The Missing Days!

So.......we finally have a data connection via the SSB HF radio. Many hours of trying things have finally borne fruit. I think it's possible some of these have already been sent but at least they are all together here from Day 2 onwards. A couple of days and we should be in the Galapagos.



Date: 20th February 2023 (Day 2)
Distance Travelled in Last 24 Hours: 23.5 miles

This morning we took out an expensive SatPhone subscription just in case the SSB continues to play up. Gill emptied the entire contents of the fridge that no longer works (refrigerant problem?), started up the freezer that we have never run and reloaded it full of the old fridge stuff. And we continued the awkward dialogue with our Panamanian agent. Gill donned her swimsuit and braved the cold water and strong current to see just how bad the hull was. It turned out to be not as bad as we had feared so we decided to leave.

A shame in some ways as Contadora beach is beautiful. Meanwhile Kevin on Mareki 2 had made a permanent temporary repair to his main furling gear, so off we went at 11.00am.

Motoring to start with and then sailing in gentle breezes alongside Meraki. We sorted out communications with them and generally started to get into the swing of passage making. They caught a nice 8lb Spanish Mackerel and we didn't. Currents were strong and variable as we weaved our way through the islands. The wind then strengthened during the afternoon. We reefed the main then the yankee then furled the yankee as the downwind apparent wind approached 20 knots. 7 knots of boat speed and all was good. Now of course it has dropped and we wonder whether to shake out the reef.

Food of course is important. Sally made lunch at breakfast time. An excellent decision.

Now we are preparing for our first night. Watches have been set, evening meal will soon be prepared. It's 16.30 and time to send this message off.




Date: 21st February 2023 (Day 3)
Distance travelled in last 24 Hours: 116 miles

It always happens on the first night. First of all I still couldn't get the SSB to work and the sat phone was not set up yet so no blog to our subscribers.

Anyway shortly after 8pm we decided to gybe and somehow after a nice gybe the wind steering went crazy, we lost steering and the wheel almost came off. No idea how! The wind strengthened and all hell broke loose for a while, 20 plus knots apparent downwind and the autopilot couldn't hold it either. Very hard hand steering on a lumpy course. Gill and Sally bore the brunt of it and were ready for their watches to end. It eased a bit for Peter's watch and as I came on we gybed again to avoid the traffic separation zone and the autopilot did its job. Later we discovered a batten had come out of the sail and was lost. No damage to the sail though.

The wind stayed lower at around 15 knots for most of the day as we slowly adapted to the broken sleep regime. 3 hours in the day, 2 at night. The current was with us and by evening time we had 2.4 knots of current to whisk us along at 5.5-6.0 knots.

Books were read, chats were had, plans were made and we started to learn more about each other's family. Tom, Peter and Sally's son, sails very fast foiling boats for Team Canada and sadly we heard his boat had been destroyed in Australia whilst being lifted out of the water in a squall. He has rope burns on his hands but is otherwise OK.

Fish? No. Birds? No. Whales? No [no whales, no whales, no whales].

We have managed to contact Kevin and Shawna on Meraki 2. Two boats? It's a race. And they are winning at present having taken a straighter course across the traffic separation zone where we opted to gybe our way past it.

We all seem to be getting on with each other well and Gill and I are learning more sailing techniques from P&S.

So after a hectic first night things are settling down nicely. We have less than 700 miles to go now.



Date: Wed 22nd February 2023 (Day 4).
Distance covered in last 24 hours: 132 miles.

Settling into passage life now. The Pacific Ocean which up to now has seemed devoid of life is waking up. As the waves built this morning the dolphins came to play. A single "plop" alerted us, then other and another. Soon they were everywhere. Big dolphins, maybe 30 of them, zooming and splashing, flipping and jumping. Eyeing us up they played in the bow wave as we stood at the bow oohing and aahing. Big dolphins these, possibly Pacific Striped with one blunt nosed whale(?) possibly a Pygmy Killer Whale. Later in the day we spotted a chunky, largish white bird we had never seen before. Jenny and Emma's "Birds of Central America" soon identified it as a Royal Tern. And then what should land on the side deck but a booby with a nice white breast and yellow feet soon identified as a common Brown Booby. A bit scruffy he preened for over an hour before being shooed off leaving his calling card on the deck. Off he went with another female. They swooped away just above the waves before returning half an hour later to perch on the bow. I think they are still there now at 3am.

