05 April 2013; Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.

This is always a very early morning arrival due to the departure time of the flight tour to the Maya ruins of Tikal. Luckily it is just around the corner from Puerto Chiapas so we trundle towards it with the sedate speed of 12 knots.  With a beautiful wind still morning we lined the ship up  for entering the port and slowed down to let the pilot hop on board. He is a compulsory fixture of the whole sequence but as he and his fellow brethren only have cargo experience, I prefer to do the whole thing myself. Bringing in cargo ships in the port seems to consist of hooking up two tugboats and pushing and shoving the ship around until it is alongside and with cruise ships it works a little different. We have our own internal tugboats, the thrusters, plus very sensitive Becker rudders and then it takes the gentle touch of somebody who is used to this equipment.  So with the pilot enjoying his cappuccino and plundering the Danish pastry plate, we sailed into the port, spun around and went astern to the cruise terminal where we docked at 0500.  20 minutes later the tour departed and they would be sitting in the plane 15 minutes later, waiting for sunrise. Puerto quetzal international airport does not have runway lights and thus the pilot is required to wait until just before sunrise, when he/she can see the end of the runway.

That tour is back at 14.30 and then I am in a hurry to pull out as the stretch to Panama is a tight one. As the cruise terminal dock in a side harbor of the port, it is nice and quiet there and that makes it an ideal port for drills. No problem with swell or passing ships; so we can lower the boats and play around to our hearts content. The only restriction there is that we have to stay within 50 meters of the ship, the local navy is very concerned about a breach of security and cruise ship drills were not factored into their security plan when it was designed. The navy was in a complete frenzy today as they had three visiting warships from Taiwan. A Supply/oiler, a frigate, and a combat assault ship, all clearly from vintage American design and build. They will be in port until Sunday for some R & R and they had a sort of shuttle bus system going to the nearest larger town of Antigua.

The Crew Office on B deck. With the Crew officer Mr. Maman Maruf sitting behind the desk and the Crew clerk Mr. Pangeran Manalu standing. To the left is just visible the yellow safe for all the crew passports and seamans books.

Another no so well known function is that of the Crew Officer. This is in my opinion a much under rated office where an enormous amount of work gets done with sometimes very little appreciation. There is a crew officer and a crew clerk and they are responsible for all the clearance paperwork for the ship in all the ports that they visit.

Then they do the whole crew administration, which includes the crew wages, the signing on, signing off and basically deal with any operational question the crew is throwing at them.  On a cruise like this, where we have a lot of sea days, the work is not so hectic but in Europe where there is a port every day, with everyday another country and thus different paper requirements, it is a very hectic affair.

For the crew the most important part is the administration of the wages, especially the money that goes home. Most crewmembers have a standard amount of money going home every month, most of the time about 50 to 80% of their wages and the arrival of those wages is watched carefully. As everybody now has email, a late arrival of the money is known on the ship within 24 hours and if the money comes in late drama tends to ensue in the Crew Office. Not that they can do anything about it; it is most of the time the International Banking system or the local banks that create the problem. A national holiday in Italy can affect the depositing of the money in a Philippine bank account and of course a crewmember on board who thinks Ship-Seattle-Manila has a hard time understanding that.

Most of my dealings with them are for signing on/off of the crew. Checking the seaman’s books and the licenses so the ship can operate in accordance with the legal requirements. Then there is the requirement that each crew member logs their daily working hours, so that I can keep an eye on if they get enough rest and do not work too much. When a crewmember forgets to log his/her hours, the crew officer reports that to me and then the crewmember has to write an explanatory letter with apology to the captain. Those letters are very interesting to read as it shows quite clearly the perspective that each nationality has in regards to authority. Dutch letters are to the point, American letters sometime question “what the fuss is about”, Indonesian and Pilipino letters are in the most flowery English you can think of and those from behind the ex-Iron Curtain tend to promise me the world if I promise not to fire them. A psychiatrist could write a dissertation about it. Oh yes, and I had one letter from French origin, and that one came written in French, as they knew that the captain could read it so why bother with a inferior language.

By 14.30 the good ship Statendam raced out of the port and headed for Panama, where we do an evening call at Fuerte Amador before going through the Canal the next day. It is a tight schedule as I will have a lot of current against me when sailing through the Gulf of Nicaragua. There is another cold front blowing in the Caribbean Sea and that funnels over Lake Nicaragua into the Pacific Ocean. Wind and current are then pushing NW and that is against our SE course.   It will be pedal to the metal all the way.