25 April 2008, At Sea.

Finally after all these warm days we had a bit of a cool breeze. There was a moderate North Westerly breeze blowing caused by a disturbance off San Francisco. This brought cooler air from that area and thus the temperature dropped from the high 80’s to the mid seventies. For tomorrow in Cabo San Lucas the prediction is temperatures in the high 90’s but if this wind keeps blowing than it might be there a lot more comfortable.

For most of the night we sailed close to the Mexican coast and passed Manzanillo at 8 am. From there the course line diverged from the coast as we started crossing the waters of the Baja California. By mid day we were 80 miles to the South of Puerto Vallarta, as the crow flies, heading on one straight course for the Cabo San Lucas anchorage.

We had to maintain quite a high average speed to make it on time and so I was very much interested in what the Ocean current was doing. The predominant current here is about 0.5 knot to the South East so directly against us. 0.5 x 24 hrs. is 12 miles and that sets the schedule back 40 minutes. Either you arrive 40 minutes later than planned or you have to go faster to make up for it. However the for some unknown reason the current was most of the time absent and sometimes even a little bit with us. Maybe the wind-still period in the last few days had some influence and I was certainly not the person to complain. Thus tomorrow morning, we will be on time. I hope to arrive even ahead of schedule to be able to set up the tender service in good time, so all is ready when the first guests want to go ashore.

The Veendam has not been to Cabo for awhile and for most of the officers and sailors it is a new port. That means that extensive instruction is given to all about the operational specifics for this port. All the tender drivers receive instruction from the 3rd officer in the route to follow from ship to shore and all dangers are pointed out. Shallows, other traffic, where to wait before coming to the dock etc etc. Cabo San Lucas is full of marine tourism and boats, jet skies and canoe’s are hired by tourists, who are, let’s say are less than qualified to operate them properly. So when they do something wrong it is for us the professionals to make sure that their mistakes do not turn into our disasters.

Apart from the sailors also the security guards are instructed; by the security officer. Each port in the world adheres to the ISPS code which regulates ships and port security worldwide. However within this legal frame work there is room for local interpretation and thus every port is different. A few days before we come to a port, the port security officer is in contact with the ships security officer to exchange information about what is needed to comply with the local rules and for the shore to know under what level of security the ship operates.

Finally for the navigators there is a morning session during which I discuss how I am going to approach the anchorage, where I will park the ship and we review each officer’s role in the evolution. While I park the ship, the chief officer communicates my orders to the bow, where a 3rd officer is standby to let the anchor go. On deck another 3rd officer is standby to start lowering the ships tenders when the ship is almost stopped. Then there is a second officer on the bridge who has the watch and answers telephones and he is assisted by a 4th officer for filling out the ships log and the checklists. Finally there is an officer standby at the gangway for pumping out the tender platforms when the ship has come to a standstill. The more each officer understands the parts the other officers play, the better the operation works. It is like an orchestra where everybody plays the same tune in the correct tempo.