L'il 'Ol Mehalah gets to play with The Big Boys

Date: 17th January 2023

Location: La Playita Anchorage, The Pacific Ocean!!

The last locks before the Pacific.

The final few days before the transit were packed with last minute marina jobs. The new chain had arrived so Hugh and I installed that and amazingly we finally managed to purchase a reconditioned Tohatsu 9.8 2 stroke engine. Phew, we will need it once we are anchored in the Pacific. Meanwhile Gill and Linda were provisioning for the trip and preparing food in advance for the crew.

A bit of context. The Panama Canal runs north/south from Colon on the Caribbean/Atlantic side of Panama to Panama City, the capital of the country, in the south. It's around 50 miles all told. Opened in 1916 it was created by damming the River Chagres (which we sailed up for New Year) to create a large lake, Lake Gatun, many miles across at a level 80 feet or so above sea level. The transit involves three locks up, travel through the lake, 10 miles or so through the manmade Culebra Cut and finally a single and double lock out into the Pacific. Since it opened it has only been closed for a single day due to a land slip in The Cut. It is massive and in 2016 they opened even bigger sets of locks to take even bigger ships. These "neoPanamax" ships are built to exactly fit through the new locks. The bigger ships pay $1m each to pass through, thus avoiding the long and dangerous passage around Cape Horn.

The price for us was a mere $2,500 US and for that we are allocated an advisor for each of the two days the passage will take. We also employed two experienced Panamanian line handlers to help us through the locks. One of them, Santiago, had been with us when we transited with Milly last year.

So off we go at 1pm, out into The Flats, the holding anchorage, ready for our 2.30 advisor. It's a bit rocky and we seem to have chosen one of the windier days to leave with gusts of 20 knots. Hugh is quiet! The advisor, Ronaldo, eventually rocks up on his pilot craft at 4.45pm and steps onto Mehalah.

The advisor arrives.

Under the beautiful Atlantic Bridge and then we were rafting up or "nesting" as they call it here with "Cat With No Name". This is a brand new Moorings catamaran on delivery direct to Tahiti. Crewed by three Irish sailors we were destined to become best buddies by the time we arrived in the Pacific. They had their own advisor, Moui, extremely experienced and very clear in his instructions as we approached the first lock. They were bigger and steered more easily. We were heavier and controlled direction. "Forward Gill" was responded to with "Forward" from Gill, "Neutral Gill" with "Neutral". It worked so well that at one stage Hugh thought that "Neutralgill" was a special command!

First lock ahead 

Nested with No Name

Small lines with a weight on the end, known as monkey fists, were thrown down from the sides of the locks. Our line handlers, two on each boat, tied our heavy lines onto the money fists, which the shoremen pulled in and walked us into the lock.

The doors closed and the lock began to fill. The water comes in through 100 holes in the bottom of the lock. Fast. Each lock is 900 feet and you can actually see the water level rise. Huge amounts of water swirling around trying to push us from side to another. Then the lock is full. We are 25 feet higher and on we go to the next one, and then the third. All very exciting especially as it is getting dark by now and we are in the locks behind a very large ship.

All goes smoothly. We exit the top lock, split from Willie, Ben and Ferdie(?) and motor into Lake Gatun following a line of red buoys where we are tied to a big buoy (or booey as they are called here) in the anchoring area. Now it's all action as we need to feed the advisor before his pilot boat comes to take him home whilst the line handlers try to eat as much as they  can. The cook, in this case, Linda, is probably the second most important person after the skipper on a transit as there are specific requirements to feed the Panamanians. They can eat a lot and you don't know what they will like and they can ask for food at any time. And it is HOT down below in the galley with the engine running all afternoon. So thank you Linda. Great job. Turns out that whilst Santiago will eat anything Juan leaves all the vegetables and lovely ratatouille sauce, preferring just the traditional Panamanian chicken and rice. Hey ho.

