One peculiar thing about the courses that we run between Cabo San Lucas and Sand Diego (and vice versa) is the fact that we see so little traffic. There is the occasional yacht passing by but that is it. The main reason behind this is, that just north west of Cabo there are a number of reefs. We stay on the inside of them, as it saves a number of miles on a more direct line to Cabo. For non cruise ships there is very little to do in the Cabo area and thus they take the wider route, staying west of the reefs. Going inside the reefs is not dangerous as there is plenty of water between those reefs and the coast line of the Californian Peninsula and thus we happily sail there. Our courses are being set out in such a way that after we have established the safe boundaries we try to squeeze the mileage to a minimum in order to save fuel and or save time. Most of the time it is a combination of the two with sometimes the emphases on fuel saving and sometimes on time. This time I leaned towards time saving as I wanted to arrive earlier than normal in San Diego. In arrangement with Customs and Border Protection, Port Operations and a whole other number of stakeholders we have a normal docking time of 0700. This time I was asked to arrive earlier as the ship had to go through a few crew inspection. That means that all crew has to see the CBP face to face and that takes place on a 90 day cycle. With a limited number of inspectors available plus the turn around that the crew also has to achieve, it would be beneficial to dock earlier and so I agreed. Continue reading

 Then just before I retired a nice email came in from the local agent. The captain of the Sapphire Princess had decided to stay on anchorage nbr. 3. The ship had an overnight call and the first day it had been assigned anchorage 3 due to two other, more frequent calling, ships being in. However for the 2nd day, he had the right to move to anchorage nbr 2, as the SP is a lot bigger than the Statendam. He did not and thus I was given the option to move. That gave me the opportunity to anchor a lot closer to the port and so reducing the tender distance considerably; which for our short call helped a lot. The only downside is that anchorage nbr 2 is still exposed to ocean swell and the embarking and disembarking of tenders goes slower than when there is no swell at all. Still it is a lot better that being at anchorage nbr.3 or having to drift outside the marina and hoping that the wind does not pick up. That wind was not in the forecast but the weather forecast at Cabo is seldom completely right and especially the wind can un-expectedly pick up from zero to a wind force four or five, without much warning. Continue reading

 I was indeed woken up to a hazy morning with hardly any wind outside and that remained so until noon time. Then we left the shelter of the Mexican coast behind us and started to cross the lower end of Bahia de California. Here within two hours the wind force increased from nearly zero to wind force seven, which is called a Moderate Gale in sailor language. So much wind was not predicted at all but as with the tehuantepec wind this is a funnel wind coming down the stretch of water between the Californian Peninsula and the Mexican main land. With a good high pressure system above Arizona and a low pressure system in the North Pacific a strong air flow is created that is nicely guided through this natural North-South stretch of water. It is not as strong as tehuantepec and not as common, as it needs a good low pressure system in the Pacific. This time there was one, as further out in the Pacific Tropical storm Kenneth is blowing and that storm created a nice “ pressure hole” off the Mexican coast. With us being in the open sea part it meant that we kept this windy weather for the remainder of the day. The good thing is, if this wind remains blowing from the same direction, then we will have no wind in Cabo San Lucas, as the mountain ridge, north of the bay, will provide a good shelter. That means that we then have won half the battle. The other part is the Pacific swell coming in and about that I will only find out when we get there. Continue reading

We left Huatalco after our evening call and then followed roughly the Mexican coast on a North Westerly course. It will take us two sea days to get to Casa San Lucas which will be our final stop before the cruise ends in San Diego. The weather is remaining great and today we had a NW breeze of about 16 knots blowing and that brought cooler air to the area and good visibility. The moment the wind dies away in this area the warmth creates hazy conditions which limits visibility to about 6 to 8 miles. Now with this “cold” wind blowing we could see more than 15 miles from bridge level. On occasion the mountain ranges of Mexico where clearly visible. Tonight this wind will die down so tomorrow morning we will have a hazy day again. The temperature, even with the cooler wind, peaked today at 89oF but as we are coming closer to the cold currents it will gradually get less. Tomorrow it is forecast to drop already to 80oF in open water and by the time we reach San Diego it will be down to the low seventies. Continue reading

Preparing ourselves for the worst but almost with great certain that it would not be that bad, we sailed into the Golfo de Tehuantepec. Guests were advised during my Voice from the Bridge announcement, signs were posted and tanks prepared. The Statendam has 9 direct ballast tanks, 8 fresh water tanks, 7 regular fuel tanks, two large heeling tanks (that normally keep the ship upright) and a whole host of other smaller tanks for various purposes. The trick is now to have as many of those tanks available and empty on the side of the ship that you expect the wind to come from. We normally do not count on the fuel tanks, as fuel has to be heated first before it can be pumped over and sometimes we cannot pump it anyway if it is fuel from different suppliers. Fuel from the west coast is different than from the east coast and although all under the label of HFO, the chief engineers do not like to mix it. However ballast and fresh water tanks do not have that restriction. Freshwater tanks when full can of course not be emptied out but what we can do is USE water from tanks on the windy side of the ship and add the water made on board to the tanks on the lee side of the ship. With nearly 2000 people on board whom all consume water, plus the kitchen and the laundry, it makes quite an impact. Continue reading

