Sailing Vessel Skylark: January 2010

Panama Canal Transit

January 23 - we headed out of Shelter Bay at 2 pm for Anchorage F (also known as The Flats) to await our Transit Advisor. At about 4:30 pm, the ACP (Authoridad Canal de Panama) boat drops off our advisor. His name is Carlton Regis but prefers to be called Regis. This is not his regular job at the ACP. He is moonlighting on his day off for extra pay. He is certified for boats up to 60 feet.

Waiting at the Flats

The Canal is a busy waterway that produces huge daily revenues for the ACP and Panama. It is a significant component of the Panamanian economy. We started off around 5 pm and headed into the Canal avoiding a couple of ships transiting south and north. Once in the Canal, we kept close to the 2 boats that we would raft up to in the locks - Jeannius and Kalliope. Jeannius is a catamaran and is the center boat. We will raft up to them starboard to with our port side to the lock walls. The first locks, the Gatun which have three chambers, are approached at nightfall.

The pictures below are the Gatun locks taken in the day during a tour Ed and I had taken on the previous day. These are followed by pictures taken during our actual transit.

Ship in the upper chamber, Gatun Locks, heading towards the Caribbean

Center chamber, Gatun Locks

One of the mitre gates at the Gatun Locks

Above the Gatun Locks lies Gatun Lake which was created when the Chagres River was dammed to create a continuous, navigable waterway. The pictures that follow are of our transit through the Canal via the Gatun Locks (three chambers), the Pedro Miguel Lock (one chamber) and the Miraflores Locks (two chambers). The dimensions of the locks limit the size of vessels able to transit the Canal - the so-called Panamax ships. This will change with new facilities being built (completion 2014/2015) that will accommodate much larger ships. The Canal meanders through a dredged channel through Gatun Lake and sections that were excavated to create the Canal.

Panamax vessel to port of Skylark

Evergreen Line container ship in the Canal

Gatun Locks (transit at night)

Francois handling the stern lines at Gatun Locks

After transiting the Gatun Locks, we spent the night at anchor on Gatun Lake. The anchorage is in 20 meters of water and is restricted in area as the bottom outside the anchorage has old tree stumps capable of fouling anchor chains. We put out 62 meters of chain - no problem holding in the mud. The next morning, Regis rejoins the boat and we continued through Gatun Lake and beyond. The next lock is the single chamber Pedro Miguel lock which is a lot easier as the lockage in our direction is downwards making it a little easier on line handlers, Ed and Francois. From the Pedro Miguel, it is a short distance to the final locks in the Canal, the Miraflores Locks. After transiting Miraflores, we are finally in the Pacific Ocean. We break free from the raft and head for the marina at Isla Flamenco , an island joined to the mainland by a causeway. Bustling Panama City is a 20 minute taxi ride away.

WARC yachts in the Canal

Disabled tanker on the Canal awaiting rescue tugs. This one lost power and rudder controls.

Centenario Bridge, beyond which lies the Pedrto Miguel Lock

Pedro Miguel mitre gates opening

Miraflores locks completed in 1913

Isla Grande to Shelter Bay, Colon

January 18 - left Lemon Cays for Isla Grande, about 60 miles north. Isla Grande is just off the Panama mainland, We dropped anchor within sight of 2 wrecks, a large power boat and an ferro-cement sailboat. We were joined later in the afternoon by 2 other WARC boats, Noeluna and Chessie. Dinner at El Nido Del Postre run by a friendly couple (A Frenchman and his wife Olga, from Costa Rica). The food was excellent.

Isla Grande -- the anchorage is relatively narrow and shallow, about 5 meters deep

January 19 -- a short sail to the Caribbean entrance of the Panama Canal, at Puerto San Christobal (the port at Colon). The smallish marina at Shelter Bay is across Limon Bay from Colon. We have been told of crime in Colon but security at Shelter Bay is good given its distance from the city (and almost everything else for that matter). There are not enough berths for the fleet, so the group scheduled to transit the Canal on January 27 are told not to arrive until after the first group transits on January 23. Even so, some WARC boats have to anchor off the pontoons and use their dinghies to get ashore.

At Shelter Bay Marina - lines and tire fenders for the Canal transit are delivered to Skylark

Boats that didn't have slips at anchor in the marina - view from Skylark

Skylark at pontoon, Shelter Bay Marina

The internet connection at Shelter Bay is very poor (despite the US$10 charge for wifi access). Bandwidth is limited and yachties compete for access by going to the club house to log in in the wee hours of morning.

All is set for the Canal transit with a skippers' briefing on January 22. We will leave the marina in the afternoon of January 23 and anchor at "The Flats" - the anchorage near the entrance to the Canal, await the Canal advisor who will board the boat and supervise the first part of the transit through the first set of locks. We will then anchor for the night at Gatun Lake and continue the transit at 6 am the next morning. The Canal transit will be covered in the next post.

St Lucia, San Blas islands

It's been a while since the last post in December. My excuse is the poor or non-existent internet connectivity at St Lucia, the San Blas islands and at Colon.

