17 March 2012; At Sea.

From San Diego to our first port of call Puerto Vallarta it takes two days as we have to cover a distance of 1036 nautical miles.  If we would run full speed, then we would arrive around midnight, so we run at 75% capacity and that will get us there by sunrise which is a perfect time to enter the port.  No glare from the sun, no land wind generated by the sun and no “Sunday sailors” to sit in the way of the ships approach.  These two days at sea we simply follow the coast line of Mexico at distances of anywhere from 3 to 20 miles, depending on where the coast moves away from the ships course line.  We try to sail straight course lines where possible and as the coastline is not exactly straight, the distance to the shore varies.  Our highlight tomorrow will be when we pass by Cabo San Lucas.  If there is not too much traffic in the way then I will do some sightseeing. 

One always hopes for a quiet start of the cruise but such is seldom the case.  As we now live in the age of the auditors we get to experience them on the ships as well.  On a regular basis we get audited on basically all the parts of our operation.  This cruise we have an ISM auditor on board by means of a Surveyor from Lloyds Register.  He is here to review our compliance in the areas of the ISM code, the ISPS code and ISO 14001 (Environmental). 

ISM stands for International Safety Management.  Simply said this is a set of rules that organizes the way in which all laws and other regulations are implemented by the company.  As there are many ways that lead to Rome, there are also many ways to comply with the letter and the spirit of various laws. So the ISM implementation by a company (That is the SMS or company Safety Management System) and thus the procedures can vary from company to company. This means that an outside auditor will not have an easy job, as he/she first will have to understand how a company’s SMS works before it can be effectively audited.

ISPS stand for International Ship and Port Security Code.  This governs everything related to security issues pertaining to ships and ports. This law was a direct result of the 9/11 attacks in New York.  As a passenger you experience it when going through the check in process in a port, or when coming back from shore to the ship.  Again this is a generic law which can be implemented in various ways. How a company does that is documented in a Ships Security Plan and the Company’s Security regulations.

The last item is the ISO accreditation that the company has for their environmental operation. We follow the 14001 standard which gives clear guidance for the operational process and of course, the paper trail that goes with it. 

The Auditor will be on board for 7 days to get all the work done. When finished, a new Safety Management Certificate will be issued or an existing one endorsed.  If an auditor has made any findings (and they always do, otherwise there would be no need for auditors and their job would become obsolete) then these will be formulated either as Observations or as Non Conformities. An observation is a suggestion by the auditor for improvement of the existing system and procedures. A Non Conformity means that the auditor has found a practice, or lack of it, that is not in line with the company’s own rules and regulations.  If there is a Major Non Conformity, then the auditor could even stop the ship from sailing until this MNC has been corrected.

For a well run company and ship there is no reason to be concerned as  the shipboard operational standards should already encompasses all that is required on paper. So for seven days the crew will show the auditor what they do, how they do it and why they do it.  At the end we will then get the report before the certificates are endorsed. Our interest will go to any Observations that he might make. We are always looking for improvements in the way we operate and what is a better way than to get suggestions for improvement than from a professional who looks in from the outside ?

Tomorrow will be our 2^nd seaday and then we should see a change in the weather when we pass  Cabo San Lucas. There we will leave the cold California Current and enter the warm North Equatorial Current  and that will make a significant change.