11 April 2018; Mahogany Bay, Roatan.

During the night the wind did not die down but whipped the waves up to a short and nasty chop on top of the longer swell that is always there due to the forever blowing Trade Winds. This 2^nd swell was sort of from the same direction but on a slightly different angle and that meant that it mostly increased the wave height but sometimes leveled the other wave height out.  (Filled the hole so to speak) The effect on the ship is that on occasion you hear a bang, when the bow hits an unusual pattern in the combined wave/swell, and sometimes the ship only moves a little bit. Because it is not consistent it is not so easy to get used to.  The Front Desk has decreed that I should have a guest cabin all the way in the bow this time and so I had the nightly enjoyment of the occasional bang, the occasional wobble, or the occasional bow movement that just did not turn into a pitching motion. Better me than a paying guest of course and so I did my good deed for yesterday and only had to stay in bed during the night to achieve it.

Over view of Roatan. The Resort is located on the top of the hill, with a cable car running to the beach. This is a overview from when the port had just been opened. There is a lot more vegetation now between the dock and the resort.

The ship was on time, the pilot was on time, and we could sail into the bay without any hindrance. Although the wind was a hindrance. The wind blows here on a 90o angle across the entrance channel and that means that we can drift considerably while going in… and the channel is not that wide. We always want to dock nose out, to be able to race out of the port in case we get really inclement weather and that makes the docking maneuver: going in sternway with the wind full on the beam not as easy as it sounds. Once you are halfway in the approach channel, the mountain ridge will catch the wind and all is well. You just have to get there first.

The layout of the port with the approach maneuver. Swing outside. Go in sternway while staying the middle of the channel with the buoys indication the 10 meter boundaries. As you can see in the beginning, when we have the wind, the ship has about one ships width on either side before it comes close to the buoys. That is only a 100 feet or so on either side.

Because of this situation, the port normally sends two pilots, one for each bridge wing. Not to maneuver the ship as they know that all Captains know this port very well (It is one of the standard training sessions on the companies simulator) but to warn the captain in case the ship drifts too far one way or the other. As this is an artificial port, the depth is also artificial and sometimes sand accumulates at locations in the channel that only the pilot knows. Hence an alert eye is dispatched by the local port authority.

The problem here is also that there are not many options to choose from in case you drift too much. They entrance channel is narrow and the banks on either side quite steep. So if you are being blown off track then you will touch ground. And that ground is coral with sand on the top. Thus if you drift against the bank you will not sustain much damage as the sand will be take the impact of the contact. But if you would drift over fast or make the turn the wrong way and hit the bank with speed then the hard coral can result in a nice crunching sound with dented plating. Not nice. Hence we like to go stern in first. If we would drift too much then with one good kick ahead on the engines we can get away again.

Sailing about 10 meters from the buoys, which are not real buoys but sticks, so we have room to drift over to the other side if needed.

So we sailed very close to the red buoys, on the high side of the channel, giving us some leeway in case the ship would start to drift. Which is always possible if the wind would suddenly start to blow much stronger than the force 5 to 6 which we had today. But the wind remained its steady self and the ship was safely docked 45 minutes later alongside the pier. We went in all the way to the back to have as much shelter from the wind as possible and we could do so as we were the only ship in port. The forward dock remained empty and that gave the guests a lot of space in the resort.  Always nice if you do not have to wait for the cable car that takes you to the other side of the Resort area.

A nice empty dock and that gives our guests the whole resort to themselves.

This was a full day call and we could stay until 17.00 hrs. as our next port of call is Santo Tomas de Castilla in Guatemala. That is only across the bay and we need the fast speed of 11 knots to make it tomorrow morning at 06.00 hrs. to the pilot station. This port is a tour call, so the guests can go on Eco tours although there is the little town, which is quite cute but limited. Then around the corner is the port of Barrios and we always advise the Ladies not to let the gentlemen go there by themselves.

How tomorrow will work out remains to be seen as there is a fair chance of showers and for the rest an overcast day which will make it warm and humid with the tropical rain forest right on top of the port. Temperature 30oC / 87oF and no wind in the port expected.