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Sea Voyages 1991 - 1995 Transatlantic Final

My last five years in the fleet I spent on five very different ships: a large bulk carrier, two old general cargo ships, one modern container ship and a ferry. Each voyage took me to a different part of the world - including some very short voyages in the Baltic Sea and a very long one that covered no less than five continents. In the first 16 years of my career, I only had one voyage crossing the Atlantic Ocean - in the last five years, I crossed it 26 times - all the way from Denmark to South Africa and from Canada to Argentina. Sorry, I haven't gotten around scanning all my 2,000 pictures yet. So, for now, I have borrowed a collection of virtual post cards from the internet, but many of them look just like the ones I took.

XXXVoyage 26 XXXX M/V Görlitz XXXXXJul 1991 - Mar 1992 At 291 days, this voyage on an old Russian-build bulk carrier was not only the longest one I ever did, it also was the only one covering no less than five continents: Europe, South America, North America, Asia and Africa. XXXXXXXXM/V Görlitz

The voyage started in a shipyard in Gdánsk, Poland, from where we went to Ventspils in Latvia. Then, after bunkering fuel in Korsør, Denmark, we crossed the Atlantic Ocean almost in its entire north-south duration, sailing to three ports in southern Brazil. In one of them, Paranagua, we took a day trip to Curitiba, which involved a spectacular railroad trip from sea level up to 3,000 feet. From Brazil, we went back to Europe, then crossed the North Atlantic Ocean from east to west, bound for Port Cartier in Quebec, Canada. Then followed the longest leg of the voyage, from the St. Lawrence Gulf across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Strait of Gibraltar, across the entire Mediterranean Sea, through Suez Canal, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea to Port Muhammad bin Qasim and Karachi in Pakistan. We then crossed the Indian Ocean in its entire north-south duration, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, stopped briefly in Capetown, South Africa and then crossed the South Atlantic Ocean from Africa to South America. The only land we saw during that crossing was the remote island of Tristan da Cunha. The next part included the longest river voyage of my career, 370 miles upstream South America's second longest river, the Paraná, past Rosario to San Lorenzo, Argentina. From there, it was back to Rio Grande in Brazil and after a last crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from south the north, we finally made it back to Hamburg.

Gdańsk Poland

Ventspils Latvia

Korsør Denmark

Santos São Paulo, Brazil

Paranaguá Paraná, Brazil

Railroad to Curitiba Paraná, Brazil

Rio Grande Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

North Sea Canal Netherlands

Amsterdam Netherlands

Port Cartier Canada

Strait of Gibraltar

Suez Canal Egypt

Port Qasim Pakistan

Karachi Pakistan

Cape Town South Africa

Tristan da Cunha Brit. Overseas Territories

Rio Paraná, San Lorenzo Argentina

Rosario Argentina

Rio Grande Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Hamburg Germany

XVoyage 27 lM/V Ronneburg XAug 1992 - Feb 1993 In 1992, 24 years old M/V Ronneburg was the oldest ship under German flag. She was the last one of the once legendary Tvp-XD series that shaped our company for decades. XXXM/V Ronneburg

Good old lady Ronneburg took me on two voyages to Central America, including my first passage of the Panama Canal. The German ports as well as the ports in Central America were very close to each other, so I provided two separate maps to show their location. Loading ports for the first west-bound voyage were Hamburg, Bremen, Rotterdam and Antwerp, ports of destination were Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Caldera (Costa Rica), Acajutla (El Salvador), San Lorenzo (Honduras) and Corinto (Nicaragua). For the voyage home we loaded coffee in Columbian Buenaventura and Cartagena. We also stopped in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. For the second voyage, we loaded cargo in Bremen, Hamburg and Antwerp. In Central America, we visited Santo Domingo, San Juan del Sur (Nicaragua), Puerto Quezal (Guatemala), Acajutla, Corinto and Caldera. The voyage home took us to Buenaventura and San Juan, Puerto Rico. We also had enough time for a day trip in El Salvador from Acajutla to the Izalco-volcano and to the Maya ruins of Tazumal and for another day trip in Columbia from Buenaventura to Cali, high in the Colombian Andes. In March 1993, we arrived in Lloyds Shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany, were Germany's oldest cargo ship was decommissioned.

