11 Feb. 2015; Mahogany Bay, Roatan Honduras.

Honduras has not been in the spotlight in a very favorable way in the past months with all the violence and political issues. Normally it means that cruise ships pull out straight away as such things are not part of a safe and carefree vacation. In this situation it does not matter as Roatan is an island off the coast of Honduras which makes it much easier to exercise a good security program. All the troubles are on the main land and as a result the resorts on the island are safe and offer an enjoyable stay.

Holland America has been calling at Roatan for about 10 years or so, maybe even a bit longer. Originally we went to Coxen Hole Bay, where there was a sort of cruise ship dock. If you were the 2^nd ship in, then you had a real problem as the anchor depth was about 75 meters (over 225 ft.) and you could not pay out too much anchor as the swinging space was quite limited. Not nice to be if there was a chance of thunder storms.

Mahogany Bay from Sea with a Carnival ship docked inside

Then some bright spark at Carnival Corporation came up with the idea to develop Mahogany Bay, which was just an inlet, or better said a water outlet for a river on the North side of the Island.  A new pier was built which can handle one Mega Liner and a Medium size one at the same time. Thus Holland America shifted to Mahogany Bay and the Ryndam arrived here at sunrise to ensure that it could dock first at the aft part of the dock.  The entrance is just wide enough to sail a ship in, you cannot swing around and thus the Ryndam went in stern way to the aft part of the pier, leaving space for the Emerald Princess to take the forward part of the dock which is slightly longer.

The Forward part of the Pier with the Emerald Princess alongside

I had never been here before and thus I went ashore and here is the report.  It is a resort, a cruise ship resort, and thus the direct area outside the ship is given over to Duty Free. You are led in & out, through the Duty Free area in the same way as the airports do.

Then you have to walk up a gentle slope and you come to a square. Again surrounded by Duty Free, Diamonds International, local Arts and Crafts and a large open air Pub which specializes in cocktails.  It is nice and clean and well maintained with ample security around dressed as Police from the Colonial days.

A bit unusual: A ski lift in the Tropics. No snow or skier to be seen.

From there it is a 10 minute walk to the beach which is very nice and that is where most of the Princess Guests went and a fair sprinkling of ours.  Lots of water sport activities. You do not have to walk, you can take the ski lift and see the Jungle below while on the way to the beach.

A nice touch which I was really impressed with.

The Central shopping square. Same as anywhere else in the Carib, but much less hectic.

From the square you can get to downtown by Taxi. The taxi drivers are very creative in calculating their fares, so you have to negotiate to get to Downtown but in this case I would prefer to take an excursion.

There is one that goes to an area with 3 feet long Iguana’s, animals you normally do not see in your home town, unless one has escaped from the neighbors. All in all a nice place to call at.

Holland America has designed this cruise in such a way that there is a variation in ports.  Mahogany Bay and Costa Maya for the resort life, Santo Tomas for the Shore Excursions (Maya History) and Key west; well because it is Key West.  (Does that place fit in any category???)

The Ryndam at the aft dock. Please note the nicely dressed Security Guard on the right.

We stayed until after sunset, first because we had to wait for the Emerald Princess to leave and secondly as we are currently doing a Light Ship Survey.  Every 5 years it is compulsory for a ship to establish its weight. This to ensure that our stability calculations are correct.

Cruise ships are constantly remodeled, crew tries to get, and leaves, all sort of things on board. The ship is constantly painted and it all adds to an increase in the total weight. As we cannot put a ship on a set of scales; we do it the other way around. We have a surveyor board from Lloyds and a stability expert from the company and together they go through the whole ship calculating how much weight there is in the tanks, in the lockers, in the store rooms and what the changes have been made in the last 5 years and how that affects the weight.  That takes 4 to 5 days to accomplish on a ship the size of the Ryndam. Before they can then calculate the true weight of the ship, you have to see how deep the ship sits in the water.

Archimedes figured out, about 2000 years ago, that the weight of an object in the water is the same as the weight of the displaced water volume. By reading the Draft marks of the ship, the weight can be ascertained within certain limits. As we know the volume of the part of the hull that is submerged and together with the observations around the ship, the true weight can be established. For checking the draft marks, the ship had to come off the dock, so that the two gentlemen could check all the draft marks (portside, starboard and center stern) at the same time.  We had ample time to get to Santo Tomas de Castillo in Guatemala, it is just around the corner, so we had the option to do it now and it was a nice for the guests to see two gentlemen with clipboards puttering around the ship on a small barge.

Tomorrow we are in Santo Tomas and we dock at the Container Terminal, no doubt with some other (cargo) ships alongside as well. It will be an early arrival as the Tours to the Maya Ruins leave very early. The weather will be partly overcast and that should keep the temperatures down a little bit.