Today is the last day of the cruise and the 2^nd sea day since we left Puerto Vallarta. As we are going north and as we are in the middle of the cold water current now (The California Current to be precise) the outside temperature is steadily dropping. If, before you hung over the railing to have a cool breeze, now it is time to stay out of the breeze as that breeze is rather too cool. But in the shelter of the ship it was a glorious sunny day and many guests tried to catch a final bit of sunshine before they have to face the reality of a cold winter.

Due to the cool northerly wind and the cool sea water temperature, it was a crystal clear day and the mountains of California Mexican side, were clearly visible. All sand and dunes, no vegetation what so ever. Not a place to get lost in as the only water you can see is the salt water of the ocean.   For those on the outside decks there was some excitement as the ship sailed past a large group of sailing boats. In the past I have been ranting a few times in my blog about six-pack navigators but these were the professionals. They were sailing a yearly race between San Diego and Cabo San Lucas and I counted at least 25 of them. As the weather had been steady in this area  – very good sailing weather – a lot of them were very close together so it should be a tight finish by the time they get to the port.

For me it was tying up the last loose strings today of my stay on the Veendam. My final lifeboat pupil passed the 2^nd chance exam and the Veendam now has 57 additional experts in lowering a lifeboat.  All my activities onboard have to be reported to the powers in Seattle and that meant an afternoon of hammering away on the computer. Life is never dull with Holland America, mine certainly is not and as of today my sailing schedule has suddenly changed. Instead of visiting a ship in the Caribbean I am flying to South Africa.

Anybody ever been to Luderitz? That is Namibia, north of South Africa. The plan is now as follows: I will be in Seattle until the end of the coming week and then join the ms Rotterdam in Cape Town, South Africa from Nov. 15^th until December 16^th. Lisbon. During that period I will be training new joining officers and induct them in the secrets of Holland America Life.  By the time you read this my schedule on the blog will have been updated. The ms Rotterdam is by that time sailing on her final leg of an Around Africa cruise which started on the 27^th. of September. In the coming days my blogging might be a bit irregular until I can share some insights by gazing up to Table Mountain.

Tomorrow morning, the good ship Veendam will dock in San Diego around 06.15. As we are coming from a non US port there will be a full CBP inspection and in order to not delay the disembarkation, the CBP officers are happy to join us early, as long as we are there as well, and on time. The Veendam will be leaving the same day for a cruise to Hawaii and back. She is basically taking over the cruises from the Statendam from last year and before, as that ship is now, among other things, going up and down the west coast of North & South America to Callao and back.

After a rainy day in Puerto Vallarta, we had a rainy evening at sea. Ex Hurricane Vance was petering out in the entrance to the sea of Cortez and the rain clouds were the last remnants of his presence. During the night we crossed that part that gives access to the Baha California and by early morning we made landfall at Cabo San Lucas. By 0900 we had sailed around Cabo Falso and starting sailing along the shore line of the Californian Peninsula.

Cabo Falso is remarkable for a number of things. First it is called the false cape as it was thought that it was the most southern point of the Californian Peninsula, only to find out shortly after, that Cabo San Lucas as a few more “inches” to the south. But as Cabo Falso is on the South Western tip of the Peninsula you tend to think that it is the furthest point of the land mass. It is not and hence the name Cabo Falso.

The 2^nd thing is that the Cape marks the location where cold sea water currents; meet the warm sea water currents. Therefore we call this cape also the “cold cape”.  The differences in temperatures cause the area to be full of fish which gives rise to Cabo san Lucas port being an important sport fishing center. Whales, especially Humpbacks seem to like this difference in sea water temperature as well and many stop in this area for a while, before heading up the coast to Alaska.  For some reason they do not return in very great numbers in the autumn, maybe because they ate their fill in Alaska and then go straight over to Hawaii.

As a result of this meeting of the currents, the weather is influenced as well. Hurricanes thrive on warm water and not on cold. Reason enough to know that most hurricanes do not come above Cabo Falso, unless they gathered so much momentum on the edge of the warm water that they can self-propel over the cold.  Thus on the other side of Cabo Falso there was nothing to see of any remnants of our old friend Vance.