It is about 780 miles from Puerto Caldera to Huatalco de Santa Cruz and therefore we had another glorious day at sea. Almost wind still weather and that meant that on deck it was just pleasant due to the breeze created by the ships speed. The rain eased nicely off during the night and we had a bright and sunny day. That the rain moved away was not so much due to the rain itself as the fact that we were sailing away from the shore line. In this area the coast arches away from our course line as we sail on one straight line towards our next port. Only tomorrow morning around 0900 we will make landfall again when we come close to Huatalco. In the meantime I am keeping an eye on the weather. The wind in the bay of Tehuantepec is still diminishing in strength and that means that tonight we should not have much of a problem. I warned the guests, especially those on the starboard side who could face the full brunt of the wind if it is coming, to prepare the ship for bad weather. But it looks good, at least for Tehuantepec and I do not expect the winds to go above 40 knots this time. Continue reading

With the pilot scheduled for 0500 hrs so I arrived on the bridge at 04.00 hrs and the noise on the VHF was just starting. As had been expected a cargo ship had to leave the berth to make room for us and it seemed that the shore side was using the VHF for wake up calls. My Spanish is not what it used to be, and I am certainly not an expert in the local variation of Costa Rican Spanish, but whatever was communicated was working. 15 minutes before we were due to dock the container ship went off the dock and to the anchorage, with I assume a very unhappy captain on the bridge. I got him out of bed and I was delaying his cargo operations until the Statendam was departing again. Still we had confirmed docking space arranged long time ago and contracts have to be honored. With the pilot on board making important noises in his walkie talkie to somebody very far away, the Statendam went alongside the vacated berth. We are here mainly for the tours, as there is not much to see in Puerto Caldera or nearby Punta Arenas. For everything you have to go inland and “inland” is the reason we are here. Nature here in Costa Rica is so impressive that we have this call especially in the schedule to offer tours here. A gesture that is appreciated by the guests on board as we had nearly 75% of all guests on these tours. Continue reading

Golfo Dulce is about 340 miles steaming from the Panama Canal and we had a scheduled afternoon sail through. Holland America started calling here in the late 80’s as an alternative to Puerto Caldera which we had to cancel once because the swell was running the wrong way. Feedback from the guests has been so positive that we have kept the call in the schedule, whenever it worked out with the mileage to make between the various ports. If we run the cruise southbound then it is a morning call, so that we still are on time for the Panama Canal and if we are northbound, it is an afternoon call so we do not have to race all the way from Panama to make it on time for a late morning visit. Early afternoon works better anyway as we can offer the guests a full morning program with the Cruise Director. Based on that philosophy we sailed into the bay around 1pm, and arrived off Golfito Roads an hour later to embark the authorities. Golfito is a banana port and predominantly used by the Chiquita Company. As we are sailing through Costa Rican territory the ship has to be cleared and for us that works out very well, because tomorrow we are in Puerto Caldera, which is also Costa Rica. Thus we get cleared here for tomorrow as well. Because we do not touch land anywhere inbetween, the clearance stands for both calls. During our scenic cruising the authorities remain on board, to make sure that we do not stop anywhere during our scenic cruising. When we leave the bay we briefly stop at Golfito again and they leave by the boat that brought them to the ship in the first place. Continue reading

As scheduled we did arrive at 05.30 at the entrance to the Panama Canal, sailing past a large number of ships at anchor. They were either waiting for a passage time, waiting for bunkers, or waiting for orders of where to go next. Bulkcarriers and Tankers quite often sail for the spot market, e.g. going  where there is cargo without having a regular long term contract. A few were just waiting until their head office had payed the transit bill. As a cruise ship we cannot afford to have to wait for that and the purser does make doubly sure that the money for the transit (about $ 249,000) has been submitted to the Panama Canal Authority. As soon as we were in the break water the whole circus started again with boat after boat coming to the ship. Agent, Boarding Officer for clearance, Canal Technician (he brings a GPS box for the pilot) First Pilot and Fumigation officer. In the meantime we moved slowly towards the first locks and while doing so the ship got cleared and two more pilots joined. One to relieve the first pilot half way through the canal and the 2nd one to be at the stern in the locks. From there he controls the last two locomotives and keeps the ship off the lock walls. As our lifeboats are overhanging we cannot see the side of the ship from the bridge wings and therefore we require a 3rd pilot. Just before the locks the Panama Canal Crew comes on board, 19 of them. 12 go forward as 4 locomotives are secured there and 7 go aft where only 2 locomotives are being made fast. That puts the whole show on the road and off we went for our southbound transit. Continue reading

And so we sped in the direction of the Panama Canal, with the wind and the swell in the back. We were sailing just north of Colombia for most of the day but in the afternoon we started to cross that part of the Caribbean Sea that they call the Colombian Basin. At least the underwater part. Further to the West is another such area called the Clark Basin. Basins indicate underwater area’s which are relatively flat.  There might be undulations of about a few 100 feet in height difference but compared to the depth of the water 10,000 feet or more, the sea bottom is considered flat.  Thus when we sailed away from the coast of Aruba, which is nothing but a sort of mountain whose top sticks above water, we basically sailed gently over a downwards going slope until we came to the flat sea bed of the Colombian Basin. It would be amazing if we could see this whole area without water. It would put our whole perspective of the oceans in a different light. Still that is not going to be the case, so we just have to continue to wonder about what goes on there in the depths of the ocean.  As a navigator you have time to wonder about these sorts of things while keeping a good look out, out of the window for other ships. To be a good navigator you need to have a bit of a contemplative character while standing your watch, as not all the time things are happening. My wife calls it “worse than watching paint dry” and cannot understand how we do it.  But then I cannot always understand people who do not appreciate “the sound of silence” on occasion. Continue reading