Cruise West's Pacific Explorer

Costa Rica Tour and Panama Cruise with CruiseWest
Cruise West's Pacific Explorer, 100-passenger ship * Photos and text by Jack Yeazel
Return to Home Page GENERAL:
The ship, built in 1995 and remolded in 1998, is 185 feet long and 40 feet beam. The cabins (about 10x12 feet) are air conditioned with private baths and hot water showers. The ship cruises at about 10 knots and has accommodations for 100 guests. There is a crew of 25 including expert naturalists in the local ecology. All guests are served at one sitting. Transportation to shore activities is provided by "Zodiac" type rubber boats and requires a certain amount of "dexterity" to get in and OUT of them. After the CRT tour, the ship is boarded from the resort city of Herradura on the west coast of Costa Rica.

Click on the following thumbnails for larger views
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The first order of business was to serve dinner!
After dinner, guests gather in the Lounge for a slide show of upcoming events.
The crew briefing on tomorrow's activities.

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Sometimes meals are served on the Sun Deck.
The bar is also on the Sun deck. (They never ran short of fruit punch!)
Exploration Leader, Rudy Zamora, explains the extensive effort made in conserving plant and animal diversity.

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Rita purchased this "articulated" rooster in the ship's gift shop.
And now we have 'towel art' even on the ship!
A Garmin GPSmap 76C sits in the center of the window with an amplified antenna suction-mounted to the glass. This unit (powered from a cabin outlet) recorded our travel tracks 24 hours a day for the complete cruise. Other units were taken ashore to record our excursions.

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The Pacific Explorer at anchor near the Manuel National Park.
A rainbow reaches down to a small sail boat.
Captain Hernán Lara at the helm.

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The ship's depth finder reads 655 feet agreeing with the depth notations on the nautical chart.
The ship's nautical chart with a ship-position symbol and the heading (dashed) line. "Purple" is the radar return superimposed on the navigation chart. The ship is in the Golfo Dulce as shown (HERE).
A (discontinued) Garmin GPSmap 230 GPS provides the ship's navigation position and speed. Here the ship is slightly to the left of course traveling at 10.9 knots and is 9.21 nautical miles from the next turn.

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This is a Panama mandatory Man Overboard drill. Two "volunteers" jump into the water!
The ship has turned around, lifeboats launched, and the "survivors" rescued.
One of the survivors is given "artificial respiration."

On the way back from the San Blas Islands, the Atlantic seas were somewhat rougher.
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A big wave approaches the ship.
The wave gets a little closer.
Ooops! That was a pretty good one!

However, the Pacific Explorer is a sturdy ship, and nothing untoward happened on the trip.
Our thanks to their excellent crew, super service, and wonderful experiences.
Download the complete Crew List and Naturalists' Biographies (HERE)