We will be spending two days at sea, as the distance from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego is just too tight to do it in one.  From Cabo San Lucas, with an early departure, you can make it in one sea day but Puerto Vallarta is too far. Which is a good thing as a real cruise is made up out of a mixture of sea days and port days and I personally think that there should be more sea days than port days. A cruise ship has so much more to offer than just being a convenient hotel hopping from port to port. But to enjoy shipboard life you need sea days.  Nothing to worry about on this cruise, we are finishing this cruise of with two sea days. Just what the doctor prescribed.

Today was the first day of the two and the Cruise Director was in full swing with the Event Staff to create some happy memories for the guests. It is better to leave the ship smiling than with a frown.  I was also instrumental in creating some happy people as it was exam day today for my boat crews.  If the last one passes tomorrow, he needed a second chance,  then 57 crew will have graduated from the Captain Albert Academy as Lifeboat Assistants. This will qualify them as a crewmember to assist the Lifeboat Commander in operating the lifeboat in case of an emergency.  At the moment we are giving the courses for Lifeboat Commander ashore as that is a week of intensive training which has too much impact on the working hours onboard to do it successfully at sea.

Today was a sunny day, with the temperature slowly dropping due to the cold water in which we sail now. That will continue tomorrow until we have slid down the thermometer from 88o F down to about 72oF.  San Diego can of course be much warmer but that  caused by the desert behind the town.

It is always nice when the weather predictions work out and this time they did. Hurricane Vance continued to diminish in strength and stayed on his projected trajectory and the Veendam could nicely stay 200 miles to the south and slip into the Bahia de Banderas. If you look at the chart of Mexico, all the ports are located in bays and inlets, or sheltered behind out cropping’s. Puerto Vallarta is a bit of an anomaly here as it is located very deep in a bay, about 20 miles from the Pacific. Then the port of Vallarta is in yet another small bay created by an estuary of a river not unlike other ports such as Puerto Chiapas.

Bahia de Banderas, or the bay of flags.

That makes Puerto Vallarta very sheltered as long as you can get into the Bahia de Banderas. This we could today and we did not notice much wind, although we did get the rain as predicted. Late last evening, early this morning and a few squalls during the day, so the Bo’sun was a happy camper today. All the salt was gone without having to use the sailors to hose the ship down. Puerto Vallarta also makes the rest of the crew happy, as right outside the Gate is Walmart and Sams Club. Excellent opportunity to stack up on toiletries, chips and other nibbles and in some cases Electronica.

This is a stock photo from the internet, with all the berths in the port occupied. Berth 2 is behind the white cruise ship’s stern on the left.

All day long there was a steady stream of crew going and coming from the shopping Centre across the road. As we were the only ship in, we docked at berth 1, but we as crew prefer berth 2. There is a Judas Gate in the security fence there and that makes the distance from berth 2 to Walmart less than 500 yards. It is literally right across the street. I spoke to a couple of Germans today, who ended up in Walmart due to the rain and they were highly amazed to see a very American supermarket in Mexico and nearly all the shoppers being crew. Maybe it rained too much for the locals. I did not make it ashore today, as training continued. Topic of interest today was: Helicopter Evacuations. Every ship has limited medical facilities. We do not have the space to sail around with a full-fledged hospital. The setup is to provide E&R and to keep people alive until they reach a medical Centre which can provide specialist treatment. 99% of the medical disembarks happen in the next port of call or at the end of the cruise.

The 1% happens enroute. Sometimes we can stop and a boat can come out, sometimes we have to deviate and make an extra port call and sometimes we have to ask the help of Search And Rescue (SAR) authorities such as the Coastguards of various countries. As many cruise ships sail along the coast of the USA, the USCG if quite often called upon to help the ships out. Once a SAR Centre has agreed to help, then the whole machinery on board comes in action. Medical will do their own thing but round 80 people are involved to make sure it happens and that it happens safely. It is not an everyday occurrence, which means you cannot do it on routine and also not every crewmember has experienced one before. So it has to be trained.

