08 April 2012; Huatalco de Santa Cruz, Mexico.

 Tehuantepec behaved itself and the maximum wind we observed was 27 knots and that is very little for that area. I would be very happy if we had that all the time. As soon as we came under the lee of the land again, the wind died away completely. And with that I mean wind force zero, calm of wind, not a ripple on the ocean. Hualtalco is protected from the wind on all sides except from the entrance side to the South East and that normally means that the wind in the port is very light, but to have a flat calm is something you seldom see. Even in the afternoon, when normally a land wind rises, the wind velocity did not go above 8 knots. Perfect Easter weather as far as I am concerned. By 10.45 am we were at the pilot station and by 11.30am the Chief Officer had safely docked the ship, while I did his job for a change. All of course under the watchful eye of the pilot, who made the appropriate noises in his walkie talkie to keep the linesmen under control and the navy boats out of the way.

As mentioned yesterday, the Rotterdam was docked next to us. She had come in before us and was going to leave again at 17.00 hrs while we are scheduled to stay until 10 pm. She is returning from a South Pacific cruise, the same as we will do in December. Now she is making the exact cruise as we do while going back to Fort Lauderdale and then to Europe. With two ships in port the port was full, although there would have been the option for one more ship at anchor if needed.

(Photo courtesy: Hotelmanager Bert van de Mackelenberg)

The Rotterdam had docked nose in, and as the weather was going to be so good, I decided to do the same as it looks better to have both ships facing the same way. Bow/stern looks very ugly on photos and no doubt a lot of them were taken by our guests walking back to ship. It being Sunday and Easter meant that a lot of Mexicans were on vacation and indeed the beach in front of the ships was very busy. The hotels in the surrounding area were so busy that we could not load water today. The local water supply was running to maximum capacity just to deal with the local demand, let alone being able to feed two thirsty cruise ships as well. Luckily the agent had informed us about that ahead of time, so the chief engineer kept the evaporators going and the potable water tanks full. It is normally cheaper to load water locally than to burn expensive fuel for it but we are self sufficient if needed.

(Photo courtesy: Hotelmanager Bert van de Mackelenberg)

Apart from the regular Easter celebrations on board which are based on the Christian traditions we also make arrangements for those of the Jewish faith. On high days and holidays we always have a holy trinity on board (Rabbi, Priest and a variation of non Roman Catholic) so everybody can attend a religious service if wanting to. The Jewish faith requires the Seder dinner and we always provide accordingly. As I do not want to impinge on privacy I can only post a picture of the table setting.

The Rotterdam left at 17.00 waved out by a lot of our guests and many crew. We were the lucky ones that stayed until late evening. Having the romantic location of Hualtalco, the perfect weather and a mariachi band on board, all together it provided the perfect ambiance. Easter could not be better.

We will now have two seadays and then we will visit our last port of call Cabo San Lucas. That is going to be a busy day with two Carnival ships inside. My challenge is that although I have the shortest port call, I have been assigned the anchorage furtherest away. The authorities assign the three anchorages in accordance to size of ship and calling frequency. We are small and only call once a month so we do not stand a chance to get on anchorage nbr 1.

But before that we will spend another day at sea. I am expecting loads of dolphins, flying fish and turtles all around the ship, as we saw many of them yesterday and we are now coming in an even better area.