Crossing A Continent by Canal, Back Into the Pacific ..... June 2015

30 May – 11 June: Caribbean Colon to Pacific Panama City ~ 8 55N 79 31W

 Frantic Few Days in Colon

Because we had already spent a hurricane season in Panama 2012, our sole purpose for visiting this time was to fill fuel tanks, propane cylinders, buy as much food as we could store, organise our canal transit, transit the famous Panama Canal and then pop out into the Pacific!! 

You are permitted to enter for 72 hours without getting a cruising permit (USD200) or visas (USD100 each), but even with engaging the services of an agent (about another USD400) it would have been impossible to achieve everything within this time frame, and they know that.

So we decided to do all the transit paperwork without an agent which was relatively straightforward, we emailed forms, made phone calls, made an appointment with the measurer and collected several official documents and eventually paid over our money.

But we had to spend an afternoon in Colon doing the rounds of officialdom to check in.  First stop was the Harbour Master who took 1 & 1/2 hours to issue a receipt for our cruising permit to take to Immigration.  A taxi ride in torrential rain then took us to Immigration who only took just over an hour to issue the two visas (only 3 months validity!!), can you believe they even wanted to know our parents names.  Just bear in mind here if you fly in you get 6 months, its free and you don’t even fill out a form! 

Then back, still in the pouring rain, to the Harbour Master who acted like he had never seen us before and had not issued the cruising permit, and yes, we were the only ones there!  So across to Citibank to lighten our wallet of USD1875  and pay for our canal crossing, at least that was quick but you must pay in cash and it includes a deposit in case we damage something ~  what, like a container ship or the inside of a lock maybe!  Then back again for another half hour wait for the cruising permit.  Patience and politeness are certainly virtues, but ours were wearing very thin.  And then you all wonder what we do all day.

Just How Much of Everything  Do We Need?

Back in April before we left St Maarten I started provisioning, there were all those yummy French goodies to tuck away.  In the British and US Virgin Islands I filled trolley after trolley with things I knew I couldn’t get in Panama or were cheaper there but that was 6 weeks ago and we have nibbled away at supplies.  Now I am provisioning for 6 months, good grief that's a lot of food and dry goods.  So for 4 mornings in a row I caught the marina courtesy bus to the supermarket, and daily I came back with bags and bags of “necessities”.  On those 4 afternoons I spent my time recording it all and stowing it all away.

Are We Ready? ~ Yes We Are! 

The freezer will not fit even an ice cube, the lockers are bulging.  Skipper has the fuel tanks completely topped up, the propane tanks have returned, are tyres (as fenders) and lines have arrived, we have employed the services of professional line handler Rick and have accepted an offer from lovely Dutch couple Ingrid and Ben off yacht Blabber to be our 2 additional line handlers.  3.30pm on June 10 2015 ~ the marina bill has been settled, electricity and water disconnected from mother earth, our helpers are aboard, the mooring lines are let go and Balvenie quietly exits the marina without incident in the drizzly rain.   We motored across to “the Flats” to await our adviser and were happy to see Swiss yacht Kyory also waiting to transit.  Follow the photos for our journey through...

        

Our next advisor arrived at 7am, but Kyory’s did not so we carried on without them presuming we would see them again at the locks, over 20 miles away on the other side of the lake.  We were both scheduled to go into the locks with a huge car carrier which we could see well behind us in the far distance, however we made very good time across the lake and our advisor managed to get us hooked up with a large power tourist catamaran, Discovery 

Popped Out in the Pacific

We motored away from the murky canal waters, the pilot boat came and collected our advisor. Have to say both our pilots Louis and Franklin were excellent, very professional and nice people to have onboard.  What a contrast from the ghastly Egyptian pilots we had during our transit through the Suez Canal a few years ago.  How rude, arrogant and thoroughly obnoxious they were.  Anyway, we detached all our big black tyres and long lines and farewelled Rick who hopped into a water taxi.  Ricks experience had been invaluable, he was always ahead of the game and was the reason why we had a trouble free transit.