Sometimes we do a real exercise (except having a real helicopter there) and sometimes we do a table top, to run through the scenario and point out the pitfalls and the bottle necks. 90% of those pitfalls are Crowd Control related and the other 10% is the eagerness of officers and crew to start helping out and do things that are not in their purview. I have seen it that Hotel Directors suddenly start help carrying stretchers while normally they would never do that, and they should not. We have specially trained stretcher teams for that. The Hotel Directors function is to coordinate his/her staff, so that it all gets done properly and safely.

Most of that is keeping the guests and curious crew away from the scene …………..and from view points where the loading of the helicopter can be seen. Nothing is more irritating for a helicopter pilot than to have a 1000 flashes go off as everybody starts up their camera’s and phones. Today we did a table top as many of the crew were new to this. Next step will be to do a drill, which is always great fun as it takes place on the outside decks where everybody can really mess around with the fire hoses.

Early tomorrow morning, we will pass Cabo San Lucas, no doubt under a rain cover left by Vance and then sail up the coast of the Californian Peninsula. I have to start thinking about packing as it looks like that I will be finally leaving the ship in San Diego. I was scheduled to be on board for 14 days that turned into 47 days.

Today we spend the day at sea as it is a long distance from Huatalco to Puerto Vallarta. Although it looks dwarfed by the USA when seeing it on the map, Mexico is a large country which stretches several hundred miles from South to North and as Huatalco is near the south border and Puerto Vallarta about 2/3 up the coast we have to spend a day at sea to get there.

The most important question of the day was: What was Vance doing or what was he going to do. (I suppose that a hurricane is a he, if it has a male name and a she if it has a female name) Well Vance had finally made up his mind and was slowly moving towards the coast of Mexico. The most likely trajectory is now that he will make land fall somewhere north of the Bahia de Banderas in which Puerto Vallarta is located.  That would be bad news, if it was not for the fact that Vance is weakening and is expected to come down to a tropical storm or less.  On our way to Puerto Vallarta we will remain at least a 150 miles away from the stormy area and by the time we leave P.V again, the winds should be down to about 20 knots in the area of Cabo San Lucas, where we will then finally pass its path. We will notice the swell though as that always coves a larger area than the wind.

If Vance would have maintained his strength and then would have started to move; then the situation would have been different. With a full blown hurricane in the vicinity you do not go into a bay with the chance that the hurricane might block the entrance, or worse, follow you inside. If Vance would have moved as predicted, North East, then the Veendam would have moved North West and sailed around it at a safe distance. That would have cost us the Port Call of Puerto Vallarta but you do not take chances with a hurricane. But Vance is a good boy and is giving up the fight so we can continue our cruise as planned. We might get a bit more rain fall that we would have expected for this time of the year but the people in the Bahia de California won’t mind that I think.

I spent my day on teaching Crowd Control again. We have a lot of special teams on board who all have a special task to fulfill during an emergency and most of them have to deal with people while executing those tasks. One of those teams is the Evacuation Team under the leadership of the Security Officer. During an emergency they are responsible for evacuating cabins near the Restricted Zone (where the emergency is) and then act as Guardians to keep everybody out of the area. (As everybody now walks around with a Smart Phone, that has become a very busy job, as everybody wants to take a photo of the emergency)

This team is made up from Housekeeping crew, those who you see vacuuming the staircases, carrying tables etc. General Purpose Attendant, Housekeeping. It is the first step on the ladder of a career in the housekeeping department. The biggest challenge is to instill in them enough confidence to be forceful against other crew members and or guests. Partly as it is all new to them and partly as we are a service orientated business, where you are friendly and not brusque. Still in an emergency only the results count and that means sending people away from the danger zone and also stopping crew, even if in higher rank.

It gives a lot of satisfaction to see after an hour that a timid and friendly Indonesian is turning into a roaring lion of a guardian as soon as he or she realizes what you can do with just a few small tools and attitude, and they love it. Finally the chance to throw one’s weight around, while serving a good cause.

