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Sea Voyages 1986 - 1991 A Ship Called Home

From 1986 until 1991, I did 10 voyages on the same container ship,visiting 40 ports on three continents. M/V Arnstadt really became a home away from home for me. M/V Arnstadt

When I first enlisted on M/V Arnstadt, the ship was in service in the Mediterranean Sea and East Africa. After two years of mainly voyages to Cyprus and Turkey, the ship was sent to South East Asia. during a two year charter for a Singapore based company, we visited 13 ports in nine Asian countries. After that, we finished up with a year in our company's West Africa service. Sorry, I haven't gotten around scanning all my 2,000 pictures yet. So, for now, I have borrowed a number of virtual post cards from the internet, but many of them look just like the ones I took.

XVoyage 16 X M/V Arnstadt XXOct 1986 - Jan 1987 My first voyage on M/V Arnstadt consisted of three round trips to the Mediter-ranean Sea. At each trip, we called Hamburg in West Germany, Antwerp in Belgium, Mersin and Izmir in Turkey and Larnaca in Cyprus. In addition, the first round trip included Istanbul, the second took us to Alexandria and the third to Iraklion on the Greek island Crete. In Izmir, we took the opportunity to visit the ancient Roman ruins of Ephesos and in Iraklion, we visited the even older Greek temple ruins of Knossos.

Most voyages on M/V Arnstadt started with a bus trip from Rostock across the East-West German border to Hamburg, where the crew exchange took place. In addition to a number of really interesting ports, these short voyages to the Mediterranean and back were a great training ground for nautical skills. In only three months, we crossed Dover Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar no less than six times and also had an interesting passage through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus to Istanbul. I also got my very first impression of a maximum gale force storm in the English Channel.

Border East & West Germany

Hamburg West Germany

Antwerp Belgium

Mersin Turkey

Dover Strait

Strait of Gibraltar

Larnaca Cyprus

Izmir Turkey

Ephesus Turkey

Bosporus Turkey

Istanbul Turkey

Alexandria Egypt

Iraklion Greece

Knossos Greece

Gale Force 12

XXXXXXXVoyage 17 XXXXXXXXXXM/V Arnstadt XXXXXXXXXXXXXApr 1987 - Jul 1987 The Summer of 1987 brought us back to East Africa. Leaving from Hamburg, we made the usual stops in Antwerp, Ceuta and Larnaca and then passed the Suez Canal. In the Red Sea, we first visited Aqaba, and then Al Hudaydah, Yemen and Djibouti. Then, in East Africa, I had the unique opportunity to observe African wild life during a day-trip to Mikumi National Park, 150 miles inland from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

On the way back, we stopped in Felixtowe, England and Hamburg. This time the voyage ended in Rostock, making it one of the very few voyages during which we stopped in both East- and West Germany.

Hamburg West Germany

Antwerp Belgium

Ceuta Spanish North Africa

Larnaca Cyprus

Suez Canal Egypt

Aqaba Jordan

Hudaydah Yemen

Djibouti Djibouti

Mombasa Kenya

Dar Es Salaam Tanzania

Mikumi National Park Tanzania

Felixtowe United Kingdom

Kiel Canal West Germany

Rostock East Germany

XVoyage 18 X M/V Arnstadt XXSep - Nov 1987 After spending a month in a ship yard in Rostock, it was back to the Mediterranean - again visiting all the ports we visited at previous voyages. One port was new this time: in addition to Hamburg and Antwerp, we also stopped in Amsterdam. To get there, we had to pass through the North Sea Canal - a 16 miles long artificial waterway, connecting the North Sea with the almost completely land-locked Zuiderzee.

Rostock East Germany

Hamburg West Germany

Antwerp Belgium

Mersin Turkey

Larnaca Cyprus

Izmir Turkey

Noordzeekanaal Netherlands

Amsterdam Netherlands

Alexandria Egypt

Iraklion Greece

XVoyage 19 X M/V Arnstadt XXDec 1987 - Apr 1988 What started as a "normal" Mediterranean round trip in December 1987 turned into the adventure of a lifetime. After one roundtrip from Hamburg and Antwerp to Turkey and Cyprus, we got orders to sail to Singapore in South East Asia.

We loaded containers in Larnaca and Alexandria and then passed the Suez Canal heading towards the Indian Ocean. Stops along the way were made in Khor Fakkan on the Arabian Peninsula, in Penang, Malaysia and Belawan, Indonesia. In February 1988, we arrived at our new home port and for the next two years we sailed under the flag of RCL Singapore. We completed five round-trips from Singapore to Bangkok and back, before a replacment crew arrived. The last night of the trip we spent at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, Russia.

Hamburg West Germany

Antwerp Belgium

Mersin Turkey

Larnaca Cyprus

Izmir Turkey

Alexandria Egypt

Suez Canal Egypt

Khor Fakkan United Arab Emirates

Penang Malaysia

Belawan Indonesia

Singapore Singapore

Bangkok Thailand

Hindukush Mountains seen from the airplane

XXXXXAirborne XXXXXXXM/V Arnstadt XXXXX XXXXXX1988 - 1990 While our ship was stationed in south East Asia, crew exchanges took place every three months, resulting in a total of eight flights between Germany and Singapore. Most of the time we used the direct route from Berlin to Singapore via Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Twice we used a Russian airline, flying from Singapore to Berlin via Bombay and Moscow, and one time we went from Hamburg to Copenhagen and then to Bangkok.