Ben and Ingrid, who had donned their orange Dutch colours for the many friends back home watching on the webcam at the Miraflores locks, stayed onboard with us as we motored around to the La Brisa anchorage in Panama City and dropped our anchor in the Pacific for the first time since 2006, wow. It was great to have their company overnight to share our celebration in finally reaching our home ocean. Their enthusiasm from the moment we contacted them to join us was outstanding and made this stressful “adventure” fun.  Thanks Ben and Ingrid, you were fabulous company and terrific linehandlers.  Ah, and what happened to Frank on Kyory, well he finally popped up nearly 3 hours after us, we sure did well.

So now we will regroup and move Balvenie once again into passage mode. We have made contact again  by our SSB Radio with our cruising friends who have been on this side for a while, most are already in the Marquesas.  We are definitely amongst the last to leave and the big advantage with that is all our friends have so much new knowledge to share on where to go and what to do.

A weather window looks possible for a Monday departure from these shores, directly to the Galapagos Islands.

Our Long Voyage Home Will Soon Commence

 

  

A Leisurely Start to the New Season ….. Dec 2012

01 – 07 Dec 2012:  Providencia, Colombia  13.22N 81.22W 

255 Miles “On the Nose”

After a very peaceful evening back in Portobelo we woke at dawn to clear skies and a light nor’easterly breeze.  The time had come to leave Panamanian waters and head north for the Caribbean Cruising Season.  Our intended destination – Isla Providencia, a group of small islands and reefs located off the Nicaraguan Coast north west of Panama and governed by Colombia, a mixture of Spanish and English speaking, Colombian and Afro Caribbean inhabitants ~ sounded quite a mixture really.

Our weather forecast was for light north to nor’easterly breezes and slight seas.  Experience tells us that forecasts can often be very wrong, this trip was to be “hard on the wind” so we really didn’t want anything more than 15 knots maximum.  With anchor stowed and sails hoisted we left the bay and headed out to sea.  We started with choppy seas until we were well clear of land then things calmed down and we had a comfortable  passage considering the whole time we were sailing as close to the wind as we could without stalling the sails.  Our British friends on Samarang had left the day before us from the San Blas and were having a horrible time, winds up to 25knots and very lumpy seas.  We kept thinking it would come to us but besides a few squalls, most of which we sailed around, it really wasn’t too bad.

How slow can we go?

Our biggest problem was the wind angle, and no matter how many times we adjusted course to pinch a extra degrees or two we just couldn’t lay our course without tacking.  So we slipped in 8 tacks, it is quite soul destroying when your target is around 335 degrees and you are sailing off pointing at 90 degrees, with strong current against and doing 2.5 knots over the ground, (I can walk faster than that) just so you can get back to a point where you can tack back again and vaguely point at the desired destination!!  At times we had huge pods of small dolphins playing with us, they had pink bellies that glistened as they showed off their somersault skills.  At night we had the full moon, almost bright enough to read by and such a bonus on 12 hour nights.  On our 2nd and 3rd nights before the moon rose a maze of stars glistened, the conditions were just beautiful.

We persevered with our tacking and after 2 nights at sea we had only covered 160 miles (in a straight line but we had sailed many more), quite possibly an all time low record for us but at day break on our 3rd day conditions improved and the wind kept moving to the east all morning, at last we could point above the island.  Around 10pm on our 3rd night we saw the loom of the southern lighthouse and finally after slowly motoring around the well lit seabuoy and down the straightforward entry channel at 1.30am under brilliant moonlight we dropped anchor in the bay.  Definitely time for a rum!   It may have taken 66 hours but after 4 months in the marina …

We had arrived in Paradise

For all the info on entry waypoints, anchoring, checking in etc to Providenica and more details on the passages to and from click here to view our Cruising Info Blog

The Sun is Out and We are Off ….. Nov 2012

26 – 30 November 2012: Colon/Portobello, Panama
And finally the Sun Shone – yeehah!

Many many years ago after 7 days and nights of rain Noah filled his arc up with the animals, two by two, and floated away.   This week after 7 days and nights of rain we didn't need to take such drastic measures - the rain did  actually stop, the sun came out, life returned to normal and the world became a much better place. 

We have had a very busy week with final preparations to leave for our next cruising season.  As soon as we got some dry weather we got the sails back on, scrubed another layer of green slime and mould off the cabin top and all the ropes, removed the canopy and dodger for more repairs and did 2 more runs to the supermarket and I have filled the lockers to overflowing.