During the next fire drill, I will play – a difficult passenger – and then they can yell at me and order me away. And I think they will do it as well.

So the good ship Veendam will arrive in Puerto Vallarta at 0800 tomorrow morning, without having being bothered by Vance the dissipating hurricane. (Unless he changes his mind again during the coming night) I expect an overcast day and if Vance keeps moving as he currently does then he will be pushing a lot of rain showers ahead of him and over Puerto Vallarta. That will keep the temperature down and will make our Bo ‘sun happy as he has been complaining about all the salt on the ship. To make a ships Bo ‘sun happy, you have to give him a good downpour on the ship every morning at 0500 hrs. He might get it this time.

The Tehantepeccer was present, very much so.  Around midnight it started to blow and by 2 am the ship was in the middle. As it is a funnel wind, it was quiet again by 4 am when the ship sailed out of the funnel.  The peculiar thing is that the wind whips up to 50, 60, 70 knots and the ship remains as steady as a rock as it is a land wind. As long as the ship is close to the shore, the waves cannot gather any momentum and it is just very stormy but without the motion that makes a storm so bad.   Although we have the weather forecasts, the big question always is where the vortex is and what the angle is. The more the angle is towards the South West, the bigger the chance that Huatalco can be affected. This time the wind stopped around 04.00 in the morning and with still 3 hours of steaming to go there was a fair chance that the waves would not curve into Huatalco bay.

They did not. It was nice and calm. And thus the Veendam could happily dock at 08.00 hrs. in the bay. There is room for 2 ships at the pier but we were the only one and the guests had the whole little resort to themselves.  Since Acapulco is out of the question, this is my favorite resort on the West Coast of Mexico.  Acapulco was always wonderful but now it is suffering from the drug wars in Mexico and it is not really a safe place. Even downtown seems to be affected and thus the cruise ships stay away. It must cost the locals a lot of money and those who are losing out are most likely not the ones who profit from the drug trade.

A very nice sheltered bay.

The only issue with Huatalco is that it is enclosed on three sides. Only sea wind can get in and if there is no sea wind then it is very warm in the bay. Very toasty so the speak.  And today was a very warm day. I felt sorry for the Mexican soldiers who were guarding the ship. While in Mexican ports there is always a navy boat around the ship and most of the time it is an open boat. Even when you are used to warm weather, sitting there in army fatigues with the sun belting down upon you cannot be much fun. At the same time you also get the reflection from the water, a double whammy so to speak, making it very warm.

By mid afternoon it was time to leave again and our next port of call is Puerto Vallarta. Now hurricane Vance is becoming more and more important. It is still sitting there out in the ocean and it is not moving very much. The predictions are that Vance should move to the mainland, somewhere between Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta. Those are the predictions, as that is what most storms do here. But Vance is not really moving and that means that there are other options.  It could move to open sea, it could just blow itself out, and it could move a bit north over colder water and loose intensity. Everything is possible. We just have to wait. The big question is……………….what is Vance going to do ??

The most likely path, based on previous patterns, but by no means certain

Puerto Chiapas is located just over the border from Guatemala and thus located in the extreme south west of Mexico.  The mountain ranges of what will eventually become the Rocky Mountains can be seen in the far distance but this area is what I would call flatlands. Rich soil which is cultivated extensively with Fruits and Vegetables. Even the pilot has a mango farm when he is not occupied with getting cruise ships in and out. A river that flows through this fertile land has given rise to the port of Puerto Chiapas. The good thing is that there was already an established estuary; the bad thing is that it is constantly silting up as the river brings a lot of brown soil towards the sea. As there is hardly any flow in the river, the soil has time to settle right in the entrance of the harbor.  Because of that there is a dredger permanently in residence to clear away any silt banks in the entrance which are constantly forming, especially after a few rainy days upstream.

