We made our timely approach and saw that the Island Princess was also on time. She had announced a pilot station time of 07.00 hrs but she arrived at 07.15. As we had scheduled ourselves for 07.30 anyway it worked out fine and we lined ourselves up behind her with a 3 mile distance. My navigator had calculated that if the ship travelled at a speed of 12 miles and you divided that by 4, then we would be able to cover 3 miles in 15 minutes and thus that was a good distance. Isn’t navigation wonderful? It even worked out as there was no current. The pilot hopped on board and after a discussion about where to go (Cartagena) how to go there (through the entrance) and how to do it safely (not to hit the Island Princess) we sailed into Cartagena Bay through the narrow entrance of Boca Chica. The Island Princess is also on a tight schedule as she has to make the Panama Canal tomorrow morning and thus her captain is in a hurry getting in and out. With 3,500 passengers on board he has some impressive logistics to deal with. Continue reading

At 2 am in the morning Flamingo Signal Station announced that the pilot boarding time would be 04.30 and that meant heaving up the anchor at 03.30. Flamingo signal is the control tower on the Pacific side that deals with all the Canal Traffic. On the Atlantic side it is called Cristobal Signal Station. Normally it does not take that long but here at Fuerte Amador we are anchoring in almost solid grey sea mud that clings to the chain as a tight fitting glove. So we have to heave the chain in very slowly and spray the mud off with the regular anchor wash (four nozzles) but also with two extra fire hoses handled by the sailors. If we do not do that then we have a few tons of mud going into the chain locker, eventually not leaving enough room for the chain itself. Continue reading

The Caribbean Sea is still a blow hole at the moment and that meant, when turning into the gulf of Panama, that we had 35 knots of adverse winds on the bow. Not good for my speed. It slowed me down with about 1.5 miles in the hour and that means an early arrival in Fuerte Amador did not happen. So we just made it on time and then with having to start up the tender service it was 30 minutes past the official arrival time. Not much I could do about it, the weather does not always follow the Holland America Cruise brochure. (Otherwise it would be sunshine and wind still weather all the time, plus always a nice lady on the beach to look at with nobody else around) The one thing I could do and did was to race down to the anchorage as fast as was safely possible. Today we were in luck as the Panama Canal anchorage was nearly empty so I could cut across the area instead of having to go around it. That saved at least 10 minutes. An unpleasant obstacle was the fact that a small oil tanker had parked itself on the regular cruise ship anchorage and I had to anchor further out; which increased the tender distance. Still all went well and with using the stern thruster I could create a good lee for the tenders and the tender operation went smoothly. Continue reading

When the Tehantepecer blows near Hualtalco there is a similar phenomenon near Nicaragua, only less severe. Tehantepec suffers from this funnel wind that comes through a mountain gap and then increases in velocity due to that gap. That wind is produced by Cold Fronts in the Caribbean Sea, if the wind flow is South West. In Nicaragua there is a similar gap in the mountain ridge which is called Lake Nicaragua, because the “gap” is much wider the funnel wind is less severe. So instead of 50 to 60 knots we only get 25 to 30 knots, and that is what we had this morning when we sailed through the sea area West of Nicaragua. That wind speed does not bother us that much apart from the fact that it slows us down. The wind blows over the surface and enhances the NW current that is already flowing through this area. NW and we are going SE, so it is against us. By 0700 the ship was barely making 17 knots over the ground while it did 19 knots through the water. Not good for a captain who wants to be on time and is on a tight schedule to start with. By 11 am we were past this area and within 15 minutes the wind had died down from 25 knots to 2 knots as we came under the Costa Rican Coast. It took the current a bit longer to ease off but by late afternoon we were down to the .5 knots that is normal for this area. That means that for the rest of the day we will be holding the schedule and hopefully we will go a little bit in the plus. When we enter the Gulf of Panama we get another adverse wind and current flow and by then I hope to be sufficiently “in the plus” for it all to balance out. Continue reading

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. Continue reading

With Tehantepec lying dormant until tonight, our crossing was nice and peaceful and so we arrived at 07.00 hrs. in the morning at the Puerto Chiapas pilot station. My interest was immediately drawn to the breakers at the entrance of the fairway; to find out how much swell was running into it. This is a sort of entrance canal and constructed by dredging out a natural river bed. As a result that river is forever depositing silt in the canal and permanent dredging takes place.

