01 April 2013; Puerta Vallarta, Mexico.

By 6 am we were making the approach to the far end of the Bahia de Banderas where Puerto Vallarta is located for a 07.00 pilot boarding time. Normally the sailing into the fairway to get into the turning basin is quite uneventful as it is basically one course to follow while slowing down to about 2 knots. This time the operation was made more exciting by two whales. When the pilot was approaching we saw them swimming sedately from port to starboard and they were well clear by the time we lined up for the entrance. The first peculiar thing was that it was two Fin Whales. They are seldom seen near the coast and even less often in shallow waters in the far end of a bay. But they swam to the East and away from us, so all was well. Then suddenly they surfaced near the bow after having made a U-turn under water. So I stopped the ship and waited from them to gracefully move away to the West and hopefully to open sea. An unusual experience as you seldom see Fin Whales; let alone so far inland.

Without much further ado we docked at Berth nbr 3 in Puerta Vallarta. This is the second time I have docked here and to try it out, I now docked the other way around. Last week I went sb side, this time it was portside. It gave us the possibility to evaluate the best side for docking and undocking (as you have to maneuver yourself in and out of the corner of the port) and it gave everybody the chance to do maintenance where needed.

Berth 3 Tour bus stop.

Berth nbr 3 has as its advantage that the tour buses can park directly next to the ship, the security gate is much easier to access (less steps than through the terminal at dock 1) and for docking it has a longer pier. Disadvantage is that there are no little shops outside the gate door. However that was remedied quickly by the locals themselves.  Within in an hour of arrival, tents were set up, with a complete café, a massage tent (10 US dollars for 10 minutes). a coffee shop with natural products and a whole plethora of shorex stands trying to convince those not on tours, still to go on tour.

Access Gate. To the right is the supermarket and the shopping Mall. The round building straight across is the Arena for Bull Fights, which still take place each Tuesday.

As reported before Puerta Vallarta is THE shopping port on our cruise, and most of the crew went ashore to spend at least a few dollars, and where needed combine it with the free WI-FI at Wall-Mart. I kept a bit of an eye on what the crew goes and buys there, apart from toiletries, and it was mainly Water and Chips/nibbles. Water on board is chlorinated and the crew can buy bottles of water but the ship cannot compete with the local prices and sizes. Thus I saw a crewmember coming back with 4 big water drums (5 gallons a drum) on a little trolley followed by several others with slightly smaller 1 gallon bottles. So if I ever have to invest in something in Puerto Vallarta it will be water and burrito chips.

I have been asked to explain a bit about various crewmembers function names on board. We have a lot of names nowadays that were not there in the past, although the function has not always changed. The Dining room door man is now called a Dining room Greeter, but he still stands at the door.  A sailor still paints but some functions such as life saving attendants and fire safety attends have been given more depth.

So in the coming days, I will pick a few functions from the crew list and will explain what they do on board, when there is no excitement to report during our ships progress towards Florida.

We pulled out from the port just before 5 pm on our way back to the Pacific Ocean. We have 692 miles to cover to Hualtalco so we have a day at sea tomorrow. By lunch time we will pass Zihuatenego and around 8 pm Acapulco.  There is no wind expected, and thus it will be a warm day.