Then there is one more challenge and that is a challenge that gives captains a real headache: Swell. The entrance of the port is NE/ SW and if the ocean swell is in the same direction then that swell builds up the moment it rolls over the silted areas. A wave goes up and goes down and that means that if the wave goes up, it adds to the room you have under the keel (What we call that UKC or Under Keel Clearance) but when the wave goes down, it reduces the available water depth with whatever height the wave has.

As we had some waves yesterday in Puerto Quetzal the big question was what is the direction of that swell at Puerto Chiapas? Well the direction was good. It ran across the port entrance instead of into it. Thus between the breakwaters there was no swell and thus there was the regular water depth of at least 10.5 meters under the keel. Take the draft of the Veendam of 7.8 meters and you have at least 2.7 meters left under extreme low water circumstances; so always much more during normal days.

That made the Veendam zip into port without any hindrance followed by a happy warm day alongside.  Navigation wise it was less of a happy day. The Tehuantepeccer is blowing and that means that tonight there will be a lot of wind around the ship. As it is a land based wind, it generates a lot less swell than a storm in the open sea. It can go up to hurricane force winds but normally it blows between 50 and 60 knots which is still a heavy storm but it does not feel like it as the ship hardly moves.

Red is the wind flow and black is land. The darker the red, the stronger the wind

A Tehuantepeccer starts to blow when a high pressure system forms in the lower part of the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula. Then if you have a low pressure situation in the Pacific an air flow starts to go west. Right between Puerto Chiapas and Huatalco there is a gap in the mountain ranges on top of the port of Salina Cruz. That gap creates a funnel wind and what has started out as a fresh breeze of 20 knots is suddenly being amplified into a severe storm.  The further into the Pacific Ocean, the more swell it generates. To avoid being affected by the swell, the ships creep closer under the coast and that is what the Veendam will do tonight. So watching the anemo meter if the wind force goes up and up, the captain will change course closer and closer to the coast so the ship will not be pushed over by the wind and be rocked about by the swell. Once past the vortex the ship can then angle away bringing the wind onto the stern and set a safe course for the next port.

We have a Tehuantepeccer so often that dealing with this phenomenon is pure routine and as long as the guests stay inside there will be no danger to them whatsoever.

Something more unusual is the fact that this wind is feeding the creation of hurricane Vance, that is churning off the coast further up. We are safely behind it but the question is where will the hurricane go?  The Bridge Team will be keeping a close eye on that one in the coming days.

Tomorrow we are in Huatalco de Santa Cruz. This port is normally not affected by the Tehantepec winds, but it can be affected by swell that bounces off the coast and then runs into this beautiful harbor.  We will see tomorrow morning. We are expecting another hot Mexican day and if the local wind is not from the sea, cooling things down, then it will be a very toasty day as well.

We approached Puerto Quetzal by 09.00 in the morning and were docked shortly after. That shortly after was achieved by scooting straight in, instead of swinging around and docking nose out, something we normally do during early arrivals.  The call at Puerto Quetzal is built around the fly tour to the Maya ruins. The airfield that is used is day light only. The plane has to take off and land during day light hours as the airport has no night landing facilities.  Thus when we have an early arrival, the captain has plenty of time to swing around in the dark and still dock on time without endangering the timely take off of the plane.  Normally we have it that well organized that the guests are sitting in the plane and 5 minutes later there is Twi -light and as soon as the pilot can see the end of the run way, off he goes.  With a day light arrival, it makes sense to get the tour on the road & off the ground as quickly as possible, hence going straight in and turning on the departure.

Radar capture showing the shape of the port and the breakwater entrance

The port of Puerto Quetzal is in an L shape, where two rivers meet and have a joint exit to the sea. Through the years a complete port has been dug out and in one leg of the L is the container port and in the other leg a tanker port and a cruise terminal.  The port is protected from the ocean swell by two breakwaters and you sort of zig zag through. Not completely, you can with making a little curve, sail in a fairly straight line to the cruise terminal dock.  This is a floating pontoon, so it goes up and down with the tides and thus with the ship and the gangway is always in the best position.