Juan also has a cough which is not good for Linda's immune system and he is reluctant to wear a mask. We were pleased that both line handlers always sleep in the cockpit.

Next morning at 8am we are expecting our new advisor. Unfortunately he arrives at 7am as I am finding out we have used up rather a lot of oil which needs topping up. I do this in two milliseconds and we are off, faster than our admitted top speed whilst Linda feeds the crew bacon and egg rolls.

Across the lake we go, past The Smithsonian Institute Research Centre. It gets hot. We chat. Our new advisor lounges across the entire port cockpit cushion. Juan plays noisy iPhone games, Santiago carries on fishing off the back.

The world renowned Smithsonian Institute.

The Skipper.

We arrive at the northern end of the narrower manmade Culebra Cut. We have to tie up to a ball here and wait whilst four mega ships come north. Linda makes more food and Hugh admires the dredgers and scale of engineering. And then it's time to go go go. The ship that will be behind is in the locks is steaming towards us at 8 knots and we have to keep ahead. No chance but we manage 7.5 and he slowly overtakes us in the Cut, throwing us around as he passes. Meanwhile Cat with No Name is catching us and eventually passes us too. Under another bridge and ahead is Pedro Miguel lock, the first of the 'down' locks. We re-overtake Glovis, the big blue ship that will be behind us for the rest of the transit and Gill has to raft with No Name whilst travelling at 3.5 knots. Nice one Gill. In we go and Glovis comes in behind. Very close!

Gulp!

We repeat the locking process, this time going down not up. Then a mile long lake before the famous Miraflores double lock leads us out into the Pacific Ocean watched by the crowds on the viewing balcony where we had stood with Hugh and Linda six years previously. Not only those people viewing us though but also many of you as well. Thanks to those of you who sent us webcam shots like the first photo in this post.

Adoring fans.

And there we were. A new ocean. A new adventure. Watch out Galapagos, we're coming for you.

And there it is. The Pacific Ocean.

And then it rained. Thunder, lightning, no visibility, soaking wet as we dropped advisor and linehandlers off before motoring to La Playita Anchorage where we are now.

Fast forward a few days and we are well settled here. Meraki 2 have arrived from along the coast and the anchorage is becoming our new community. Hugh and Linda have left after three days of birding in the rain forest , culminating in lunch with us in The Old Town of Panama City. The next job is stocking up for the passage to the Galapagos and onwards to French Polynesia. And the onerous admin for the Pacific too. Typhoons, visa and stores. These are the next challenges. Planning must avoid typhoon season and Galapagos has challenging biosecurity requirements. We've paid our Galapagos agent (you have to use one) and started the visa application for French Polynesia. Thanks to Brexit we can only stay 90 days unless we go through the convoluted French embassy website to gain a longer stay visa.

Gill has somehow stored months of dried food and tins of tomatoes away somewhere and now we are in clean water I've been able to run the new watermaker. No leaks and 150 litres per hour of pure drinking water. Result!

Preparing for Galapagos.

Watermaker Mission Control.

As the sun goes down we look around and see big ships everywhere. Going into the canal, coming out and anchored waiting their turn.

That's a lot of green ships in a small area.

But for now it's time to start thinking about the arrival of Peter and Sally. See you soon.

Here we go!

Date: 7th January 2023

Location: Shelter Bay Marina, Panama

Today is Saturday. Tomorrow, on Sunday, we are due to transit the Panama Canal leaving the Atlantic and crossing into the Pacific Ocean. A big step. The fenders and lines arrived last evening and suddenly it all feels very real.

A few of you have asked if you can follow us as we transit. We hope to leave the marina at 1800 UTC (English) time arriving at Gatun Locks around 2000 on Sunday. We'll then spend the night on Gatun Lake before descending to Pedro Miguel Locks around 1700 UTC on Monday and out into the Pacific via Miraflores Locks around 1900 UTC.

