21 March 2012; Hualtalco de Santa Cruz.

 There was no sign of any earthquake damage when we arrived at Hualtalco so the information provided by the agent was correct and we could look forward to a very nice day in his port. A very nice day but also a very warm day. Huatalco is basically a small bay with a large cruise ship dock in it. It is a resort created especially for the cruise ship business. With high hills surrounding it on three sides it provides shelter from wind from all sides except the south west, as there is the entrance to get in and out. That is very nice for me but it also means that the cooler sea breeze cannot enter this bay easily. If the temperatures in open waters are around 75oF then in Huatalco you can easily add another 15oF to it, bring the noon time temperatures up to the low or mid 90’s. If there is a South Easterly wind coming in, then that is quite often accompanied by south easterly swell and then captains already start worrying about whether they can still make the call, as you cannot dock with too much swell running along the dock here. 

The bay of Hualtalco with the cruise pier. The dark water around the dock denotes deep water becoming lighter in color/more shallow very fast towards the shores on either side.

There is anchorage available but that involves a long tender distance and thus it is the better option to have a bit of a warm day in the port, than not being in the port at all. The south easterly swell can suddenly arise due to the proximity of the Gulfo de Tehantepec, located just around the corner. If the wind in the South West part of the Caribbean turns to the North East and increases; it creates a funnel wind that blows through a gap in the Mexican mountain range, directly into the North Pacific. That wind can easily reach hurricane force strength but it is very local.  But it does disturb the local weather pattern and can force the sea/swell to move West and then that swell might curve into the Bay of Huatalco. Today there was no danger of it and tonight we will have a quiet night, as the predominant wind pattern in the Caribbean is too far outside the parameters needed. Still we like to be prepared and thus as a matter of routine we always try to dock with nose out in case the weather suddenly changes then we can get out of there fast. To achieve that I swung the ship around in the basin in the lower bay and backed her up to the dock. This is always of interest to the guests on board as you can clearly see where the ship has to go; between the dock and the red buoys that mark the shallows. From a great height it looks as if it only just fits, but when approaching the dock we have about three ships widths of room (The Statendam is 32 meters wide) thus it is not as tight as it looks like. I mentioned the Mexican Navy in Puerto Vallarta; they are also very much present in this port. They provide the port security while dressed up as proper sailors in white uniforms, a tallywacker on the back and the white sailor’s hat with the black dot on the top. Then they also provide escort service when going into port and out of port. For that purpose they have bought two rigid zodiacs of the model that the USCG uses. Then there is a fast patrol boat, what I would call a gun boat, that comes all the way out of the port and picks us up about 3 miles from the port entrance and escorts us all the way in. We do not see that in every port but here they are very prominently visible. As there was no swell today, it was an ideal day for boats drills and so today we took all the crew through their paces again. All the portside boats were lowered, a life raft inflated and the crew questioned about procedures. I normally play the devil’s advocate and go around to “harass” the traffic control members. These are stairway guides that are there to assist the guests by getting to the lifeboats. If there would be an emergency they have a very important function by guiding the passengers to the lifeboats, by maintaining calm, keeping order and by collecting those who go astray. A very difficult task; with so many hundreds of people passing by in the staircase, most them being in a state of anxiety. They get regular training and on top of that the Chief Officer or I provide extra training in regards to crowd control. So I go around to see if they know their job and hopefully I can pay them compliments so that they really feel good about what they are doing. Today I had every reason to be pleased as the lessons learned were well remembered and understood. We stayed in Huatalco until 1700 hrs. and then sailed for Puerto Chiapas. Tonight we will sail through the Golfo de Tehantepec but it will be quiet for a change. No doubt I will blog about different circumstances sometime during this contract.