The cruise terminal floating pontoon

As the breakwaters do not completely protect the port, at least not the area where the cruise terminal is located, there can at times be a low swell running in. Not a problem unless you want to lower lifeboats. And I was going down with the boats twice today to do the practical part of the lifeboat training class.

We managed one group and then I considered it too dangerous. The swell was building up to 2 feet and that means that the lifeboat, when coming back, is also going up and down under the blocks with amplitude of 2 feet.  Lifeboat systems are designed to release lifeboats as quickly and safely as possible. They are not designed to do that the other way around. Hooking in the Falls in which the lifeboat hangs is a hairy affair when there is swell and thus I prefer to do it safely, when the sea is calm. We will try again tomorrow in Puerto Chiapas.

While I am on board the ships, there is always the challenge to find an empty cabin for me. We have service staff cabins on board but they are always full, with one or the other technician coming for a repair, service or upgrade.  It means that I am parked somewhere in cabin that was not sold (seldom) or when there is a no- show (with the average age of our guests a common occurrence). So even when the ship is full, there is space for me somewhere. It means that I am becoming an expert in Holland America cabins and locations. From those in the depth of the dungeons to those at the lofty heights of the Suite Decks.

I personally prefer an inside cabin, as I can then sleep whenever I need to, there is no noise coming in from the outside and as there is no sunlight shining on the window/porthole it is easier to maintain a steady cabin temperature without having to fiddle all the time with the A.C. and then wake up freezing in the night, when the ship cools down. No, a good bed and a good shower and I am a happy camper but I am working.  Of cause when sailing with my wife on vacation that changes as she does like a window and a much larger cabin with a balcony or a suite.

See the yellow rim on top of the cans

It is interesting to follow the cabin service and the hotel logic behind it. I have a vast array of soft drinks in the cabin and if I drink one, the next morning at 0900, a new one pops up to make the total the same again. One thing I would like to share with you; is that recently we have gotten Coca Cola cans on board with the label:  Only for Airline and Maritime Consumption.  I have never seen that before. Special Cola and Sprite for those who travel.  I wonder if they put something in it, which makes you less fast air sick or sea sick?

Tomorrow we are in Puerto Chiapas, Mexico, which is just over the border from Guatemala. The weather looks the same again Hot and sunny.  The hurricane that I wrote about a few days ago never materialized but now we are expecting the Tehuantepeccer wind to blow. How strongly is something we will find out tomorrow evening. And behind there is something else brewing…………………….

Due to the distance from Puntarenas to Corinto, it is not possible to arrive any earlier than 0900 at the pilot station. And so it was done accordingly. The captain kept the pedal to the metal and we nicely arrived on time. From there it is about an hour to the dock as it involves swinging on arrival. Whether that happens depends a little bit on the current, which can really surge though the estuary and river, which together make up the harbor of Corinto. Today everything was according to plan and the Veendam docked sb. side alongside, nose out and ready for departure.

While this was happening we had a major activity going on down stairs. Today was card change day as we are moving to the three alarm system. Some crew will be keeping the same duties but some will be assigned to something else. But everybody had to report in with their lifejacket to get a new instruction card. To prevent any old cards from floating around, the best way to do this is, is old for new, and to check at the same time if there is not another, an even older card left in the lifejacket pouch.  When dealing with large numbers of people you have to devise procedures that are fool proof, or at least as much as possible. Mr. Murphy is always on board and enjoys anything out of the ordinary.

The Veendam towering over the port of Corinto

It must have looked a bit strange for the pilot when he stepped on board as he had to walk straight through the lines of crew – with lifejackets – while going to the bridge. But all crew showed up during their allotted time slots and by 11.30am all 600+ crew had received their new instructions. Now we will have three days of drills, to get everybody marching to the same tune.  Everybody knows what to do, but we want it to go like clockwork and that needs a few rehearsals.