If you have the Marine Traffic app you can follow us and you can see webcam updates of the locks at https://multimedia.panama-canal.com

However it might all change as the canal authorities are short of pilots, known as advisors for small boats like us, so we may go straight through starting at 1000 UTC either tomorrow or Monday.

So, what else has been happening? Essentially it's been a visa run to Costa Rica and final boat jobs with friends Hugh and Linda who will be crossing the canal with us.

Our 90 day Panamanian stamps were due to run out before we we set off for the Galapagos in February. We had two choices, overstay and pay $50 US (or Balboas as they are called here) each for every month we overstay or go the official route and leave Panama for a few days (estimates varied from 1 day, to 2 days, to 3 days to 30 days!). Costa Rica, whilst expensive in the touristy areas, was our choice. Luckily our French Canadian friend Andre was driving to Panama City so early one morning we set off for a day in the Old Town and a stay in a small hotel. I wanted to see the Panama Canal museum which much to Gill's surprise was absolutely excellent. It ran through the turbulent history of the country as well as the amazing building of  the canal. Spanish versus English invaders, gold rush, French canal attempt, Canal Zone, separation from Colombia, US invasion, dictators - Panama has seen it all.

The New City from the Old City.

After a good meal in the Old City we returned to our hotel to snatch a brief few hours sleep before quietly creeping out at 0415 to look for a taxi to take us to the big modern Allbrook bus station. Excellent, there's two immediately outside the hotel. There's also a couple of hookers hanging around. We get in, and so does one of the hookers. To say she is scantily dressed is putting it mildly, nothing is left to the imagination. The taxi driver quickly sprays some air freshener around (!) and off we set with her in the front seat next to the driver. His mind is obviously not on our fare and we just avoid crashing into another taxi before arriving at bus station where we won't accept out $5 bill. Turns out the vegetable man back at the marina has giving us a counterfeit note so we scrape together $4 in change instead and off we go.

We had our outgoing ticket booked but we still had to go to the booth to show passports before joining the queue for the bus. 15kgs per person was allowed. 45kg seemed to be the average on a packed bus to San Jose some 20 hours away. The journey was pretty uneventful despite a panic when we realised we did not have a return ticket out of Costa Rica. It was mayhem at the border. Which booth do we go to to exit Panama? We all pay $1 to avoid all the luggage being taken off the bus and before we know it we are out of Panama. But in front of us is a mass of people, shops, coconut sellers and huge semi trucks from all across Central America. You can just walk across the border into no man's land and this is where the cheap Panamanian shops are. Costa Ricans catch regular buses to buy there supermarket staples here. Anyway we find another shack and stand in line. But we need to pay an entry fee for Costa Rica. There are little shops where you can get one for $15 but by using a QR code we eventually manage it for $8 each. Another booth, no need to show our return ticket (which we managed to buy online on the bus) and we're off again.

We aren't going all the way to San Jose (do you know the way?) but its getting dark when we reach our stop and get off. Another bus is needed to Golfito where we are staying. None arrives but Gill talks to a lady who takes us back across the road and bundles us into a shared taxi telling us the price we should pay. The driver has a bit of English (well American) so after driving round for half an hour he drops us at our AirBnB. A cracking little hut in the jungle overlooking the bay in this famous wildlife area. Fantastic!

The view.

Our little yellow hut, high up in the jungle.

We spent a couple of nights here, relaxing and catching up on admin. One email resulted in us finding that James and Shelley on Carina who we knew from Grenada were just 15 minutes walk away as they had checked into Costa Rica there. A great coincidence and we spent good catch up time with them in the jungle.

Breakfast on day two was spent in a bar watching the world cup final. Great fun as everyone was supporting Argentina. One small boy was in tears as France gained the upper hand whilst his dad was pacing around the bar cursing.

After the game.

Next morning we needed to be back at the main road for our bus back to Panama City at 0450. In the end our AirBnB host got up early to take us there as we couldn't find a taxi. What a star she was.

Waiting for the bus in Rio Claro.