Who’s a Birthday Boy then?

Somewhere in between all this Mark celebrated another year slipping by.  The rain stayed away for the evening and we had a pot luck pizza dinner onboard Balvenie , with Paul and Kate from Iolea, Sue and Andy from Spruce and Caroline and Bill off Juffa.  It is such a long time since we entertained in the cockpit it made for a great change and the new cockpit cushions were admired by all.  We also slipped in a couple of farewell get togethers, it has been a very social week, certainly great to have some fun after some very busy days.
Playing our ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card’

With a reasonable weather window opening up for our departure north Mark spent yesterday morning checking out then travelling into Colon to collect our SSB Radio.  At 6pm last night he had the radio and tuner all rewired and attached and we are very happy to report that it is all in working order.  This morning we said our final farewells, let the lines go, motored out into the bay, hoisted our sails, dodged a few ships, exited the breakwater and pointed our bow eastwards – straight into the wind!  Always to windward, but it was only about 12 – 15 knots and once away from the canal entrance the seas flattened out so we had a good sail avoiding a few rain squalls and have anchored the night back in Portobello. 

Tomorrow we head north – next stop Providencia, 250 miles away

Rain, Rain, Go Away ….. Nov 2012

Downtown Colon, thru the taxi window – zero redeeming features and no that is not blue sky

18 – 25 November 2012: Colon, Panama 

How many days did it rain before Noah filled his Ark???

Yes we know we are anchored in a rain forest, yes we know it is the rainy season and yes we had been told that November was the wettest month – but quite frankly we have all had enough.  This is our 6th consecutive day of almost nonstop torrential rain, this is rain like you have NEVER seen before.  Everything and everyone is wet, nearly all boats ~ old, new, sail, power, carefully maintained or neglected are fighting leaks inside, it is not a happy place to be right now. 

Today power to our dock has been off since the early hours and now the entire marinas power has gone, that includes the laundry where our washing is sitting in a machine full of water getting a good soak.  I will add it didn’t need a good soak because it was well and truly wet before it got to the laundry.  When the main power goes so does the internet connection, next will be the water supply but I don’t think we will go thirsty.

There is good news though

All the work on the engine mounts, coupling and alignment has been completed and miraculously  there was a break in the weather for a couple of hours a few days ago and we let the lines go and motored out into the bay for a test drive.  Olive the Volvo engine ran smoothly and she settled down on her engine mounts like they were a comfy old pair of slippers, long may she be happy with them! It was a huge relief especially for skipper, this has been a problem we have been managing for several years now and it was always going to be a  challenging place to take on such a big project.  All in all it has gone very well and we are nearly ready for the next cruising season.

Time to Stock Up

So this week has been spent finally getting everything else in order, I did a run to the supermarket on the morning shuttle bus – in the pouring rain, filled the supermarket trolley to overflowing then loaded it into the shuttle bus – in the rain, got back to the marina and we loaded it into a trolley for the trip back to the boat – in a torrential downpour, so everything had to be completely dried before stowing, what fun.  I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunity to buy along the way this season but it is always easier to stock and stow while tied at a dock so I will fill the lockers to the brim.

Mark has had 4 attempts at getting more diesel from the elusive fuel barge before he was finally successful yesterday.  Not great having the fuel jugs sitting at the ready in the leaking and soggy cockpit for 4 days but its an hour long job stowing them each time so unavoidable really.  No photos for you just yet of the lovely new cockpit cushions in the cockpit as the cockpit seems to have been redeployed as a paddling pool!

Getting rid of unwanted stowaways
 
No, not a good advert for Barilla pasta, (maybe they should think of adding a plastic bag) must admit we do prefer to add the meat of our own choice rather than having weevils thrown in for free.  You could argue that I shouldn’t be so silly to buy pasta in a box where you can’t precheck it in the supermarket but we like this pasta and 3 out of the 5 boxes were ok.  Mustn’t just pick on the pasta though, in the past month we have bought weevils in our flour and oats,  Often while the “skippers” talk about engines and blue stuff at happy hour, the “admirals” talk about our latest weevils infestations ~ there are some weevil free boats but I think maybe they just haven’t found them yet or don’t want to own up!!  Once on board they just seem to get into everything, basically everything we eat now is prechecked for weevils but I suspect the odd one slips through into our diet.