Airplanes

Ilyushin IL-62 Singapore-Bombay-Moscow

Ilyushin IL-18 Moscow-Berlin

Fokker-F27 Friendship Hamburg-Copenhagen

McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Copenhagen-Bangkok

Airbus A-300 Berlin-Dubai- Singapore

Airports

Singapore-Changi Singapore

Chhatrapati Shivaji Bombay, India

Moscow-Sheremetyevo Russia

Berlin-Schönefeld East Germany

Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel West Germany

Copenhagen-Kastrup Denmark

Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi Thailand

Dubai United Arab Emirates

XXVoyage 20 XX M/V Arnstadt XXXXXJul - Oct 1988 Our first full-time turn in South East Asia started with a bus ride to Hamburg, where we took a small airplane to Copenhagen, where we took a large airplane to Bangkok. It would be our last visit to Bangkok for a year. Our new area of operation would be the Philippines. We started with one round-trip Singapore-Manila and back, followed by four voyages Singapore - Cebu - Manila - Singapore.

The voyage from Cebu to Manila lead through the Philippine inland waters and we got to see many of the country's 7,000 islands. From Manila, we also took a day trip to Pagsanjan National Park, which is famous for its waterfalls. The flight home only had one stop in Dubai.

Bangkok Thailand

Singapore Singapore

Manila Philippines

Cebu Philippines

Pagsanjan National Park Philippines

XXXXXXVoyage 21 XXXXXX X XM/V Arnstadt XXXXXXXXXXXXXJan - Apr 1989 After a flight via Dubai and a short trip to Penang, we were deployed to a new operating area. In late January, 1989, we were the first East German ship to ever visit Taiwan. The first trip to Kao Hsiung was followed by four more round trips from Singapore to Kao Hsiung and Hong Kong and one trip to Bangkok, from where we flew home via Bombay and Moscow.

Singapore Singapore

Penang Malaysia

Kao Hsiung Taiwan

Hong Kong Hong Kong

Bangkok Thailand

XXXXXXXXVoyage 22 XXXXXXXXXXXM/V Arnstadt XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXAug - Oct 1989 The next voyage took us into the Bay of Bengal. After a flight to Bangkok via Dubai, we sailed to Singapore for two short trips to Port Klang and Penang in Malaysia. Then, two round trips to Bangladesh and India followed. The trip from Singapore to Bangladesh and back was like a hot-and-cold shower. Within days, we flipped back and forth between one of the world's most modern cities and one of the world's poorest countries. XXXXXSunday in SingaporeXXXXXXXWednesday in Bangladesh

The trips to Bangladesh and India included long river passages in the delta formed by the mighty rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra. Mongla in Bangladesh was about 100 miles up river and Haldia, just outside Calcutta, India was about 30 miles upstream.

Bangkok Thailand

Singapore Singapore

Port Klang Malaysia

Penang Malaysia

Chittagong Bangladesh

Brahmaputra Delta Bangladesh

Mongla Bangladesh

Ganges Delta India

Haldia India

XVoyage 23 X M/V Arnstadt XXXJan - Apr 1990 One last flight to Singapore via Dubai, and then, after two years in South East Asia, we brought the ship back home to Germany. But first, we did a real good-bye-tour to many of the ports we had visited during our Asia years.

It started with a voyage to Bangkok, followed by two last round trips to Taiwan and Hong Kong and ended with two trips to Penang and Kuantan in Malaysia. Then, all there was left to do was the long voyage through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea to Antwerp and Hamburg, and in April 1990, we were back in Rostock.

Singapore Singapore

Bangkok Thailand

Kao Hsiung Taiwan

Hong Kong Hong Kong

Penang Malaysia

Kuantan Malaysia

Suez Canal Egypt

Antwerp Belgium

Hamburg Germany

Rostock Germany

XVoyage 24 X M/V Arnstadt XXXJun - Aug 1990 XVoyage 25 X M/V Arnstadt X Dec 1990 - Mar 1991 My last year on M/V Arnstadt was spent in West Africa. During two voyages, we did three roundtrips each from Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp via Las Palmas on Gran Canaria to Freetown in Sierra Leone, Tema in Ghana, Lome in Togo and Lagos in Nigeria.

During the first voyage, we also visited Banjul in Gambia once and during our last round trip at the second voyage, we stopped in Cotonou, Benin. We also had the change to take a short trip to Ghana's capital Accra and to Togo's oldest town, Togoville. During the second voyage, we also spent a couple of days in the small Dutch town Terneuzen at the Canal from Terneuzen to Gent.

Hamburg Germany

Rotterdam Netherlands

Antwerp Belgium

Freetown Sierra Leone

Tema Ghana

Accra Ghana

Lagos Nigeria

Las Palmas Canary Islands

Banjul Gambia

Lomé Togo

Togoville Togo

Cotonou Benin

Ghent-Terneuzen-Canal Belgium / Netherlands

Terneuzen Netherlands

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