Until noon time it was completely wind still with just the occasional ripple. We call that in the nautical language “still of wind”, varying to “a light air”. Expressions dating from the days of sail that we still try to use, although it is slowly fading. Now with modern instruments we can measure wind forces of…   read more of “29 November 2011;…”

Because Puerto Vallarta is such a quick arrival, we do not have to arrive that early and so I could set my pilot ETA for 0700 in the morning.  Sunrise is about the same time and that is always a perfect time to arrive. Although Puerto Vallarta does not have the problem; there are many…   read more of “28 November 2011;…”

 The weather remained the same as yesterday; with a strong Northerly breeze and a following swell. Only by mid day, when we were almost at Cabo San Lucas did the wind die off and the swell lose its strength. There was a very good reason for this. Cabo and Cabo Falso quite often referred to as…   read more of “27 November 2011;…”

With a following swell we spent the day sailing southwards along the Mexican coast. Our average speed to maintain for a 0700 arrival at Puerto Vallarta is 17.5 knots and is just too slow to completely surf away from the influence of the swell. So on occasion the ship made this heaving movement that we…   read more of “26 November 2011;…”

Nicely on schedule we were heading for the pilot station for 0500, only to come across a very eager pilot and thus we had the pilot on board at 04.50   Not something I will complain about, it all helps with docking on time. I could understand why the pilot was early; it was just a magical morning…   read more of “25 November 2011;…”

 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…   read more of “24 November 2011;…”

 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…   read more of “23 November 2011;…”

 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…   read more of “22 November 2011;…”