Photos

We have put up a new photo album titled Panama in the links on the right hand side of the blog. The photos include stuff from our passage, time in the San Blas and canal transit.

Thoughts on the Panama Canal

To transit the canal one goes up about 100 feet and down 100 feet, in a series of six locks, three up and you guessed it, three down. In between you travel across Gatun lake a man made lake from damming the Charges river.

The first step is to receive an "advisor". The advisor is working this job as a sideline, and is not interested in anything but the fastest possible trip and what food and drink you are serving. In the case of our Sunday advisor, he took it to another level, eating two breakfasts and two lunches, the last lunch while we were going through the locks.... advice was minimal. The advisor will also have a cell phone for being in constant contact with his girlfriend.

Step two is to raft up to another like minded cruiser boat. The advisors talking over their radio decide on the protocol and communicate this to the crews. As in the example below, the crew of at least one boat then promptly ignores the advisor and does what ever they want.

In our case we were to pass the "spring lines, loop end first, and receive bow and stern, loop end first". We were ready, pulled along side. The "professional crew" then shouted pass us you bow and stern????? Quick adjustment on by the Nikita crew and we pass bow and stern - loop first. Thus the receiving boat was to put the loop over their cleat and we would then pull tight and make fast. This worked at the stern, but at the bow, well this played differently, the professional crew promptly attached the line to a winch and began cranking with all their worth, our crew member with line in hand only tried to hold on to no avail. Splash goes our line. Nikita adjusts again, throwing the stern line, pulling away, circling and lining up another pass. This time successful.

Step three is to pull into the locks where the line handlers ashore toss a monkey fist. I was very excited about this prospect, having imagined for the last 10 days lots of one handed Panamanian monkeys(obviously taking more than one hand from a monkey would be cruel). You can imagine my disappointment to see a ball of rope instead of a hairy, smelly monkey hand, hit our boat. We were then suppose to attach the monkey fist and messenger line to our mooring line. The Nikita crew practiced bowlines all week! Well a crew member, who will remain nameless, except he goes by Tony, went to work on his bowline producing something similar to a rats nest. Our advisor looks at it, shrugs and says "haul away". The shore handler gets the line and loops it around the bollard, then goes to work for the next five minutes undoing Tony's rates nest.

The last step is properly tension the mooring lines as the water is either raised or lowered. The Nikita crew was again outstanding here, several times doing exactly the opposite. For example the advisor (in between meals and phone calls) would say something like "slack line" and we would tighten and cleat off. The advisor would look puzzled, mumble something in Spanish and then say "cleat off line", thus firmly regaining control of the situation.

So we made it without a scratch, proving that really about anyone can do this.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Hello Pacific Ocean

Well we had a rather uneventful transit of the Panama Canal, just as one would want. We had a bit of fun with it, were rather hot and worked fairly hard, but came through unscathed. We are now anchored in the very rolly/bumpy anchorage of La Playita, which is where we will have to stay until visits from Rae Ann and my parents are over at the end of March. I am looking for an alternative.... anchorage that is.

On the way up the Gatun locks Saturday night we were rafted along side an old maxi yacht with a professional crew (term used here means that they were paid). They really had very little knowledge of what they were doing, but that did not stop them from issuing contradictory orders and shouting alot. The captain of the boat turned to me at one point and using his fingers to point at his eyes said "focus now focus on me". Well ok...

On Sunday we locked down rafted with other cruisers we knew and had a very nice time. Jake really enjoyed the changes in the water levels, while Isabelle wanted only to see one of the fresh water crocodiles. We did not see one, and apparently they are a protected species now as a result of hunting, so no surprise.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

The Saga of the Canal Transit

Well after several delays in looks like we will start on Saturday and finish on Sunday (webcam probably about 12:30 Panama time Sunday). It seems that the "advisor" group, of which each boat needs one during the transit, have been on soft strike. As it is not legal for them to strike they all called in sick this week (there are 65 of the them), though it is not clear if this is true or not. Anyway, there are some hackles up around the marina. As we do not plan to go on to the Galapagos until April anyway it is not really an issue to us and more mildly interesting to fun to stir the proverbial pot.

