I woke up to a bumpy ship caused by a local wind field laying over Nicaragua. It was in the forecast but the forecast gave less than what we saw outside. In a similar way to Teheantepec, the wind here is caused by weather in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. As soon as a hurricane goes north, or as now during the winter, a weather front comes south and it invariably creates a high pressure ridge and the wind starts blowing. Nicaragua is a low country as well and thus there is no high mountain ridge which can stop the air flow. Remember, the country side of Nicaragua is nearly flat hence it has always been mentioned as a good alternative to the Panama Canal. Those plans never came to fruition but it is certainly feasible as there is not much of a central mountain ridge to deal with. The cold front coming down over Cuba stretched in this instance all the way over Nicaragua and this strong wind could nicely whip up the seas into a short and unpleasant swell. The long Pacific swell was going against it, so on occasion the two troughs would enhance each other and then the resulting high wave would catch under the bow with a nice bump. By 10 am  we passed the border with Costa Rica and there the mountains started to rise again and that meant that by 11 am it was wind still again. The brown boobies and Starlets returned to the ship and started their “bow dance” again, floating on the air pressure and wind flow created by the bow pushing forward. As usual they marked their presence by leaving white spots on the deck and that resulted in a very unhappy bo’sun.

We are sailing close to the coast today and Costa Rica is clearly visible on the portside. Even with it getting hazier and hazier during the day, the moment the cold wind stopped, the sun started warming up the air again increasing the moisture in the air; we were close enough to see the tropical jungle on the mountains. We stay about 10 miles from shore here, closer and we have to deal with fishing boats & nets all the time, further out and we get all the traffic to and from the Panama Canal. We will get enough of that during the coming night and tomorrow, so if I can plot a good course that avoids most of it, I will certainly do so.
Not all merchant ships keep as good and conscientious a watch as the cruise ships to do. There are always ships that either, do not because they are undermanned or overworked, put a sailor on the bridge and have the OOW doing something else or even taking a nap. Every officer has had that experience when approaching the canal. Or the opposing ship does not change course when required and does not even answer the VHF when called about its intentions. The ship was simply put on automatic pilot and the bridge left manned with one sailor who most likely did not speak English or did not have permission to answer the VHF. These occurrences are getting less and less, due to the intensive Port State Inspections all over the world and the SCTW rules imposed upon everybody from the IMO. (Sub organization of the United Nations) Still it occasionally occurs and I instruct my officers to be very alert and to take action when they get an uncomfortable feeling, even if it is not our ship who has to take action.
During the day we saw a never ending stream of bulk carriers, car carriers and various sorts of tankers coming by. The days of the conventional cargo ships with derricks and loading booms are almost over, and if we see one, then it is still most often a bulk carrier with it’s own loading gear. For the containerships we only saw the occasional feeder. (Smaller ships that transport containers from small ports to a hub port)
The big boys of 8000 or more containers go straight across from the Panama Canal onto the Pacific Crossing. Some of them stop at Balboa, which is now being developed into a major transfer station taking advantage of bringing containers across by train to the other side and thus avoiding an expensive canal transit with the ship itself. The VERY big boys 10000+ containers are post panama and either stay in the Atlantic or Pacific basin or go around the Cape. That will change in 2014, when the new locks will be able to service much larger vessels.

Tomorrow we will be at sea for our 2nd day and then have an evening call at Amador, just south of Panama City. I am trying to arrive early but it all depends on when they have the pilot ready.