A sea day, heading south and parallel to the coasts of Ecuador and soon, Peru. We are making 14.5 kts, which is the speed required for our arrival at Callao on Tuesday morning; the Pacific is relatively calm, a low swell and light wind; we are heading into it though and consequently there is a good breeze across the decks.
A quiet departure from Manta last night; I use the phrase ‘quiet’ because it was late when we left and the majority of guests were in bed. If I were to use more power, the vibration, particularly from the bow thrusts, would wake them up.
Even though it’s a Sunday, weekends don’t exist for sailors and it’s treated as a normal weekday. Paperwork and another BRM, this one for the actual docking in Callao, which is somewhat complicated. This is due to the fact that pier on which cruise ships used to berth has been allocated as a cargo berth. As a consequence we dock on a pier which isn’t long enough for the Amsterdam and our bow will be sticking out into the harbour. As the forward mooring line arrangement is going to be less than ideal in this situation, especially as we are there 21/2 days, it will be necessary to supplement our moorings and use our anchors as well. This was what was discussed at the BRM, when and how we are going to achieve it.
The officers on the bridge have been dodging fishing boats all day; small, open boats with 2 or 3 men in them, miles from the coast and using nets to snare their catch. They are more confident than I would be, miles away from harbour and only an outboard to get them home.
This evening I had the first of many Captain’s dinners; all full World Cruise guests will be invited to one over the course of the next months. It makes for lively and interesting conversation. Each recived a gift, the ladies, a necklace and the men, a set of handsome cuff links; later in the evening we had a themed ‘Black and Silver’ ball.