Very few people on the bus when it finally arrived including as it turned out a traveller called Nick that knew Hugh and Linda who were due to fly out to meet us a couple of days later. The border was closed when the bus arrived but crossing back into Panama went reasonably smoothly despite increased stress levels as to whether they would allow us back after only two and a bit days out of the country. Oh yes, and all the bags had to be unloaded and then put back on the bus again.

Immigration.

Off with the bags.

Finally we reached the marina after another packed 5pm commuter bus trip and taxi back to Colon.

Then it was back to work. Hugh and Linda arrived shortly afterwards with our 62kg of luggage. Luckily we hadn't given them the full story of our difficulties getting stuff into the country. In the event they were stopped and Gill's 20 year old sewing machine carefully scrutinised before being allowed in. "Do you have chocolate?" "No, of course not!"

Unpacking the goodies.

It wasn't long before we gave them their lists of jobs! They've been great. Hugh working with me installing and fixing. Linda on provisioning, medicines, storing and stocking.

Replacing old chain.

Fixing a broken sail slide.

Carefully refilling the repaired diesel tank.

Gill sorting Jack's Jordan drogue.

It's not all work though. At the end of another long, hot day.

Christmas Day arrived and it was party time in the bohio.

Cruisers here from many countries. Many chickens to eat and dishes from all around the world.

Hugh and Linda at home in the marine environment.

There are quite a few boat kids in the marina at present. Most of them are home schooled and they quickly become firm friends with each other. As well as the adult games(!) there was piñata for the children where they are blindfolded, spun around and then have to whack a drum full of sweets until they fall out and a scramble ensues.

The scramble.

New Year was a bit different. The Chagres River is just a few miles to the west of the marina and we wanted to try everything out that we had been installing and fixing. This river is the main river that was dammed higher up to create Gatun Lake, the lake at the head of the Panama Canal that provides the 52 million gallons of water required for a ship to travel the length of the canal. That's a lot of water! 

Previously the site of much Spanish/English aggro with a Unesco fort to show off, the river is now usually a tranquil, forest girded haven for wildlife. The entrance is a bit tricky but as long as they are not letting out water from the dam when it becomes absolutely untenable it's not a big problem. So that's where we spent New Year 2023 along with Ben and Eliza on Three Rivers, a Canadian Hong Kong couple from Victoria.

Chagres River entrance.

Peaceful anchorage.

Good friends.

Keen birders at work.

Dr Livingstone I presume.

Exploring upstream.

The river is a consistent 10m-12m deep once you are through the entrance and you can anchor anywhere. For some reason not many boats come up here and in three days we only saw one other small craft zip past us. Idyllic and just what we needed to recharge. Plenty of birds for Hugh and Linda. Herons, swallows, parrots, kingfishers, flycatchers, vultures, frigate birds, it had it all. And to top it off as the New Year ticked over a large crocodile came swimming down between our boat and the shore. We did venture ashore at one point but after only 30m or so the jungle was so thick that we were concerned we would not be able to find our way back to the dinghies.

New Year with Ben and Eliza

Traditional English Christmas Pudding for New Year.

It's hard to tell what the weather is like outside the river where it is protected all round from the wind so it was with a bit of surprise when we came out and had to motor into a nasty chop back to Shelter Bay. Not an ideal journey for seasick prone Hugh who was not impressed to se us write "Slight to Moderate" in the log. He prefers to call the conditions "Phenomenal"!

So that's about it for Shelter Bay and 2022. It's been great here but it's time to move on. Admin for tomorrow's transit is complete and we've just had initial confirmation of the times mentioned at the top of this post. The complex requirements for entry to the Galapagos are also progressing well and we are trying to decide whether to apply for an extended six month visa for French Polynesia. Hugh and Linda will leave us after a couple of days in the Pacific to visit some of the more famous birding sites of Panama and then we will look forward to the arrival of Peter and Sally who will come with us to the Galapagos.

That's all for now.