The first sea day is always used to clear up the left over’s from embarkation day. The loading of provisions, stores and spare parts takes place in such a high tempo that after departure nobody really knows where the regular spare parts, what we call consumables, have ended up. Frozen goods, perishables and other food…   read more of “30 March 2013;…”

All the weather predictions bore out and we arrived with beautiful weather at the San Diego pilot station for a 05.00 pickup. The bay was totally devoid from any moving object except for a big auto boat behind us, the Rigel leader, which was bringing much needed pickup trucks to California. They sailed out at…   read more of “29 March 2013; San…”

The weather on the North Pacific side is holding nicely. Hardly any wind and that helps to keep the waves down as there is no energy to sustain them. This weather is to last at least for another two days and that means a very nice call in San Diego. So I am expecting nearly…   read more of “28 March 2013; At…”

With the absence of the regular Carnival ship, we were assigned anchorage nbr 1, which is always nice. It offers the best shelter from the ocean swell and it has the shortest tender distance to the shore, unless you stay on the engines and creep all the way in. If you want to anchor with…   read more of “27 March 2013; Cabo…”

By 05.00 we sailed into the Bahia de Banderas at which end Puerto Vallarta is located. We were leading the invasion as behind us was the Sapphire Princess with an ETA of 08.15 at the pilot station. Followed by the Zaandam going for 09.00. hrs. We had scheduled ourselves for 07.00 which is just before…   read more of “26 March 2013;…”

Today we sailed along the coast of Mexico, about 10 to 12 miles off, and enjoyed the most perfect weather you can have. The sea was as smooth as can be with only a low rolling swell coming in; the sky was partly cloudy and it could not really have been better. The only thing…   read more of “25 March 2013; At…”

A sight that is seldom seen was the Golfo de Tehantpec being completely smooth. Just a long underlying swell made the sea surface wavy but for the rest it was as calm as could be.  Different from at any other time. What we would learn shortly after was that when this happens the bay of…   read more of “24 March 2013;…”

When coming from Puerto Caldera you have to sail by a whole group of countries to get to Mexico and Hualtalco. During the course of the day we passed Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, until by midnight, we will pass the border with Mexico. Then the crossing of the Golfo de Tehantepec will start but…   read more of “23 March 2013; At…”