During our last call in may northbound, I had discussed with the pilot what was the best times would be for the ship to arrive and to depart. Although we were scheduled from 0800 to 1400 hrs the cruise brochure times seldom take the operational windows into consideration. As they are a cargo port and mainly visited by low powered cargo ships, the pilots are very concerned about the current going in and out of the port. With a 10 knot max. speed and a 2 knot current, you lose 20% capability and that is considerable. For a cruise ship it is of lesser concern but I had the option to arrive at 05.30 when it was high slack water and thus I did so. The swell had died down overnight and thus we had a very quiet ride towards the berth. It is a short but complicated approach as the current does not follow the channel and swirls around various islands so it takes careful conning to get around the corners of the fairway. With the pilot telling me where the shoaling was taking place (“captain not too close to this buoy and a bit closer to that buoy”) we were happily docked by 07.00 at the container dock. After making sure that we did not hit the container crane we could happily settle down for the day.

Continue reading

Tonight we enjoyed an hour back as Guatemala is on a different time zone. They normally do not do summer or winter time and are thus an hour off with Puerto Chiapas in Mexico just over the border. We approached the pilot station at 04.00 and the pilot hopped on board, right on time. Going in, through the breakwaters is a very interesting affair, as you have to make a 90 degree turn into the basin and then a 180 turn to get the ship lined up and go sternway to the berth. I wanted to go portside alongside so I could get out fast on departure. In the afternoon a land wind normally picks up which makes swinging around in the basin more difficult. On arrival it is normally wind still and so why do things difficult if we can do it the easy way. By 05.00 we were happily docked and the early tours could leave while the sun was just getting above the horizon. Continue reading

There was more wind than predicted and it came earlier as well. It being earlier is in principle a good thing, as it means that by the time the guests go to bed, it is quiet again and while they are at dinner or in the show, they do not notice it either. More wind than predicted can be an issue if you take the weather forecast as gospel. I don’t, I have my own weather forecast system for Tehantepec, which worked out again well. It started to blow around 18.30 and we passed the axis at 21.30 when we observed a top velocity of 58.3 knots. Just a little bit more than I thought it would be. But we were well prepared and the navigators on duty were able to keep up with the ballasting of the ship and the Statendam stayed nicely straight up. By 11 pm. it was all over and I could still catch 6 hours sleep before we had our next challenge, Puerto Chiapas. Continue reading

With the Norwegian Jewel leading the way, we approached Huatalco. With only one pilot in residence, I had adjusted my speed to arrive 45 minutes behind them and then we only had to wait a few minutes until the Jewel was putting its lines ashore and he could come over to us. By going nose in, I saved 20 minutes so we still had the gangway out by 08.00 and all was well in the world. The approach was an interesting happening as the current was all over the place. The ship was set to starboard, then to port, and when we drifted past the pier to our stop location, I had to keep the stern thruster going to keep the stern from being pushed away. Amazing that two tropical storms can make such a difference to the pattern of the current. The Jewel left at 1600 hrs. and I made sure that I was on the bridge watching how she would set when going astern. Luckily by that time the current had greatly diminished and the Jewel and later us, could just come astern and stay in the middle of the entrance without much problem. It remained mainly overcast today which kept the temperatures down while at the same time it was still a nice tropical day for sightseeing without any rain to bother about. Continue reading

Although hurricane Miriam is long gone, we are staying under its influence, as the general flow of the current along the Mexican coast is the opposite way at the moment. It should not take long before it is reversing itself to normal but at the moment it is in our favor and giving us 0.7 knots extra speed free of charge. We had a dry day today which is also a pleasant surprise as the rainy season is still in full swing. I expect that we will get some rain during the coming night as this is not usual for the area at the moment. There is a lot of moisture in the air and at a certain moment it will have to come down. We sailed about 10 miles from the coast and we could see how green the mountain slopes were and that is a good indication that it has been raining here a lot lately. But that is the way it is, if you visit the Far East during the monsoon season you have to keep up your umbrella all day long up as well, and for Middle America it is the same, although the rainy season does not have a special name here. Continue reading

