04 April 2013; Puerto Chiapas, Mexico.

With Tehantepec lying dormant until tonight, our crossing was nice and peaceful and so we arrived at 07.00 hrs. in the morning at the Puerto Chiapas pilot station. My interest was immediately drawn to the breakers at the entrance of the fairway; to find out how much swell was running into it. This is a sort of entrance canal and constructed by dredging out a natural river bed. As a result that river is forever depositing silt in the canal and permanent dredging takes place.

The nick in the south breakwater is what I look at. If the swell spouts over the breakwater, than it can be dangerous to enter the port.

They keep the depth at 10 meters and that is fine if there is no swell. Depth of the water, plus the tidal height gives about 11 meters; the ship draws 7.5 meters which leaves 3.5 meters. If there is a swell running of 6 to 8 feet, which is around 2 meters, then I only have 1.5 meters (approx 5 feet) left under the keel. If you then get one wave that is just a bit higher and deeper, then the ship can easily touch ground. 22,000 tons of steel touching ground is not pleasant and causes a lot of paper work. Hence it has my undivided interest. I have now developed a rule of thumb that seems to work quite well. As soon as I see the spray of the waves that are breaking on the breakwater go higher than the height of the breakwater then there is room for concern. That is why I like to arrive at sunrise. Then I can see the breakwater and the swell very clearly and it is still too early for the sun to create wind and to start “enhancing” the waves. Today we were in business, the pilot declared that it was a wonderful day and that there was no swell at all. The man is known for his positive thinking, so I prefer to look for myself, and saw that the swell/spray was not coming higher than half the breakwater. That meant a little bit of swell in the entrance and it would make the ship move a bit while going in, but I would keep at least 2 to 2.5 meters under the keel. So in we went. The quartermaster had to work hard to try to keep the ship on course when the swell started to lift the stern but with a little help from my side we nicely lined up in the leading lights and sailed towards the turning basin. Once past the breakwaters I put on the brakes as we only have just over a 2,000 feet to slow down from 6 knots to 0.5 knots, the speed I want before I can starting turning in the basin. I like to swing on arrival and dock noise out, as in the afternoon the wind picks up and then it is a lot harder to turn around and keep the stern under control. In the mornings it is generally wind still and then you only have yourself to blame, if the maneuver goes wrong.

Puerto Chiapas Cruise Terminal. From here the tours leave but inside the building are local shows enacting Mayan and Mexican Life. (plus little shops of course)

By 07.45 we were happily docked and the first guests streamed ashore. I had warned everybody the day before that it was going to be very warm today and the cleverest among those on board, went ashore early while it was still relatively cool. Those on tour will have to endure the brunt of it as inland it was most likely even warmer than in the port. But if you want to immerse yourself in culture, than you have to pay the price.

I had something else on my hands today. Once a contract I do a Triage Drill/Exercise. This is a drill with multiple casualties. Which is something we can expect if we would have an issue, as this is a cruise ship with fire, a collision or grounding. So today we simulated a collision with the point of impact in the show lounge resulting in 25 victims. Roles played by the sailors and the Entertainment department. For this there are always volunteers; everybody likes to moan groan, yell, scream and act being miserable. Especially the one who has the roll of Drama Queen, or being in shock, or being apathic and refusing to move. All sorts of behavior that is out there in the real world, we try to simulate. 25 victims is hard to deal with for the four medical staff we have on board and thus we all really have to scramble to make 2+2 = 6 and save as many lives as possible. The whole drill took about an hour before each victim was treated in the assigned emergency hospital. I had our Videographer take some video footage, which we will show during the de briefing. Good fun to do and very useful.

At 17.00 we sailed out again. The swell had increased considerably but as we were now putting the nose in it, the effect on the ship is a lot less as we go from shallow to deeper water. Tonight we will sail along the coast and then arrive at 04.00 hours at the pilot station at Puerto Quetzal. That promises to be a real hot day. 980F/ 35oC. I think that I will stay inside.