17 November 2012; At Sea.

The more you sail on a route, the easier it is to predict what you can expect in a certain area. At the same time you question yourself more if what you expect does not happen. Before we left Puerto Caldera the bridge team had discussed the weather that was to be expected during the next stretch of the cruise while sailing towards Huatalco. We were going to pass two areas with strong winds. The first one, while sailing past Lake Nicaragua, the 2^nd one, while sailing through the Gulfo de Tehantepec. In both areas’ the winds are caused by gaps in the mountain range that divides the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific Ocean influence area. If you know the average wind and direction in the Caribbean Basin, then you can quite accurately figure out what the wind will be on the Pacific side. Not within one or two knots but definitely in the 5 to 10 knots margin. That helps with the planning and we can in advance select the tanks that we can fill with sea water to keep the ship upright from being pushed over by the wind.

This morning around 04.00 we started to pass the Lake Nicaragua area and the expected outflow of wind was there. Weather charts and our own predictions based on having sailed past here before turned out to be right and we observed winds of about 35 knots. Nothing to worry about for the ship, except that we kept the doors to the outside decks closed for a little while. 35 knots of wind is not much of a problem to walk about in, especially if the wind is on the side, but pushing open the heavy wooden doors to the decks, against the wind, is another story. So by 06.00 it was all over and the only thing that was left was a low swell. Peculiar to see, as you do not expect swell to come from the landside but from across the Pacific. But it has been breezy for awhile in the West Caribbean Sea and thus the outflow over Lake Nicaragua has been able to build up quite a nice swell.

What did not completely work out as we had expected was the wildlife. When we are past the windy area, it is much easier to spot wildlife as it is not obscured by the white caps on the crest of the waves which tend to distort things for the view. Thus the expectation was for plenty of birds, sea turtles, porpoises and the occasional whale. The navigators spotted one or two whales during the day and we saw plenty of sea turtles but after 11 am the birds suddenly disappeared. All morning they had been carrying out acrobatics near the bow of the ship while pursuing the flying fish. There were more birds than there was fish and thus there was the occasional altercation between the birds on the hunt.

But by 11 am all the birds were gone and without any apparent reason. Our distance to the land had not increased that much, the flying fish where still there, and wind and weather had not changed either. We scanned the area around us but the sea was completely void of them. A mystery we will probably never solve. One of the officers came up with the theory that around this time we passed the Honduran Border and that the Nicaraguan birds probably did not have a visa for the air space of the country next door. As nobody could come up with a better answer, we decided to go along with that one.

During the coming night we will pass through the Gulfo de Tehantepec. Expected wind in Salina Cruz on the Mexican shore is forecast to be around 26 knots. Adding 25 knots to it, it means that we can expect about 50 knots. That always works out for when we sail from Huatalco to Puerto Chiapas. We are now going the other way and are about 30 miles further to the south. That distance might reduce the intensity a little bit as the wind will lose some of its velocity over the water and can also fan out over a larger area.

Still I am predicting that we will come across 45 knots of winds at the least. Thus we have prepared the ship accordingly, advised the guests about it and have the tanks on the starboard side empty for filling up when the wind starts to push us over.