Probably the only school in the world, painted in Holland America Blue

When that was done, I had the chance to slip ashore to pay a quick visit to the school that I sponsored with the Crew of the Statendam in 2012 & 2013.  It is vacation time, as it is the warmest time of the year and thus the school is officially closed. With all the supplies that we landed a lot of work was done since autumn last year and what we landed in collected clothing etc. was sold to buy more teaching equipment. So reason to be very happy.  The wish list had not reduced of course; they still wanted small chairs, more school materials and cooling fans.

It was even too hot for the fleamarket to show  much activity

Now I am not on one ship anymore it is somewhat harder to organize things but I will see if I can arrange something for December if I make it to the Statendam on my rounds at that time. I will contact the Purser there as I believe there is still some money in the kitty.

But the local brewery was doing well in sales

Tonight the Veendam will sail from Nicaragua to Guatemala to visit Puerto Quetzal with a 0900 hrs. arrival. In the morning we will train the Crew in the new three alarm system and in the afternoon I will have my lifeboat class pottering around the harbor trying to steer a lifeboat.

The local authorities provided entertainment on arrival and for the remainder of the day they had a marimba band on the dock. As they were happily sitting in the shadow all day, they probably had the best job in town. Reasonably cool and the dollars were flowing in.

Today it was dry, no wind and very warm. Tomorrow it is expected to be dry and very warm, but maybe we will find a shower to cool things down.

Coming to Costa Rica, you have two options for docking. Going to Puerto Caldera or to Puntarenas which is about 2 miles to the west of P.C.  Until about 10 years ago Puerto Caldera was the only port. Built as a cargo port, it started to attract more and more passenger ships.  That we docked there did not matter for those on tour, as you could hop straight away on the Highway to San Jose, the country’s capital. But if you stayed on board, then it became a problem, as apart from an impromptu flea market, there was and is nothing there. You would have to take the taxi to Puntarenas the nearest town.

Thus the authorities decided to build a very long pier, reaching into deep water; they dredged around a bit and created a cruise terminal right in the middle of the town. A very nice and wide pier with a little shuttle train taking people to and from the gate, if you did not want to walk.

However this pier has two issues. While the dock of Puerto Caldera is protected by a breakwater against the incoming swell, the pier at Puntarenas is completely open. If there is a high ocean swell, then the ship will move on that swell alongside the dock. Sometimes the swell is so high the ship cannot give out a gangway, or accept a shore gangway.  Secondly  because of its location, it has a heavy current in the area and that makes it quite difficult for ships to dock and undock. Hence you have to adjust your arrival and departure times to nearly the slack tide times when the current is near zero.

Thus both ports have its advantages and disadvantages. The authorities now have a nice pier and want the cruise ships to use it. The captains want to have a steady ship alongside and arrive and depart on the regular schedule and thus they want Puerto Caldera as a Plan B and sometimes as a plan A.  I had to make that decision a few times in the past and I always preferred Puerto Caldera. No so handy for the guests maybe, but at least we could always dock, and we could dock and undock at our regular times, without having to take the current in consideration.

A view from the electronic chart. Puntarenas is located on a peninsula to the west of Puerto Caldera. This location causes a strong East/West current

Luckily today there was no issue. Slack tide was around 06.00 and the next slack tide was around 18.00, both more or less in synch with the cruise brochure. Also the swell was only a foot or so. It made the gangway move but not to a dangerous extent. The only challenge was the heat. It was very warm today. So I did not mind to spend most of my day inside.

Today I facilitated a big drill, called a triage drill. This is a sort of emergency drill but with so many casualties that it is beyond the capabilities of our medical department. Still we have to cope and thus we have Triage scenarios.   Triage means assessing and then deciding on priorities. Who can we save, who can wait for treatment for later and which victims are hopeless cases. It was developed by the army to deal with large number of wounded soldiers but it is applicable in the same way to cruise ships with larger number of people in close quarters.

The focus on the drill is to have everybody support the triage officer (most often the lead nurse) during the initial triage assessment and then very quickly get the injured people to the various treatment area’s where the rest of the medical staff (2 doctors and one more nurse) can work in safer and better circumstances than at the scene of the emergency.

