster
Speed 16 knots

The Fram was the second cruise ship to call in Helsinki for the 2012 summer cruise season on 8 May 2012. Unusually she came during the afternoon and departed late in the evening. My original plan was to photograph her from Kustaanmiekka, giving the somewhat unusual perspective of a ship arriving through the Kustaanmiekka strait (okay, ships do this every day - I'm just never up early enough to photograph them), but the Fram came in about an hour earlier than scheduled. Hence I was forced to photograph her from onboard the Suokki instead.

Click on the images to see in larger size.

On Kruunuvuorenselkä, inbound towards the South Harbour.

Passing bahind the fortification island Lonna - notice that the spring hasn't gotten very far yet.

I should take more vertical photographs - although getting the horizon straight in them is even more challenging than in horizontal shots.

Had the ship come in a earlier still (or a bit later) I could have taken fine photos in close quarters from the Suokki. Well, you can't always win.

And a bit later, the Fram at Pakkahuoneenlaituri about to discharge her passengers.

AIDAsol in Helsinki, 6 May 2012

AIDAsol

IMO 9490040
Built 2011, Meyer Werft Papenburg, Germany
Tonnage 71 100 GT
Length 253,33 m
Width 32,20 m
Draugth 7,30 m
2 194 passengers (double occupancy)
2 500 berths
4 MaK diesels, combined 36 000 kW
2 azipods
2 bow thrusters
2 stern thrusters
Speed 20,5 knots

AIDAsol had the honour of opening the summer cruise season in Helsinki this year - which in itself is somewhat unusual, as usually it has been Hurtigruten's Fram that has opened the season (or before the Fram, other Hurtigruten ships that were used for cruising during the winter off-season). This also meant that unusually the cruise season opened in the West Harbour, not the South Harbour.

We had been enjoying nice sunny spring weather recently - except in the afternoon of 6 May, which meant the AIDAsol departed in overcast weather and the images required some work to be presentable. Whether or not they are acceptable is up to you to judge.

Click on the images to see in larger size.

AIDAsol in decided un-solly weather.

In our ongoing series of "Crap in the Foreground", rocks. The water level was unusually low, hence the relatively large amount of green in the form of seaweed.

The sky looked brilliant, but it was a lot of trouble trying to make the ship stand out from the photo without losing the sky.

Past Pihlajasaari, with some brave soul out sailing - the weather was not exactly warm either, and I suspect the experience of sailing was rather unpleasant.

Superstar in Tallinn, 4 March 2012

Clearly there weren't enough images featuring the Superstar in this blog yet, so here are some more. There is a futher reason to featuring these photos however, as I discovered yesterday that Tallink will be introducing a new graphic identity to their fleet (and the fleet of Silja Line) - you can see the new look in a graphic guidelines booklet here. If the guidelines in the booklet will be rigidly introduced on the Tallink and Silja Line fleets (the example images specify the ships as all-white apart from funnel markings and hull texts), the Superstar might look rather different not too soon.

Superstar

IMO 9365398
Built 2008, Fincantieri Ancona, Italy
Tonnage 36 400 GT
Length 175,10 m
Width 27,60 m
Draugth 7,00 m
Ice class 1A
2 080 passengers
520 berths
665 cars
1 930 lanemeters
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 50 400 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 27,5 knots

The photographs below were taken in Tallinn harbour on 4 March 2012 from onboard the Nordlandia. Click on the images to see in larger size.

Spiffing image, even if most of the ship is in shadows. Ideally one would be at this same quay to observe one of the departures later during the day...

Two months ago we still had ice and snow. Today the summer cruise season opens in Helsinki with AIDAsol being the first ship to call (most unsual, normally the Fram is always the first).

Notice the damage to the paintwork caused by navigating in the ice.

Hopefully Tallink will not be too rigid about their new look - the Superstar would look awful in all-white. And the Tallink Shuttle hull text wouldn't look too good centrally located either. But, we'll see.

Looking back the trip when this photo was taken was an opportune time - getting both good light and ice at the same time is frightfully difficult.

Two hours later, Helsinki.

