LONDON TO TORONTO
HENRY NOWICKI
3 JULY 2001
HENRY NOWICKI
3 JULY 2001
The mts Arcadia is a Greek-owned and operated vessel under charter to Great Lakes Cruises to voyage on all five of the Great Lakes for the entire summer seasons of 2001-2002. The trim little 367' ship has 130 cabins with a passenger limit of 224 which seems perfect for Great Lakes cruising. It has received good reviews (Ref 1) and the sailing season on the Great Lakes is most promising (Ref 2).
An earlier account of the voyage from Piraeus to London (Ref 3) outlined the ship's repositioning progress. The initial cruise from Piraeus to London was scheduled as an eleven-day voyage (Ref 4) to be followed by a seventeen-day cruise from London to Toronto (Ref 5). Both are great itineraries.
A spectacular view of the transatlantic route can be seen at the following space image
(Ref 6).
May 26 London, England 2400 departure. A night departure from the London "Pool", the Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, was delightful.
May 27 at sea. Abigail Cooke, an art historian and woodcarver specializing in figureheads, provided an extensive overview of ship figurehead carving activities in England. The passengers aboard seemed to be one-third from the United Kingdom with the bulk from the United States. As usual, it does not take much time for most to learn their way around the little ship and strike up conversations with everyone aboard.
May 28 Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland 0600-1300. Edinburgh is an excellent port visit. Its many attractions set in a most pleasant landscape make it a world-class city. There never seems to be enough time to even sample the area's highlights. I participated in at least one shore excursion in every port and in Edinburgh it was the four-hour city tour which featured the castle. I had previously visited the excellently preserved HMS Britannia which was moored right in front of us. It should be noted that the ship had to enter and depart via a lock to the basin that protected the harbor from storm and tidal changes in water level.
May 29 Lerwick, Shetland Islands 1130-1700. Lerwick is a good cruise stop in the Atlantic/North Sea region. It's maritime connection is so marked and it's adaptations to climate and marine surroundings render it a tiny outdoor laboratory. Its artifacts, such as those found at the Jarlshof's excavations, are also of great interest.
May 30 Torshavn, Faroe Islands 1030-1700. These island are visually fascinating and the whole archipelago would be a national park anywhere else in the developed world. I especially enjoyed the five-hour bus ride to the northernmost towns of Eioi and Gjogv. A small, local restaurant provided an excellent lunch to round out the trip.
May 31 at sea.
Jun 1 Reykjavik, Iceland 0800-2000. Iceland's reputation as a volcanic laboratory is much deserved and its visual evidence of tectonic plate mechanics would be worth the trip alone. The eight-hour excursion to the waterfall at Gullfos and the Geysir area northeast of Reykjavik is highly recommended.
Jun 2-5 are spent at sea. A bit of rest from so many port visits is welcome but as it turned out this was a little long at sea. The reason for the longer sea journey was that the Narsarsuaq, Greenland port visit was canceled due to landfast ice conditions in southernmost Greenland. It is a great disappointment to have come so far only to be denied entry.
Jun 6 St. Anthony, Newfoundland, Canada Another disappointment as the seas were too high to deploy the ship's tenders. We were at the mouth of the small bay that services St. Anthony only to have to turn away towards the Strait of Belle Isle and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Fortunately, the strait had many icebergs that were visible in daylight hours and which might not have been seen had we stayed on schedule and transited the area at nightfall.
Jun 7 Gaspe, New Brunswick, Canada Gaspe and its southern neighbor, Perce, are both a fine cruise ship visit. Bonaventure Island and its birdlife made for a very pleasant small boat cruise.
Jun 8 at sea.
Jun 9 Quebec, Canada 1400-2400. Quebec is certainly one of the most charming cities for cruise passengers who want an introduction to the historical sections of the old city.
Jun 10 Montreal, Canada is a modern metropolis of over three million inhabitants with just about any amenity that one can imagine. A day visit is just the merest sample of what the city has to offer.
Jun 11 transiting the St. Lawrence Seaway locks. There are seven locks, two of which are American, that have to be negotiated upstream. Only ships of 750 feet in length or less can be accommodated. On average, each lock can be filled or emptied in about 12 minutes.
Jun 12 Toronto is another modern metropolis of over 3.5 million inhabitants with all the attractions of a huge city with the addition of the world's tallest tower. Debarkation in the early hours ended a most interesting but somewhat confusing journey as the ship could not deliver on all of its advertised ports. Ice could not be denied; however, a faster ship would have helped fill in some of the gaps in the itinerary.
Click Here to see other travel/cruise accounts by the author.
Copyright 2001, All Rights Reserved.
 Sign Guestbook |
 View Guestbook |
WaikikiWeb@webtv.net |
The Tropics Shoreline
| Main Page | World News | Travel Corner | Travel Links | GeoNews |
GeoCities, Your Home On The Web
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page