Port closure

[pauldw]

Some of the reefs are not far from shore. If the port is closed (but the water is flat), is it legal to take DPVs out from shore?

 

[DandyDon]

Some of the reefs are not far from shore. If the port is closed (but the water is flat), is it legal to take DPVs out from shore?

No. It's not even legal to swim, at least outside of roped areas.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Safety is of course paramount to ALL of us, but many of her calls as of late have not been judicious, but rather made based on the REGIONAL reports. I maintain that she has not been judicious or used intelligent discretion in the past two weeks. The port was open at times when it should have been closed and closed with perfectly flat seas and winds out of the east. Yes, those conditions are problematic for the mainland, but she doesn't seem to understand the difference.

And no, I wasn't in the small meeting you refer to. You have also not been privy to discussions others have had with her or her higher ups. I am not referring to protests outside of her office - as I mentioned in my previous post, communications I am referring to have been respectful and professional. While I have not been personally in these meetings, I am involved in the association and am receiving information.

I maintain that she is not qualified or educated on how to run a port such as Cozumel, mainly because she doesn't have the humility to admit when she's made an error, instead, she wants to assert her authority at all costs rather than to learn about her new post. I too have very good sources who are very well versed on all goings on Cozumel and I've learned more intel about her which validates my point.

The new port captain (Alicia del Carmen Hernández Azuara) got her Merchant Marine education at the Escuela Náutica Mercante “Cap. Alt. Luis Gonzaga Priego González” in Tampico, between 1986 and 1990. After that, she worked on commercial ships (tankers, grain haulers, and others) gaining her title “Capitan de Altura” in 2005. She later worked on tugboats in the port of Tampico and then worked on a semi-submersible platform.

By 2018, she was working as Vice President of the Colegio de Marinos Mercantes de Tamaulipas. This administration position (read desk job) seems to have been a step towards retirement for others.

She was assigned to the tiny port of La Pesca, Tamaulipas in 2018. La Pesca was decreed as an international commercial port in July 21, 1997. However, because the channel soon silted up, the port functions only for very small fishing boats, 3 to 4.5 meters in length, powered by outboard motors. In La Pesca there is a 136 meter long, concrete municipal pier, on the north bank of the Soto la Marina River, but it is currently out of service, as a sunken dredge is blocking it and the water near the pier is silted up and too shallow to dock anything. It is not a tourist destination, and does not have any dive shops, cruise ships, glass-bottom boats, parasailing, submarines, sailboats, sport-fishing boats, ironman triathlons, or tourists.

After about a year as port captain in that lonely back-water, she was was assigned to Cozumel because they didnt' kow what else to do with her and we needed a new Port Captain.

BTW - Zone closures were working before, especially with south and SW winds

Dear Christi….WOW!

Dave Dillehay

 

[ggunn]

No, the best way to deal with those types is to get them fired.

Yeah, well, good luck with that.

 

[ReefHound]

Yeah, well, good luck with that.

Everyone has a boss.

 

[Christi]

Dear Christi….WOW!

Dave Dillehay

Yeh, that's what I said

Ohhhh, you mean WOW because I dared to share my opinion and some actual facts - you've been known to do the same on many occasions. My opinion simply doesn't align with yours on this and that's ok. She is not a God - she's just a human like the rest of us.

 

[DandyDon]

Alicia del Carmen, tamaulipeca de alta mar

 

[ggunn]

Everyone has a boss.

In my experience with dealing with low level bureaucrats, complaints to their superiors usually fall on deaf ears because their superiors are bureaucrats as well. The ones I deal with most often are electrical and building inspectors, and universally their organizations close ranks around them in mutual self-protection in the face of complaints. Your experience may be different.

 

[ReefHound]

In my experience with dealing with low level bureaucrats, complaints to their superiors usually fall on deaf ears because their superiors are bureaucrats as well. The ones I deal with most often are electrical and building inspectors, and universally their organizations close ranks around them in mutual self-protection in the face of complaints. Your experience may be different.

Bureaucrats also appoint bureaocrats to positions to handle that business so they don't have to. Whatever bureaucrat appointed her doesn't want to be hearing about Cozumel crap all the time. But what really matters is the money. Get to the people collecting the money from the island and let them know they will be collecting less if all these tourist water-based activities are unnecessarily closed. And that includes the cruise ships as their snorkeling and sailing excursions are also affected. Their ears won't be deaf when a Carnival exec counts the beans and calls to question why the port is closed so often resulting in shore excursion revenue down 20% over this time last year.

 

[ReadyTo Dive]

My 4th trip to the island is coming up in about 3 weeks; not feeling very inspired about it tbh. Hoping for the best, expecting the best, thinking about other destinations for the future.

I’m sure all of this will iron itself out eventually.