12 April 2012; At Sea.

There is a very strong wind flow coming down the North American coast, initiated by a high pressure system off the coast. Unfortunately for us that wind flow is against us and that does not help with making a good ships speed without going full out. We already have the push against us of the California current here and together with the adverse wind; the engines are getting a real workout. I have all the ships power on line, 5 engines full output and that gives me on paper a speed of 21 knots. However we are barely making 18.5 knots. That is the speed that we have to maintain to be on time in San Diego. We are losing 1.5 knots from the current and another knot or so that the wind is holding us back. We had 40 knots yesterday on departure and this morning it was 30 knots. During the day it diminished a little bit but in the evening hours it perked up again. During the night it is to die away completely and on arrival San Diego it should be wind still. That wind still is then indicating that we will be sitting in the core of that high pressure system and thus no wind. That core will move over San Diego in the course of the morning and then the wind will start to flow the other way, bringing wind and rain over the port. But at least we will be docked by then and I will worry about departure when that time comes closer. 

We are following the Mexican coast at a distance of about 12 miles, mainly due to the numerous reefs that can be found here. Some of the reefs are indicated in the chart only by a dotted outline and that means that it is not even known were their border is and how deep or un-deep they are under water. An even better reason to give those areas’s a wide berth. There are no ports of importance in the vicinity and therefore I suppose that the Mexican navy is not spending any money on hydrographical surveys here.

By noon time we were above Isla Cedros and that is more or less the most Western point of the Bahia California. It is not the most Western part, as 180 miles to the North West of this location is the island of Guadalupe which is also Mexican territory. That is a fair sized island but basically a big lump of rock sticking out of the water. A rock caused by volcanic activity in the past. It is quite well known for eco tours, especially white shark spotting and seals but it is too rugged and too wild for larger cruise ships to visit. It might be something though for the small explorer ships to go to. According to the info in the Sailing Directions there used to be a small prison on the island and I wonder what sort of criminals were sent there. The chance of escape is really small, unless you have help from the outside.

 It is about 140 miles, in a straight line,  from the nearest land so I think that swimming is not really an option.

Although the ship was steady as a rock, the choppy waves took away the chance of wildlife spotting and apart from a lonely bird there was hardly anything to see. The quartermaster, acting as lookout, saw one breaching whale in the distance but the whale must have thought the better of the weather, when jumping above water, as there was not a repeat performance. Tonight we will be coming closer to the Mexican Coast again and by 05.00 we will cross the border into US territory.

We should be overtaken by our friend the Carnival Spirit as they have a Pilot time of 04.30 one hour before us. They will be docked by 05.30 for a 06.00 hrs official arrival. There arrival is an hour before us and they are also scheduled to leave an hour before us. This is the end of yet another cruise, one more time going East and one more time going West, and the ship will move to Alaska.