06 October 2011; Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.

By 03.30 I was woken up by the Officer of the Watch advising me that it was time to poke my nose out of the bridge window again. With the wakeup call came the cheery news that Quetzal port control was advising that there was 20 feet of swell running into the port entrance. A remark like that gets you woken up very fast. The port entrance has a depth of 45 feet, so minus 20 leaves 25 and that is not even enough for the ship to get in, let alone the danger of such a swell. Although I was expecting more swell (there are two hurricanes blowing in the East Pacific, Jovan and Erwin) it should not have been that much. On top of that there was a tropical downpour with strong winds over the port, so my first thought was; this is going to be a day at sea. When I arrived on the bridge, I picked up the VHF and called Port Control myself. The voice of the captain normally results in more action that the scheduled called of the ships watch officer. After a lot of Spanish confusion the 20 feet was downgraded to 12. I was still not happy so I demanded to talk to the pilot. He came on line and advised it was only 4 feet. That I could believe as at that moment a cargo ship the Novograd was coming out. It was being banned to the anchorage to let the cruise ships in to use the dock.  While I was a happy man now, I think that the Novograd captain was less content.

The rain squall moved away as well and so with everything being well in the world, we proceeded to the pilot station. Guatemala and Costa Rica are two countries where a lot of Germans settled around 1900 and started up plantations and the German efficiency has rubbed off there in the cause of the generations and as a result things are organized very well.  Proper pilot boat (in Puerto Chiapas it was a sort of speed boat) two standby tugs (Dutch built, standard Damen design) and a pilot who spoke very good English.

Puerto Quetzal from the air according to google.

As I mentioned yesterday, the port entrance has a 90o turn in it to keep the swell out of the port. As not every ship turns easily, two tugboats are coming out as a precaution and sit in the entrance, to give a push the right way if needed. Not needed in our case, but they were there none the less.  Thus under the watchful eye of pilot and tugs I lined the ship up in the leading lights and slowly sailed into port making the 90o around the inner breakwater and moved towards the cargo dock.

Puerto Quetzal has as a cruise terminal, it was opened a number of years ago by the Zaandam, but alongside it was the Oceanic, (ex Oceanic Home Lines, ex Starship Oceanic and Big Red Boat) now sailing for a Japanese organization called Peace Boat.  They say that they go around the world to bring peace, brotherhood and understanding to the world and the name PEACE BOAT is in big letters on the side. Plus I saw a new logo proclaiming that the aim for this is 2015. Just by looking at Iraq and Somalia that looks like a very challenging date to accomplish.  Still they were there overnight and that meant that they had the cruise terminal.  The Statendam and the Norwegian Pearl, coming in after us, were docked at the cargo terminal.

We mainly call here for the tours. This is Mayan territory and a large number of tours are in relation to this, even a few full day tours.  For the non- tour people the Hotelmanager had organized a shuttle service to the cruise terminal at the other side of the harbor, which has a shopping area.  Being docked in a cargo port gives guests quite often the only chance in their life to see a regular port in operation. The days that you could just walk in and have a look are long gone. So to observe the hustle and bustle of a cargo port from the convenience of one’s balcony is not such a bad thing either.

The Norwegian Pearl and we were leaving at the same time and the Pearl being closer to the breakwater got the chance to get out first.  That worried me a little bit as with the sunset, dark clouds started to gather at the horizon and rain could be seen falling in the far distance. Those clouds normally carry wind with it and that is not nice when you have to make that 90o turn out of the port, and before that swing the ship around in the harbor itself. Luckily the rain held off until we were outside. While passing the sea buoy our friend the Novograd was back on its way in towards the dock that I had just vacated.

We will now spend two days at sea before we come to the highlight of our cruise, the Panama Canal. We should have very good weather, partly cloudy all the way. The only thing is there might be an increase in swell caused by the two hurricanes. They have gone north in the meantime but they have left a wave field behind and I do not know how fast it will dampen out.

Note: for your reading pleasure I have uploaded the memoires of Captain Haagmans. In book form it covers over 130 pages. In blog form a little bit less, still it should give those of you who are interested an hour or so of good reading.