21 April 2008, At Sea.

After spending the day at sea yesterday, because of not making it into San Juan Del Sur due to that local wind blowing there, this was the scheduled day at sea. The seas were completely flat today. At the moment there is hardly any wind at all. Not here no anywhere else in this area of the Pacific. As the sea is so flat, there is a lot of sea life to be seen, sea life that otherwise would be covered from view by swells and white caps on the waves. All day long we saw small dolphins and a lot of sea turtles. The first jumping around the bow, the latter happily paddling by on the way to, wherever a sea turtle goes to.

For me it was a day of paperwork. As explained in a few blogs ago, I am running a cruise ahead with planning and at the moment I am looking at the legal requirements for sailing the Alaskan waters. Every year the legislation gets more and more complicated and basically each stretch of cruise has to be checked mile for mile to see what rule applies to it.

Thus little to report today. So let me answer a few questions posted in the last few days.

1. My sailing schedule next year.
I do not have definite dates yet, as it depends what the company does next year with the Captains conference in March/April. Tentatively I will be on the Veendam from 4 April to 4 July, and then from 4 Oct to 4 Jan 2010 give and take a few days.

2. The statue in the middle of Cartagena Bay.
With answering this question I might get myself in hot waters as I have heard different versions. According to some it is the Virgin Mary with child to some it is another saint. According to the pilot it is the Virgin Carmen. She is Cartagena’s patron saint of the navigators. As South America was mainly conquered by the Spanish on ships, the Spanish sailors brought their patron saint with them and nowadays the Virgin Carmen can be found in nearly every town in south and Middle America. I know that she is revered as far North as Cabo San Lucas where there is a statue of her in the local church. The only thing I do not understand why she is carrying the Child Jesus. I would expect the patron saint of the sailors to carry something else. According to the pilot it is the Virgin Carmen and hereby I pass it on. It is standing in the middle of the bay with the face to open sea to protect the ships in the port and to provide a safe haven for the tired sailor.

Standing at the cross roads of the two fairways that lead to Cartagena harbour

Tomorrow we are in Puerto Chiapas, which is a fairly new town on the cruise schedule. The port itself has not much to offer, apart from some shops in the cruise terminal, but the tours to the hinterland seem to be very good. They have just rebuilt the harbor and it now cruise ships fit in. It will be the first call for the Veendam, so there is a local deputation coming on board, headed by the Mayor to do a presentation. I hope the guests are ready for it; it is going to be a long and very warm day, as also tomorrow there is no wind predicted.