Shortly before dusk the starboard reel suddenly screamed. The lure I made with a small pill container, a lead weight, two muppets and two hooks in series. I was fishing a long way back and he sped off, leaping out of the water, blue green and gold. A large mahi mahi that I couldn't stop. Eventually I lost him and reeling in the back hook had been straightened. Shame that would have fed us for several meals.

We have had a good current of 1.5 to 2.0 knots most of the way so far. That's particularly good tonight as the wind has dropped and we've switched the engine on for the first time this passage. On tickover we are still making 5.1 knots in just the right direction. With the SSB radio out of commission for the time being and the SatPhone refusing to send files our communication is limited to twice daily Position Reports and SatPhone SMS messages. Kevin and Shawna on Meraki 2 are 30 miles away from us at the moment and I see no ships on the AIS.

Later today I'm going to make some bread and maybe try some more things to get the SSB working. We are well over a third of the way to the Galapagos Islands now and we have started to think about arrival and what we want to do there. Climbing a volcano seems high on everyone's list. But for now my 2.00am-4.00am watch is coming to its end so I'll finish here.




Date: Thurs February 23rd 2023 (Day 5) - daughter Emma's birthday.
Distance covered in last 24 hours: 110? miles.

Beware, Technical Alert!

If Wednesday was a wildlife day Thursday was most definitely the Parasailor day. The Parasailor is the massive sail that we bargained into the sale of Mehalah but have only flown a couple of times and never really understood. One of the things we had hoped Peter and Sally would do was to help us learn to use it confidently. It is triangular and flies out in front of the boat attached to the top of the mast and with two flying lower corners each with two ropes attached to control it. It is like a spinnaker but has a horizontal slot across it about two thirds of the way up to make it easier to control. It also has a sleeve that you pull over it to make it easier to bring down. It is also very beautiful. So having motored at idling speed all night we were keen to try it out. It took the best part of an hour just to sort out and run the lines. We read the manual and watched a video and soon it was ready for hoisting. Up it went. Amazing. 5 knots of wind behind us and a current pushing us at around two knots and there we are sailing at 6-7 knots almost dead downwind. A great success and as we learned how to manage it we were pleased no one had answered our ad in Shelter Bay when we tried to sell it. It will be ideal for the upcoming long passage to French Polynesia.

It wasn't all Parasailor though. Around lunchtime the same reel screamed again and another mahi mahi was jumping out of the water. Smaller than yesterday's I bought it close to the boat before this one too slipped the hook. Much frustration as they are not only beautiful fish but very good to eat.

We also saw a new bird species. A Red Billed Tropic Bird. Like its Atlantic cousin the White Tropic bird it is almost pure white with a long forked tail. This one though has a prominent red bill hence the name.

Dinner tonight, always important, were delicious buritos. They are like a Mexican rolled pancake filled with a mix of onions, peppers, black beans and spicy sauce all dry fried before being rolled up in wraps. Peter and Sally's boat is currently in Mexico so Sally was able to make very authentic buritos.

So now the wind has dropped completely again. It's 10.30 at night. and we have decided not to run the engine tonight but to drop our sails and drift slowly on the two knot current as it pushes us slowly towards the Galapagos Islands. We are almost halfway now. It is quiet apart from the familiar creaking boat noises and the occasional splash of a fish. It's a new moon that has already set so the stars are bright with cloud cover slowly increasing. Everyone else is asleep and it's a lovely balmy night.



Date: Fri February 24th 2023 (Day 6).
Distance covered in last 24 hours: 95? miles.

This report might be a bit disjointed. It's my first night watch with the parasailor flying. We only have about 5 knots of wind and it's a bit far forward of the beam 3for this big lightweight sail so I have to keep adjusting it.

The wind stayed light all night last night. Too light for the parasail so we decided to drift with the current. No sails. We discovered that in that situation Mehalah drifts stern first! It was quiet but slow so eventually the engine was back on and we continued out gentle progress south west.