St Lucia has basic amenities - a reasonable chandler whose inventory ran low with the ARC descending upon the island. Some items were unavailable and we were told the re-stocking would take place "once the next ship arrives..." The economy is in distress, evident from the men loitering around especially at the little town of Gros Islet, a couple of miles from the Rodney Bay marina. At Gros Islet, we ran into a friendly local who welcomed us to St Lucia. He told us he was a a council man for the town and then confided that he was currently unemployed, having been laid off by his hotel employer. Tourism, the mainstay of the economy is doing poorly. St Lucia's people are friendly but the infrastructure is third world and runs a poor second to the neighbouring French islands of Martinique and Guadaloupe.

Francois left by ferry to Martinique to catch a flight to France. He was to be married on December 31 at La Machine at a ceremony officiated by his sister, the town's mayor. Ed and I caught a flight to Houston on December 15 to spend Christmas with family. Miew Ling and my Dad joined us from Kuala Lumpur and elder brother Paul and his son Sage flew in from New York. Christmas meant the usual feasting and drinking - the Flints hosted lunch on Christmas day with their extended family. Regretfully, Ed's mother who is 97, was doing poorly and could not join in the festivities,

Ed and I returned to St Lucia on New Year's day to prepare the boat fro the start of the World Rally for Cruisers (WARC) which was scheduled for a January 6 start. The fitting on the genoa pole had to be retro-fitted with new stainless bolts sent from France -- two of the original small aluminum bolts had sheared during the Atlantic passage. The first leg is about 1000 miles from St Lucia to Colon, Panama, with a fleet rendezvous at Chichime Island in the San Blas archipelago. Francois returned on January 5, having abandoned his new bride for the next sailing saga on Skylark.

The skippers' briefing on January 5 suggested some potential for weather along the way with a low over Colombia indicating winds of 20-25 knots. We were warned to watch the development of the low and also for floating debris in the area.

Some pictures of the start of the WARC -- for a yacht "race", Ed seems awfully relaxed. The start line was outside the marina in Rodney Bay heading south and leaving the Barrel o'Beef rocks to starboard, then setting the course for Panama. We had a good start, I believe we were the 6th or 7th boat (of a total of 36 boats) to cross the start line

Weather at start was fine with winds from the north east. We set the genoa pole to port, sailing was good in winds of 10-15 knots.

January 7 - caught a small Albacore Tuna which made a good sashimi meal. The winds picked up on the following day, gusting 26 to 27 knots. Speed over ground was in excess of 10 knots at times. Francois and Ed landed a large Dorado which provided some great sashimi and fish steaks for dinner. Winds tended to pick up at night with gusts of up to 40 knots off the Colombian coast. We were making good time (so we thought). An email from Rally Control was a little deflating -- "you are at the bottom of the first half of the fleet..."

January 12, the San Blas islands were sighted - mostly small, flat islands with palm trees. We reached the finish line for the first leg at 1628 Hrs, St Lucia time. Aftyer negotiating the surrounding reefs, we anchored in 15 meters off the East Hollandse Cays.

A radio call from another Amel "Lady Lisa" advised that they were having rigging and other problems. We gave them our position and suggested they anchor close and we would see if we could assist. It turned out that they had torn genoa and mainsail, as well as a broken genoa halyard. Nothing could be done on the first couple of days as winds persisted with gusts to 20 knots, making removal of the mainsail impossible. The mainsail was finally taken down on January 15 and we used a small diameter line from Skylark as a messenger line to run a genoa halyard through the top of the main mast. We winched the owner, Sandor Cassani, up the mast using one of the electric powered primary winches. However, there were other issues with the rigging which Sandor decided in the end, needed to be fixed in port with spares ordered from France.

January 14 -- David and Susan Mackay on Voyageur came over to Hollandse Cay from Green Island. We visited with their friends, Peter and Penny on their catamaran "In For A Penny" for drinks in the evening. The Mackays had become fast friends with Peter and Penny, having participated in the Round the World Rally with them. We spent a plerasant evening with these seasoned circumnavigators who were refreshingly modest about their achievements.

January 15 - set off for Chichime Island in the afternoon for the fleet rendezvous on January 16. It was a short trip but the narrow passage between two reefs made for some tense moments. There was a prominent wreck of a large fishing boat on one of the reefs. We dropped anchor among 15 or so sailboats. It was going to get much more crowded in the small lagoon with the arrival of the rest of the WARC fleet. We tucked Skylark between two boats and inflated the dinghy. Sundowners that evening on Voyageur in pleasant company.

January 16 -- a potluck lunch on the island. Skylark contributed Thai green curry and rice which was apparently popular, judging from how quickly it was consumed. Fresh coconuts were served up by the village headman, Umberto, liberally laced with rum by Nick of the WCC. The San Blas islands are sparsely populated by the aboriginal Kuna Yala people who maintain a simple subsistence lifestyle supported by coconuts and fishing. The Kunas came around on their outboard powered dugouts (children aboard, furiously bailing water) offering lobster for sale. We bought 3 medium sized lobsters for 15 US dollars, had one as sashimi and steamed the other two. They were very good. Bought a fish from the Kunas the next day which made a very nice lunch. We left Chichime that afternoon for the Lemon Cays to visit with Voyageur. Dinner that evening aboard Voyageur with the Mackays and Peter and Penny. Susan produced a gourmet meal with a baked Brie for dessert - a real treat in the essentially the middle of nowhere. Francois and Ed were introduced to "Amber", a brew of whiskey and maple syrup.