So 16 victims (volunteers from our entertainment and deck department) were in the show lounge where we simulated a collision. All had a  sticker on their breast with their problem (broken leg, unconscious, burns, leg missing etc. ) for quick assessment and then they were all taken out, one by one, on stretchers and in wheel chairs and transported to the various treatment areas. The coordination of it all is the biggest headache as it involves so many people in difficult circumstances.

It all went very well. Yesterday we had a pre briefing and all involved (about a 100 crew) had taken all the past experience to heart and used it during today’s drill as best as they could. Tomorrow we have a debriefing for lessons learned which we will then apply again next time, while I will try to make it company policy.

Tomorrow we are in Corinto. We are scheduled to arrive at 10 am during what looks like another sweltering day.

Today a peaceful and nearly wind still day at sea. The only movements that can be seen are other ships coming from or going to the Canal and Brown Boobies and Starlings hovering over the bow. The moving ship produces an upstream of air and the birds love it. Without any real wind there is no turbulence, so they can drift on the “bow wind” and land on the railing whenever they want.

On the very top of the bow mast is a small black box. Inside is the Panama Canal steering light……and  it offers a perfect landing pad for any self discerning sea bird

As they like to sit high there is a constant tussle going on between them of who is allowed to sit on the highest point – the top of the Panama Canal steering light.  Nice to look at and some divertissement for the Navigators. The only person who will be distinctively unhappy will be the Bo’ sun as the birds tend to leave presents behind on the wooden deck, before they move on.

Yesterday we were in the Panama Canal and between a cruise ship and a cargo ship there is one big difference to observe; tugboats are seldom used.  As they are compulsory when entering and leaving the dock and anywhere else where the pilots deem it necessary, you see them hovering around the ship but a cruise ship they seldom touch.  All courtesy of the gadgets that make the cruise ships so maneuverable.

But even among the cruise ships there are differences. Sometimes in design and sometimes in power. The more modern the cruise ship the more powerful the propulsion tends to be and the same goes for the thrusters. I think that the designers realize that in the long run cancelling ports is less cost effective than spending a few dollars on equipment during the new build.  Thus all the cruise ships now have bow thrusters, stern thrusters, pitch propellers, double rudders or the combination of propeller & rudder & thruster into a pod.

Basically with having all that power it means that you carry your own tugboats with you, which will enable you to dock in ports where there are no tugs, or where the tugs are not strong enough. More power and you can dock during higher wind & current situations.  For the latest generation of cruise ships it is not unusual that they can maneuver against 40+ knots of wind and that is Gale force winds. Winds that almost make you bend over while walking in it. If the captain deems it safe to dock, it again reduces the chance of a cancellation.

This is the pod setting for going forward. The ship is pulled forward instead of being pushed forward as is the case with a conventional propeller system

Since 2000 the addition to the ships of podded propulsion has become more and more standard. The great advantage is that it combines the stern thruster, the rudder and the propeller into one unit. Basically it acts as if you have an outboard motor hanging under the ship and the way you pull the handle is the way the ship goes.   For maneuvering a ship it does not make that much of a difference, whether everything is separate or combined into one unit, except for one issue: With rudders and stern thrusters you are limited to a certain amount of power that is available. With an Azi –pod or Mermaid – pod (Azi pod is name of the ABB Company, Mermaid is Rolls Royce) all the power that you use for going forward is now also available for going sideways.

Starting with the Amsterdam in 2000 all our ships, built since then, have podded propulsion.  Also our new ship will have it and as everybody is very happy with this concept, I will think we will keep it for a long time to come………….Until something new comes along.  The Pod was a bold innovation but no doubt there will be –out of the box – thinking going already again. It will be exciting to see what the next innovation will be.  I would not be amazed if some sort of sail assist would be the next step.

Most of the day we were still sailing off the Panamanian Coast but by 5 pm. we crossed the border between Panama and Costa Rica. Then by tomorrow morning 0500 hrs. we will approach the Golfo de Nicoya to dock at 0600 in Puntarenas.  Weather expected more of the same; warm, sunny and the occasional downpour.