The morning started for me with bread making. I don't do much cooking (except omelettes) but bread making is my domain. Weighing out ingredients was tricky today as the electric scales kept saying "Unstb" or unstable as we gently rocked around. That resulted in too much dough for the tin. However, today was "halfway day" so Gilly had a celebration meal planned and the extra dough turned into four small individual rolls, one for each of us. [These small details become interesting, at least to us in our little isolated world].

But before lunch the wind crept up so it was time to launch the parasail again. This time Gill and I were supposed to drive things but the carefully packed sail twisted as it came out of its bag so we all spent a considerable time sorting it out. But since then it has flown continually on a port reach in 5-7 knots of wind at around 4-5 knots over the ground.

Lunch then indeed was excellent. Wraps filled with capers, ham, cheese, peppers rolled up and cut into pinwheels. A small roll each, delicious goats cheese, apple and olives. All washed down with a small tot of halfway rum with a few drops also reserved for Neptune.

This afternoon the wind dropped further and we started to see branches floating in the water. We had arrived in the ITCZ, the doldrums and we appeared to be in a gyre or circulating area of water. Rubbish gathers here and for the first time the sea was filled of it. Pieces of plastic waste in our normally clean sea. Not nice. And then two things happened. A ship crossed just ahead of us, close enough for us to call the Indian captain to check he had seen us. And then at the same time Gill said "look a whale dead ahead". Indeed there was a large object but not a whale rather the prow of a half sunken boat sticking up a couple of metres out from the sea. We sounded the horn but no sign of life. What tragic story had unfolded there? Very sobering.

During the day Peter and Sally's InReach finally died. This is a small device that sends positions and texts to the outside world. Theirs had been operational for many years and it's demise meant our SSB radio, our SatPhone and their InReach had all lost the ability to communicate optimally. Our InReach and SMS SatPhone texts are our only links to the outside world and for some reason Meraki have stopped sending us their position updates too. It feels like a long way from nowhere.

And so our thoughts start to turn to our arrival in the Galapagos Islands. Monday or Tuesday should see our arrival there and yet another new country to explore. Our agent, Javier, will have organised the ten inspectors and divers who will meet us. We just hope our hull will be clean enough to allow us in.



Date: 25th February 2023 (Day 7).
Distance covered in last 24 hours: 102 miles?

I woke up this morning determined to make a second fishing lure similar to the one that has had both bites. We troll [drag behind us] two rods and one always seems to get more bites than the other. That new lure has still not been made.

First up, the wind which had just about held for the night, dropped completely again. So down came the parasail. This time the process was driven by Gill and me with consultancy from Peter. A lot smoother than yesterday. It's great to have such experienced and fun sailors with us. Yet another brilliant crew.

It was dead flat and we wanted to check the cleanliness of the hull in case we needed to alert Javier our agent in Galapagos in advance. But there were too many small stinging jellyfish to make it viable. So we motored on south west for a few more miles. Eventually we stopped the engine. By this time Gill had completed her Mk 2 boarding ladder and she "volunteered" to go and investigate the hull. Fully covered and equipped with various kitchen utensils in she went. Not good news. There is STILL slime and a bit of growth on the hull and rudder. What to do? We need to contact Javier by email and both our SSB and SatPhone are not sending data. We decide I will try to get one or the other working before resorting to texting someone back home to send a message. No luck with the SatPhone which seems to have developed a hardware fault since we last used it so time to work on the SSB. I remade the antenna connection which was corroded and finally created a new earth using one of the through hull bonding wires. And eventually it worked. Emails and weather updates poured in. Success. We sent Javier a message.

Meanwhile the dolphins came and went and finally a large whale showed itself maybe 400m away. First its back and so much later its dorsal fin emerged. The fin was so far back Gill thought at first it was being chased by a dolphin. It blew a spout a couple of times before sinking back into the depths. A Fin Whale, one of the largest animals on earth. Followed later by half a dozen smaller whales much closer to us.

