06 Nov. 2014; At Sea.

After a rainy day in Puerto Vallarta, we had a rainy evening at sea. Ex Hurricane Vance was petering out in the entrance to the sea of Cortez and the rain clouds were the last remnants of his presence. During the night we crossed that part that gives access to the Baha California and by early morning we made landfall at Cabo San Lucas. By 0900 we had sailed around Cabo Falso and starting sailing along the shore line of the Californian Peninsula.

Cabo Falso is remarkable for a number of things. First it is called the false cape as it was thought that it was the most southern point of the Californian Peninsula, only to find out shortly after, that Cabo San Lucas as a few more “inches” to the south. But as Cabo Falso is on the South Western tip of the Peninsula you tend to think that it is the furthest point of the land mass. It is not and hence the name Cabo Falso.

The 2^nd thing is that the Cape marks the location where cold sea water currents; meet the warm sea water currents. Therefore we call this cape also the “cold cape”.  The differences in temperatures cause the area to be full of fish which gives rise to Cabo san Lucas port being an important sport fishing center. Whales, especially Humpbacks seem to like this difference in sea water temperature as well and many stop in this area for a while, before heading up the coast to Alaska.  For some reason they do not return in very great numbers in the autumn, maybe because they ate their fill in Alaska and then go straight over to Hawaii.

As a result of this meeting of the currents, the weather is influenced as well. Hurricanes thrive on warm water and not on cold. Reason enough to know that most hurricanes do not come above Cabo Falso, unless they gathered so much momentum on the edge of the warm water that they can self-propel over the cold.  Thus on the other side of Cabo Falso there was nothing to see of any remnants of our old friend Vance.

We will be spending two days at sea, as the distance from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego is just too tight to do it in one.  From Cabo San Lucas, with an early departure, you can make it in one sea day but Puerto Vallarta is too far. Which is a good thing as a real cruise is made up out of a mixture of sea days and port days and I personally think that there should be more sea days than port days. A cruise ship has so much more to offer than just being a convenient hotel hopping from port to port. But to enjoy shipboard life you need sea days.  Nothing to worry about on this cruise, we are finishing this cruise of with two sea days. Just what the doctor prescribed.

Today was the first day of the two and the Cruise Director was in full swing with the Event Staff to create some happy memories for the guests. It is better to leave the ship smiling than with a frown.  I was also instrumental in creating some happy people as it was exam day today for my boat crews.  If the last one passes tomorrow, he needed a second chance,  then 57 crew will have graduated from the Captain Albert Academy as Lifeboat Assistants. This will qualify them as a crewmember to assist the Lifeboat Commander in operating the lifeboat in case of an emergency.  At the moment we are giving the courses for Lifeboat Commander ashore as that is a week of intensive training which has too much impact on the working hours onboard to do it successfully at sea.

Today was a sunny day, with the temperature slowly dropping due to the cold water in which we sail now. That will continue tomorrow until we have slid down the thermometer from 88o F down to about 72oF.  San Diego can of course be much warmer but that  caused by the desert behind the town.