Tropical Storm Norman did an un-expected thing during the night by bouncing off the Mexican mainland in the Sea of Cortez and crossing straight over to the West and going ashore on the East side of the California Peninsula. That had quite a bit of influence on our weather today. Instead of the rain clouds following Norman to the east and also coming over Puerto Vallarta, they now followed more to the West and that created a dry and sunny day in the town. For some who do not like too a high a temperatures it was a mixed blessing as the thermometer hit 34oC (93oF) in the afternoon. The moisture in the air made for very humid conditions and thus we had our first real tropical day of this cruise. As it is still the rainy season we will have a quite few more of these. Continue reading

Today was our 2^nd day at sea. Tropical storm Norman has moved into the Baja California and is supposed to make a land fall onto the Mexican mainland today. That means that we had no wind to contend with, as the Californian Peninsula sheltered us but we had a lot of rain. I always see a tropical storm that has the potential to turn into a Hurricane as a sort of rotating vacuum cleaner which sucks all the moisture away from the area. We sailed through its path today and came a across a number of rainclouds. Good news for the Staff Captain as it helped to wash the salt off the ship. Not too much bother for the guests as by 11 am it was all dry again and the sun came out. We could see that it had been raining a lot in the area, as the hills of the Californian Peninsula are lush and green. In a few months it will be all brown and dry again.  Last winter Mexico had a drought period but hopefully this winter things will be better for them. Continue reading

Today we spent the first of two days at sea, sailing down the Mexican coast, heading for Puerto Vallarta. Hurricane Miriam has been downgraded to a tropical storm and is expected to completely collapse today. We only noticed a long swell coming for that direction with a height of about 10 feet. Nothing to worry about. The 2nd Tropical Storm, Norman, is moving nicely inland and should provide some rain on the Mexican Mainland by the time we pass Cabo San Lucas, so also nothing to worry about. The only negative thing about Miriam is that she really upset the surface current and pushed the California current away from the area. Normally we get about 0.5 knots of free speed out of it, but by 10 am it had all disappeared; making my Chief Engineer a very unhappy man, as it raises the fuel consumption. Continue reading

Indeed nobody was shooting at us while we sailed under the Catalina islands, through the navy exercise area, towards the pilot station of San Diego. We saw some navy activity but they were all sailing around in circles. The navy calls that exercises, we of the merchant navy always think something else………But they stayed out of our way and by 05.00 we happily approached the pilot station. Normally it is very quiet there but today it was pure mayhem. I counted at least 8 sailing boats, a deep drafted fisherman (that means he kept sailing in the mid channel steamer track, probably afraid of running aground) a survey vessel floating around south of the pilot station and also in the way) and then there was a tug and tow shortening its tow line. This tug and tow was going to follow us in so at least we knew what he was doing. On the way out was a car carrier destined for Hawaii, but with that ship we could communicate and thus knew that he was going to stay out of our way. Enough to keep us happy and occupied in the early morning. Continue reading

Today we were sailing off the Californian coast passing the San Francisco area in the early morning. We stayed far far away from the entrance area to the Golden Gate, first because our straight course line did not take us there but also as there are rules that stipulate, that if you do not need to be there, then you should stay away. The days of casual sightseeing are over and only the ships calling at a port or area should be in the designated shipping lanes. The only sight we had was a thick cloud cover lying over the ship. That was not in the predictions but in the battle between the Northerly –dry- wind -promising clear skies and the Southerly -wet- flow caused by hurricane Miriam; the south won this time and that resulted in overcast skies. Going forth on that way of thinking, this flow must have tired Miriam out so much that she was degraded to a tropical storm with the prediction of falling apart within the next 36 hours. Continue reading