The nick in the south breakwater is what I look at. If the swell spouts over the breakwater, than it can be dangerous to enter the port. Continue reading

Huatalco is a bit low on cruise ship visits this year; the pilot is bitterly complaining. (I have the vague idea that there is a sort of bonus system in place for the number of calls and thus it directly affects him) Hard to understand as it is a great resort to call at.. But the cruise ship calls are down this year from 44 to 23 and that hits the local economy quite hard. Although it is a resort that is also very popular with the Mexicans, the influx of foreign currency does have a considerable impact on the local community. I from my side do not mind it all, the less ships that are calling, the greater the chance that there is no other vessel to share the port with. That means that I have four options about how to go in. West side, nose in or out or East side, nose in or out. Today it was West Side nose in, as explained yesterday, to give the Security Officer shade on his gangway. With a noon time temperature of 94oF (34oC) and the sun beating down, quite a good thing to do. And so we did. Continue reading

Another glorious day at sea with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80’s. Hardly any real wind and that made being on the deck very pleasant as the ship produced a gentle breeze with its own speed.  It was a happy world today. The only ones who were moaning and groaning a little bit were the navigators as with the nice weather , regular and sports fishermen, were out  in force and moving “all over the place”. With not much consideration to a large passengership that comes charging down the road. Thus a careful watch had to be kept and a close eye on these boats to make sure we did not hit any of them. The big problem is that applying the Rules of the Road does not always work, as they are not necessarily keeping to those rules. Thus you try a: to keep a very good distance away from them, so whatever they decide to do next it won’t create a dangerous situation; and b. keep monitoring them to make sure that when they are not moving, they won’t start moving at the last moment. (“Hey honey let’s take a picture of that big boat……………..”) For the rest the bridge had turtles, porpoises and the occasional whale to enjoy. Continue reading

By 6 am we were making the approach to the far end of the Bahia de Banderas where Puerto Vallarta is located for a 07.00 pilot boarding time. Normally the sailing into the fairway to get into the turning basin is quite uneventful as it is basically one course to follow while slowing down to about 2 knots. This time the operation was made more exciting by two whales. When the pilot was approaching we saw them swimming sedately from port to starboard and they were well clear by the time we lined up for the entrance. The first peculiar thing was that it was two Fin Whales. They are seldom seen near the coast and even less often in shallow waters in the far end of a bay. But they swam to the East and away from us, so all was well. Then suddenly they surfaced near the bow after having made a U-turn under water. So I stopped the ship and waited from them to gracefully move away to the West and hopefully to open sea. An unusual experience as you seldom see Fin Whales; let alone so far inland. Continue reading

I forget yesterday to put in the chartlet of the cruise we are currently doing. So here it is. This is our regular East Panama Canal cruise of which the ship has done 4 this year. Last year it was six but as the company is phasing in longer cruises, the number of trans canals are getting less. For the coming year 2013/2014 it will be less again as there is an extra South Pacific cruise, and a long cruise down to the west coast of South America with a three day stay over in Callao; and also a Mexican cruise going into the Sea of Cortez. So it will not be until 2014 that we are going back to Florida. The requests from guests living in the San Diego area are getting louder and louder for more cruises from their home port and the company is obliging. We have now two ships calling there in the winter; the Statendam and the Zaandam and things are going well. At least as far as the occupancy rate goes. We are full each cruise. I have no insight in the pricing  as such, but I do not hear too much moaning and groaning so marketing and sales must be reasonably pleased. All reasons to be very happy. Continue reading