Well, apparently not Roatan today. Arrived off the port a little early today, and we sat there for a while. Captain came on and said that the swells and the wind were such that we couldn’t get in, and that we’d wait a while and see how things were. Probably 5+ foot swells, and supposedly a 30 knot wind, both of which were perpindicular to the path the ship had to take to get into port. After a while, the decision was made that we’d have to skip the port, and we headed out towards Cozumel.
Have to admit, I don’t know what the Carnival company was thinking when they decided to do this special made cruise port in Roatan. From our aft balcony, I could look at the path we’d have to take to get in. Basically, the ship has to back up, make a 90 degree turn, then back down this really narrow channel that barely looks big enough for the ship to make it through. Any combination of wind and waves in the wrong direction and you can’t get in. I know they’ve missed the port a small percent of the time (but big enough to be significant), and I know they’ve tendered in sometime when the problem was only wind, but today, well, I wouldn’t want to try to get into a tender that’s bouncing up and down 5 feet or more. Meanwhile, off in the distance we can see the NCL Epic docked in Coxen Hole, which doesn’t have this problem (but also can’t handle a second large ship).
So, basically turned into another day of sitting and relaxing. Italian dinner tonight, which isn’t really my favorite, but Cathy does like to get the limoncello. Finally a non-smoking night in the casino, although it wasn’t advertised in the patter. (They’ve redesigned the patters, and I’m not really a big fan of the new design, seems harder to find things to me.) Tomorrow Cozumel. Off in the distance right now I can see some other ship, lit up enough that it’s probably another cruise ship, but way to far off to tell what it might be. Could easily be the Epic again, no idea if they’re headed to Cozumel tomorrow also.