We tried to go fine the howler monkeys that wake us up every morning, and although we got much closer based on the sound we still did not see them. The area of the marina is the old U.S. Military Base from when the U.S. ran the canal. Now completely abandoned so it is a little weird walking around looking for the resident monkeys.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Canal Delay

Well we have been pushed back one day, so transit is expected to start on Friday and finish on Saturday (webcam on Saturday). Will update.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Panama Canal

We have been getting ready for our transit. I did a line handling job for another boat so that I could get a sense of what we were up against. Overall nothing to dramatic, but there is alot of force involved. Very little shipping activity though, a commentary no doubt on the struggling state of the world economy.

We are scheduled to transit on Thursday, though it takes two days so we will not be through until Friday, spending the night in Gatun Lake. When we go through the Mira Flores locks you can see us on the Canal's webcan at http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html. The way the scheduling works is that we will likely enter the Mira Flores locks on the second day of our transit (Friday) at about 12:30 - which is 1:30 pm EDT or 10:30 am PDT.

There has been a slight shuffling of boats the last couple of days with boats being pushed one day later. We will not know if Thursday is a go until Thursday, but will update the blog if anything changes.

We are all very excited.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

San Blas

We have spent the last week in the San Blas, or more properly the Kuna Yala. The area is made up of offshore reefs and islands and inland mountains containing virgin rain forest. The Kuna's live much as they have since before being discovered by the Spanish. The won their "independence" in 1923 and have lived as an semi-autonomous part of Panama since. They are very strict about travel even among the other Kuna villages, so much of their contact with the outside world is from cruising sailboats and backpackers. About the only thing that could be considered modern civilization is the use of cell phones, which itself is only about two years old. They do not have a way to charge them though, so you can often barter fish or vegetables for charging their phone on the your boat.

The Kuna's are very open, allowing one to tour their villages. The kids have had a great time playing with the Kuna children. It has been great for Jake and Isabelle to experience the first truly different culture since we started our cruise. Jake clearly understands the differences and has some interesting questions.

Unfortunately, the weather has been terrible. The squall system we surfed in on a week ago, remains and keeps the winds elevated, with lots of rain and generally overcast skies. So we have not yet had a good chance to appreciate the great snorkeling... hopefully this week.

We have run into many cruisers, including a couple of families, that are all headed to the south pacific. We will go over to Colon and get in line for the canal this coming week. We are very excited about going through the Panama Canal and everything that waits beyond.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Passage Recap

Overall we had a pretty good passage. This particular passage is somewhat notorious particularly when rounding the Colombian coast. We met head on currents and some messy waves in this area but nothing serious which apparently it can be very nasty.

Rae Ann did a great job of provisioning and pre-preparing food for the trip giving us meals for nearly 4 days without much preparation.

The kids did the best, though Isabelle was sick the one day, she slept it off in the cockpit and rallied. The last day with the boat really flying and rolling and bouncing, Jake wanted to know why we would not play cards with him down below because it was "flat". Jake asked as soon as we got up on Monday when our next trip was.

Having a third adult allowed a marvelous watch schedule. Bruce and I would switch every 4 hours, with Rae taking two 2 hour watches each day, allowing the watch schedule to shift and for Bruce and I to have to 6 hour rest periods each day. The extra pair of hands for the numerous sail changes made a big difference as well.

We sailed much faster than planned, the current being the biggest factor. Arriving anywhere at night is inadvisable, but in the reef infested area of the San Blas, a bit crazy, and many boats on the reefs attest to the folly. We had confirmed our charts to our pilot book and eventually were able to raise another vessel in the islands that confirmed the accuracy of what we thought we knew. We entered the most heavily traveled port (relative here as everyone goes about in dugout canoes), though this is unlighted and bordered by reefs. We went slow, and with several look outs, but we were also fortunate. We had tried slowing the boat down and heaving too, but neither worked to our satisfaction. I hope I never have to make the choice again.

The lone boat that answered our radio call Sunday night, came into our anchorage on Monday.... with three kids on board and Hallberg Rassy 46. Needless to say we are having a great time together.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Day 7

Arrival, 6 days and 15 hours saw us putting the hook down in the San Blas. Yes a small detour but we had gone far enough ahead of schedule and we really wanted to see this area and meet the Kuna Indians.

The last 36 hours of the trip were a bit different than than anything else. We started with winds at about 8 knots and surfed into the San Blas on 30 knots, squalls and 10 foot seas. We are a little tired and a bit stressed because of needing to thread the reefs in the middle of the night, with no moon due to the squalls. But we are also very happy.

Now back to the cruising life, beaches, beer...... and more beer.

The Crew of Nikita

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com