As cruise ships go, Black Watch is quite small, just 804 passengers (and 330 crew) at maximum normal occupancy. As such it doesn't have dozens of restaurants, big cinemas, climbing walls, etc as the massive 5,000 passenger ships from other cruise lines have, but it's all the nicer for that as far as we're concerned.
Being that bit smaller though, Black Watch can moor in smaller ports and go places where the larger cruise ships simply cannot. A particularly good example is from our 2012 cruise on Black Watch to Norway. A surprise extra, which was only announced as we approached it, was an evening venture into the Troll Fjord.
The lounge on Black Watch.
Being that bit smaller though, Black Watch can moor in smaller ports and go places where the larger cruise ships simply cannot. A particularly good example is from our 2012 cruise on Black Watch to Norway. A surprise extra, which was only announced as we approached it, was an evening venture into the Troll Fjord.
Troll Fjord is a very narrow fjord near Narvik which looks on a map rather like the shape of a wooden spoon. It's a 2½ kilometre dead end and any large ship entering has to be absolutely confident that it can be turned around at the end.
Before entering the fjord, a lifeboat had been lowered to go ahead of Black Watch to video our dramatic entrance (well worth watching this 60 second excerpt).
Reaching the 'bowl' of the spoon, it didn't look anywhere near big enough for Black Watch, but the competent crew neatly turned the 205½ metre (674 feet) long ship within its own length, and still left room for the lifeboat to stand off and video everything.
It looked even narrower going out, but by that time everyone was very confident that the crew knew exactly what they were doing. A spontaneous round of applause broke out on our exit from the fjord. I think that the vast majority of the 800 passengers had been up on deck to see this venture and were undoubtedly as impressed as I was at this feat of navigation.
Entering Troll Fjord:
Before entering the fjord, a lifeboat had been lowered to go ahead of Black Watch to video our dramatic entrance (well worth watching this 60 second excerpt).
Rock walls almost within touching range:
Cliffs towering over the ship:
Reaching the dead end:
Heading out of the fjord:
It looked even narrower going out, but by that time everyone was very confident that the crew knew exactly what they were doing. A spontaneous round of applause broke out on our exit from the fjord. I think that the vast majority of the 800 passengers had been up on deck to see this venture and were undoubtedly as impressed as I was at this feat of navigation.
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