Bore interiors, 13 August 2011

It is again the time when I advertize the latest issue of the Ulkomatala web magazine in my blog. The 2/2012 issue is dedicated to the 115 years of the Finnish shipping company Bore (previously Bore Line, originally Steamship Company Bore). Fror those of you who can read Finnish, the magazine is highly recommended. With both the magazine and the 115th anniversary in mind, today's entry is also Bore-related.

As a completely unrelated note, today (that is to say, 2 May) is my birthday. In this particular case, the 29th such.

Bore

IMO 5048485
Previous names: Bore, Borea, Kristina Regina
Built 1960, Oskarshamns varv, Sweden
Tonnage 4 295 GT
Length 99,83 m
Width 15,28 m
Draugth 5,25 m
Ice class 1A
245 passengers
2 Wärtsilä-Vaasa diesels, combined 3 240 kW
1 propeller
1 bow thruster
Speed 17 knots

For a history of the ship Bore, refer to this previous entry of the ship (under her previous name Kristina Regina). All of the images below were taken on 13 August 2011; many of them were previously featured on my Maritime Matters report from the Bore. But now, onwards to the photos:

Deck 7 - The topmost deck houses the bridge, in the current form it is a part of the Bore-exhibition.

The bridge has been preserved in the exact same condition as it was in 2010 when the Kristina Regina was withdrawn from service.

A detail on the rather stylish information displays in the museum area.

Deck 6 is entirely given over to cabins (and some outer deck areas). The cabins in the forward section of the deck form a part of the museum exhibition.

One of the original 1st-class cabins. The long-time Finnish president Urho Kekkonen stayed in this particular cabin while onboard the Bore.

Deck 5 (the boat deck) houses bars, cabins and a cafeteria.

Anchor Bar on the fore of deck 5 facing aft. It is not actually a bar, just a room with a dance floot.

Anchor Bar facing forward. This space was added in a later refit.

Kristina Cruises funnel symbol on the forward wall of the Anchor Bar.

The Manoeuvre Bar, aft of Anchor Bar is - as far as I can tell - essentially in the original 1960 appearance.

A meeting room aft of the Manoeuvre Bar on the port side of the ship.

And in the aft of deck 5, Café Navigare (photographed facing aft). This is another space added to the ship later - notice the original outer-deck teak wood flooring on the left.

The service counter of Café Navigare, photographed facing starboard and forward.

Deck 4 houses the ship's two restaurants, the reception, cabins and a children's playroom. It also has a full wrap-around promenade on the outside.

Restaurant Kristina on the fore of deck 4 is a buffet-style restaurant that was open for lunch when I visited the ship.

Desserts and main courses on Kristina's lunch buffet (rather tasty too).

Starters.

Flags/pennants of the three owners of the Bore/Borea/Kristina Regina: Steamship Company Bore (left), Kristina Cruises (center) and Aura Line (right). Missing is the late-70s owner Jakob Lines.

A view forward from the reception to the restaurant.

Antero Merikarhu (Anthony Seabear, freely translated), the Kristina Regina's mascot in the reception vestibule.

The Kotka restaurant on the aft of deck 4. This was a waiter-service restaurant (at least while the ship was sailing as the Kristina Regina) and it was not open to the public when I visited the ship.

Deck 3 is mostly given over to cabins, but in the fore there is the Baltic Hall (an auditorium, originally the ship's garage) and midships to port there is a shop (which was unused when I was onboard).

The Baltic Hall, facing forward. Yes, this was originally a garage.

Deck 2 is entirely given over to cabins (well, except for the parts taken over by the engine room).

Deck 1 houses the sauna and a gym on the forward part of the ship with the rest given over to the engine room and other technical spaces.

The... what would one call this in English? "Dressing room" doesn't quite cover it's function, as you also cool down in there in between sitting in the actual sauna.

The engine room is a vast and slightly labyrinthine space. It seemed vertically oversized, but that's because it was originally designed to house steam engines much much larger to the more fuel-efficient diesels installed when the ship became the Kristina Regina.

Workshop off the main engine room.

Um... yes. Still in the engine room.

Due to the preserved ship being at least as much Kristina Regina as she is Bore, I have decided to file this entry under both Bore and Kristina Regina.