21 Nov. 2016; Mahogany Bay, Roatan,Honduras.

Without much fuss we arrived this morning at 07.00 hrs. at the pilot station of Mahogany Bay in Roatan.  Ahead of us was the Seven Seas Mariner, also nicely on time, so there was no delay in going to the dock.  Mahogany Bay is a construction initiated and designed by Carnival Corporation and therefore it is similar in many ways to Grand Turk Island. Nice pier and right behind it a little resort. Difference for Mahogany Bay is that it has a chair lift which runs from the resort where we dock to the other side, where there is another cruise ship dock and some facilities and which is used if there are three ships in port or if the wind and swell run into Mahogany Bay.

Maybe a boring photo for a reader but this is exciting stuff for a captain. Keeping the red side while going to the dock.

It did not do that today and thus we could happily dock here. What is unusual is the docking procedure. For the dock they have dredged out an entry channel of about 4000 feet long but there is no turning basin and thus the ships back in. In the old days this would only be possible if there would be a tugboat present to help with the steering and coming alongside but in this day and age with Azi-Pods and bow & stern thrusters it really does not matter anymore if you go bow in or stern in.  The only thing you have to be careful about is the current. There is normally a strong current running to the West just in front of the entrance and thus you have to stay close to the red(buoys on the east side of the channel) when coming in to avoid drifting to the shallows which are marked with yellow (danger/wreck) and green (end of channel) buoys. We did just that and slowly went astern to the dock where the Seven Seas Mariner was just finished docking and the linesmen could come over to us. It is always good when a plan comes together.

The whole port. The orange blocks show the slow turn of the Oosterdam and moving in. The blocks pop up again near the dock when the ships speed is coming off.

As Otto is keeping our area nice and quiet and Mahogany Bay is really showing us today what a sheltered bay can do. It is warm today, leaning to very hot and no wind to make it feel a bit more pleasant. So I expect a lot of guests coming back tonight who will be feeling like and imitating a lobster.  I decided to stay on board because of this warmth although the little resort is very pleasant to walk into; and there are a few bars which will take care of you in case the heat is getting to you. But today I ran refresher courses for the lifeboat crews. There have been a few crew changes since Tampa and thus the new lifeboat boat team members have to be brought into tune again with the rest of the remaining team. In the coming days I will work my way through all the various functions in a life boat (Commander, Asst. Commander, Painter line, Riggers, Communicator) so that all the dustiness created by a long vacation is shaken off again. The Training Officer who is supposed to do this has just been promoted and now has an excellent chance to see how this goes.

We will sail tonight at 17.00 hrs. and I will be on the aft mooring deck, showing a new navigator how to run a deck crew. We start with departures as letting go the ropes is easier and eventually we will get to bringing out the lines on arrival and making the decisions of where to put the ropes.

Tomorrow we are in Santo Tomas de Castillo in Guatemala. We will arrive there at 07.00 hrs. but it is a long way in so everybody has to get out of bed early.

Here we are. Observing the birth of Tropical Depression Otto. It took a few days, but here he is. (And luckily remaining where he is for a few days)

In the meantime Otto has arrived. Depression L90 became overnight Tropical Depression 16 and has now become tropical storm Otto. Still Otto is going to stay where he was born for a few days and will then start moving west (supposedly). It will mean we can call at Santo Tomas without any problems and most likely to Costa Maya as well. Next cruise we are going Eastbound and away from whatever mayhem Otto might be up to. Still we keep watching as the westward drift will depend on a high pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico. Thusfar Otto has been doing a good job of bringing us nice weather in Roatan.

According to our friends from the hurricane center:

Tropical Depression 16 has become tropical storm Otto with winds of 50 mph. Otto is stationary and is not expected to move much during the next 24 hours. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 35 miles. Otto remains within an environment of warm water and decreasing vertical wind shear. This should allow Otto to intensify further and Otto could become a hurricane before making landfall over southeast Nicaragua Thursday. Though the system is nearly stationary at this time, it will ultimately slowly drift westward over the next few days as high pressure builds over the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Florida. This will create an easterly steering flow that will take the storm westward.

Otto will bring heavy rainfall over parts of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama during the new few days. There is the potential for flash flooding and there can be mud slides in the higher terrain of these Central America countries.