Hamburg Germany

Rotterdam Netherlands

Antwerp Belgium

Santo Domingo Dominican Republic

Panama Canal Panama

Caldera Costa Rica

Acajutla El Salvador

Izalco El Salvador

Tazumal El Salvador

San Lorenzo Honduras

Corinto Nicaragua

Buenaventura Colombia

Cali Colombia

Cartagena Colombia

Las Palmas Canary Islands

Bremen Germany

San Juan del Sur Nicaragua

Puerto Quetzal Guatemala

San Juan Puerto Rico

Bremerhaven Germany

XXVoyage 28 XX M/V Pritzwalk XXXXXJul - Sep 1993 This semi-container ship took me onto two very different voyages. First, there was round trip to French Guiana and Brazil, and then I had my last trip to Africa. XX XXXXXXM/V Pritzwalk

At both voyages, we had four European loading ports; the "usual three," Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp, plus Le Havre in France. The first trip took us to Dégrad des Cannes, French Guiana's main port just outside Cayenne, the country's capital. We also had the unique chance to watch the launch of an Ariane rocket from the international space port in Kourou (from a safe distance at sea). From there, we moved on to three Brazilian ports, Belem at the mouth of the Amazon River, Itaqui near São Luís and Fortaleza. The second voyage took me back to my first African port, Dakar and added two more African countries to the list.

Hamburg Germany

Rotterdam Netherlands

Antwerp Belgium

Le Havre France

Dégrad des Cannes French Guiana

Cayenne French Guiana

Kourou French Guiana

Belém Pará, Brazil

Itaqui Maranhão, Brazil

São Luís Maranhão, Brazil

Fortaleza Ceará, Brazil

Dakar Senegal

Conakry Guinea

Nouakchott Mauritania

XVoyage 29 X M/V Sachsen XOct 1993 - Feb 1994 XXXXM/V Sachsen

This was my last voyage on a containership and it included a lot of "lasts." My last visit to the Mediterranean Sea, and a last passage of the Straits of Gibraltar and Messina. It also included a number of firsts, like an ice breaker assisted passage through Canada's St. Lawrence River in the coldest night I ever experienced (-35°F) The voyage started with a bus trip from Berlin across Europe's highest mountain range - the Alps - to Genoa in Italy. For three round trips, we loaded Containers in the Mediterranean and discharged in Canada. Loading ports were always a number of Italian and Spanish ports, one time we stopped in France and at one trip I had a chance to say good bye to two of my favorite countries, Turkey and Cyprus. During a stop in Naples, Italy, we also had a chance to see Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii.

Brenner Pass Austria

Genoa Italy

Valencia Valenciana, Spain

Strait of Gibraltar

Bilbao Basque Country, Spain

Canandian Ice Breaker Gulf of Saint Lawrence

Montreal Quebec, Canada

Larnaca Cyprus

Mersin Turkey

Strait of Messina Italy

Naples Italy

Vesuvius & Pompeii Italy

Livorno Italy

Fos-sur-Mer France

Salerno Italy

XXXXXVoyage 30 XXXXXXXM/V Aschberg XXXXXXXXXXAug - Sep 1994 This voyage was very different from all the others. It was only 30 days long, but during this time, we called 25 ports - five round trips from Copenhagen, Arhus and Oslo to Helsinki and Kotka. Everything is handled a little bit faster on a Roll-on/Roll-off ferry ship. Each of the round trips also included navigating a number of challenging areas like the Danish straits Øresund and Storebælt, the Norwegian Oslofjord and the Gulf of Finland, an area dotted with about 50,000 cliffs and tiny islands, called skerries.

M/V Aschberg

Århus Denmark

Oslofjord Norway

Oslo Norway

Øresund Denmark / Sweden

Copenhagen Denmark

Helsinki Finland

Gulf of Finland Finland

Kotka Finland

Storebælt Denmark

XVoyage 31 XM/V Pritzwalk XNov 1994 - Apr 1995 My last voyage had a lot in common with one of my first ones. Loading in Western Europe and discharging in a number of ports in the Caribbean Sea and Mexico. I revisited Tampico and had a chance to say good bye to Puerto Rico.

We did two identical round trips, only the second one ended in a shipyard in Rozenburg, near Rotterdam. Here, on April 10, 1995, I left my last ship - twenty years, three months and one week after I set foot on my first one.

M/V Pritzwalk

Hamburg Germany

Rotterdam Netherlands

Antwerp Belgium

Rio Haina Dominican Republic

Tampico Mexico

Veracruz Mexico

La Guaira Venezuela

San Juan Puerto Rico

Rozenburg Netherlands

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