Thanksgiving Dinner without the dinner

Always keen for an excuse not to have to cook onboard we put our names down for the potluck American Thanksgiving dinner this week.  For $9 each the restaurant would provide the turkey and venue, and we would all bring along a potluck dish and a fun night would be had by all.  Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner last month had been a huge success so hopes were high for a good night out.  But something went horribly wrong, it seems nobody told several of the foreign boats in port what a potluck was so they came empty handed, then the turkey ran out and chaos followed.  The bar staff were totally overwhelmed by happy hour drinks orders, taking nearly ten minutes to process in the computer each drinks order, a total shambles.  The restaurant staff did finally managed to rustle up some more food but really the moment had passed.  A wee dram of our finest Balvenie Whiskey back onboard after dinner accompanied by Mark on guitar ended another soggy evening a tad more positively with Bill and Caroline off Juffa, and Andy and Sue off Spruce.

One step forward, two steps back

Yesterday Mark decided to reattach our SSB and VHF Radios, these have been unconnected during our time here to avoid damage to them in the event of a lightening strike.  Our SSB radio stopped working when we left Colombia and we had been very happy to find a radio expert in the Port at Colon who spent several hours identifying and fixing the problem before we flew back to New Zealand.  The radio was tested in his workshop and all was working however it is not receiving or transmitting now, its a major setback for us as it is how we keep in touch with all our cruising friends throughout the season.  Hopefully he may be able to get it back in working order before we leave but tomorrow is a public holiday and the days are slipping away.  We still need to get our sails back on but we really need the rain to stop for long enough.  There is a possible weather window forming at the end of the week for us to head north, we want to be ready to go if it develops.

We need to leave before we sink!

Things Starting to Come Together in Panama ….. Nov 2012

 

08 –18 November 2012

Maybe some movement at last???

21 days after ordering our new engine mounts they have finally arrived and as I sit up in the cockpit (trying to keep out of the way) Mark and Greg the Engineer are spending hour after hour trying to get the engine aligned.  Currently things don’t seem to be going too well but maybe by the time I finish typing this I will have more positive news to report.

Ticking things off “The List”

So we have spent the last three weeks doing all the other things on “the list”.  The sewing machine has been out for quite some time and we now are the proud owners of new navy cockpit squabs, they look great with the bright stripy cushions that Mum donated from her outdoor chairs while we were home.  Both the dodger and canopy have been off for routine repairs to rotted stitching & broken zippers – quite a challenge to get them dry, off, repaired, cleaned and back on in between tropical downpours.  A new cover has been made for the binnacle, a new outboard motor cover has been completed to replace the last one that I watched fly off in the San Blas and sink before I realised what it was!  I have also been removing all the upholstery covers from the saloon a couple at a time,.  Some needed a few minor stitching repairs and they were all in desperate need of cleaning.  We have washed 9 years of dirt out of them and they are now quite a different colour!!

Mark has installed all of the parts we brought back from New Zealand so we now have wind and depth instruments that work, the watermaker at last makes fresh water, the SSB Radio should go when we reconnect the aerial, our headsail furling drum now opens and closes at ease.  We have sanded back and revarnished our shower room floor, everything is looking tip top.  In addition we have replaced our anchor chain, our rusty old 100 metres was spirited away in the dark by one of the night security guards – bound for his village in the San Blas.  Great that someone will have use for it.

  

Time out to Eat, Drink & Be Merry

All the “broken boats” around us are slowly getting fixed too but there are new arrivals with woes to tell all the time – this boating is a very “fluid situation”.  On the social front things have livened up considerably with more Brit and Aussie boats turning up.  Last nights Whole Pig Bar-b-que was accompanied by live entertainment provided by the “Shelter Belters”, led by Steve off Liward and a guest performance on flute by our British friend Sue off Spruce , more accustomed to playing in an orchestra than to a Status Quo number.

Sue’s husband Andy and Mark both seemed to know some ancient – well 1970’s - dance action for this particular song and certainly entertained the crowd (our American friends ~ and I ~ looked on in total amazement!!).  The rain stayed away and a great night was had by all.  

We could think of worse places to lose several weeks