Friday – September 8, 2017
The sun is brightly shining on the inky Atlantic Ocean and casting a million sparklers on the undulating sea. The M.S. Rotterdam is on its way to Boston and the end of our fabulous cruise! It’s appropriate that our last day is a glorious glad-to-be-alive sunny day. Thirty-seven days ago, on August 2nd, we set out from Boston on the Holland America Line’s flagship MS Rotterdam to cruise the North Atlantic Ocean and return. We’ll be in Boston Harbor later today.
This cruise was the “Voyage of the Vikings.” The map above shows the major ports of call where we stopped to explore. The first leg of the journey was from Boston to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. On the return trip we stopped in several different ports. The most exciting places to visit were two towns in Greenland and four cities in Iceland. Because of good weather, we were able to cruise beautiful Prince Christian Sound, Greenland twice!
The only port the ship couldn’t get into was Halifax, Nova Scotia yesterday, because of high gale force winds. Captain van der Wal tried but 50 mph winds were pushing the ship broadside into the dock and even with the help of two tugboats, the captain felt it was a dangerous situation. So, he cancelled Halifax and steered the ship back out into the Atlantic.
All day yesterday, we cruised on rough seas and gale force winds as the Rotterdam slowly moved westward toward Boston and home. We were “at sea” for three days, since we left St. John’s, Newfoundland. Castaways on the Atlantic…. :-)
We arrived in beautiful Boston harbor about six o’clock at night and ended this journey as it began, with a quiet evening watching the sun set over the city of Boston. It’s 55 degrees with a gentle breeze of 6 knots – 3 on the Beaufort scale.
Tomorrow, Saturday – September 9th – we’ll disembark, drive home, and return to our normal landlubber-lives. The M.S. Rotterdam logged a total of 9245 nautical miles or 10,638 land miles. This Voyage of the Vikings was an unforgettable journey and a wonderful and amazing adventure!