We arrived just after 06.00 with a spectacular sun rise behind us. The weather turned out as expected the only thing which we had not hoped for was that all the fishing boats were assembling just outside the port, to go for a fishing derby. The mother ship was calling out the numbers who had checked in and by the time we drifted by, heading towards the anchorage, the count was up to 139 and still going up. Although the authorities were doing their best to keep all the boats together it was a hopeless challenge and the Veendam had to go very slow, to avoid them all. As was expected and as did happen, there were a few of course who wanted to get out of the way but did so by crossing our bow. At for them a safe distance, but for those on the bridge quite scary as the dead angle of view is 45 meters and most fishing boats consider 20 meters more than enough.
The ship had to carefully navigate its way through quite a few of those.
The good thing about it was that the fishing competition emptied out the harbor and that gave more room for our tenders to get in and out. So we dropped the hook and just before 07.00 hrs. we were in full swing. Full swing is a big word; we were trying to swing, as apart from the guests on tours nobody was in a hurry to go ashore. My prediction of yesterday that a lot of guests were not going ashore at all came through as it remained quiet. By 10.00 hrs. the Cruise Director gave up all hope of enticing people to collect a tender ticket and then it was a free for all. Which exactly generated one more tender full of guests. No more than half of all on board decided to have a look at Cabo San Lucas.
Not that the captain minded, it also meant that everybody was back on board on time and the ship could leave the anchorage at 14.00 hrs. It is a tight run up to San Diego and there is the additional challenge of sailing around the South point of the Baja California, with is Sunday sailors, sightseeing boats (whales) and fishermen. That can cost considerable time. Then the ship will try to arrive early in San Diego as we are coming from a non USA port and thus everybody has to go to immigration. An early start is helpful here, especially to get all the pre paper work done.
View from the tender. The port of Cabo San Lucas. This is after most boats went fishing.
In the meantime the four ships tenders kept up the shuttle service with the trainee tender operators running the tenders when empty. Today was a big day as they had to perform under the watchful eye of the officers on the bridge and at the gangway. Tonight they will receive their certificate and on the Eastbound Trans canal they will get a few more tests and then they can be put to work when needed.
Apart from keeping my eye on the trainees, my day was filled with crises management training. When I am on a ship I try to grab the chance and give the Stairway Guides a bit of in-depth training in regards how to handle, obstinate, fearful, obnoxious, scared and panicky Guests in an emergency. We have a few tricks for that, but to get it across some acting is needed and the officers who are normally giving the training are not always comfortable of acting like a fool and getting the rest to act like fools as well. I have no such problems and then the crew is more willing to join in as soon as they see that I am willing to drop my five stripes. And thus we had small far eastern ladies contemplating how to handle big and brawny guests. If it really would happen then the results will be quite scary for those big and brawny guests………..
Tomorrow is the last day of the cruise and most guests will be packing although there are a few who will return with the ship to San Diego. I met one family who joined in Montreal, stayed all the way through, will visit friends in San Diego and then sail back to Florida to spend the winter season there. Not a bad way of living if you have the time to do so.
Tomorrow should be another nice day, with similar weather as today, and as today was nearly cloudless we might have a spectacular sun set tonight.
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