Of course there was another fishy story. This time only a brief encounter (same rod) and it got away before I even got to the rod. The wildlife encounters didn't end there though. As it began to get dark two Red Footed Boobies (like small gannets) landed on the top of the mast, and are still there. One of them is sitting on our wind indicator rotating through 180 and sometimes 360 degrees as Mehalah rocks back and forth. I started up the mast to scare them off with a fly swat but it got too dark and I found myself slipping out of my bosun's chair so we left them up there and hope they don't break it.

Dinner tonight was delicious, a Sally special. The last of the mushroom ravioli with a mix of olives, melted cheese, sultanas and capers.

We've been motoring a lot in the last couple of days so we also checked the fuel situation and pumped 60 litres from the mended bottom tank (thank you Harry) to the top tank. This trip has convinced Peter and Sally that they will venture across the Pacific too in the not too distant future. And they will be buying a parasail for Milly. Meraki 2 are now well ahead of us having motored during the nights that we drifted and sailed. Shame because we were hoping to meet up with them on the equator. They are only stopping in the Galapagos for fuel so will probably have left by the time we get there. I wonder if we'll ever see them again.

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Day 2 - Galapagos Passage

Date: 20th February 2023
Distance Travelled in Last 24 Hours: 23.5 miles

This morning we took out an expensive SatPhone subscription just in case the SSB continues to play up. Gill emptied the entire contents of the fridge that no longer works (refrigerant problem?), started up the freezer that we have never run and reloaded it full of the old fridge stuff. And we continued the awkward dialogue with our Panamanian agent. Gill donned her swimsuit and braved the cold water and strong current to see just how bad the hull was. It turned out to be not as bad as we had feared so we decided to leave.

A shame in some ways as Contadora beach is beautiful. Meanwhile Kevin on Mareki 2 had made a permanent temporary repair to his main furling gear, so off we went at 11.00am.

Motoring to start with and then sailing in gentle breezes alongside Meraki. We sorted out communications with them and generally started to get into the swing of passage making. They caught a nice 8lb Spanish Mackerel and we didn't. Currents were strong and variable as we weaved our way through the islands. The wind then strengthened during the afternoon. We reefed the main then the yankee then furled the yankee as the downwind apparent wind approached 20 knots. 7 knots of boat speed and all was good. Now of course it has dropped and we wonder whether to shake out the reef.

Food of course is important. Sally made lunch at breakfast time. An excellent decision.

Now we are preparing for our first night. Watches have been set, evening meal will soon be prepared. It's 16.30 and time to send this message off.

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Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com

Day 3 - Galapagos Passage

Date: 21st February 2023
Distance travelled in last 24 Hours: 116 miles

It always happens on the first night. First of all I still couldn't get the SSB to work and the sat phone was not set up yet so no blog to our subscribers.

Anyway shortly after 8pm we decided to gybe and somehow after a nice gybe the wind steering went crazy, we lost steering and the wheel almost came off. No idea how! The wind strengthened and all hell broke loose for a while, 20 plus knots apparent downwind and the autopilot couldn't hold it either. Very hard hand steering on a lumpy course. Gill and Sally bore the brunt of it and were ready for their watches to end. It eased a bit for Peter's watch and as I came on we gybed again to avoid the traffic separation zone and the autopilot did its job. Later we discovered a batten had come out of the sail and was lost. No damage to the sail though.

The wind stayed lower at around 15 knots for most of the day as we slowly adapted to the broken sleep regime. 3 hours in the day, 2 at night. The current was with us and by evening time we had 2.4 knots of current to whisk us along at 5.5-6.0 knots.

Books were read, chats were had, plans were made and we started to learn more about each other's family. Tom, Peter and Sally's son, sails very fast foiling boats for Team Canada and sadly we heard his boat had been destroyed in Australia whilst being lifted out of the water in a squall. He has rope burns on his hands but is otherwise OK.

Fish? No. Birds? No. Whales? No [no whales, no whales, no whales].

We have managed to contact Kevin and Shawna on Meraki 2. Two boats? It's a race. And they are winning at present having taken a straighter course across the traffic separation zone where we opted to gybe our way past it.

We all seem to be getting on with each other well and Gill and I are learning more sailing techniques from P&S.

So after a hectic first night things are settling down nicely. We have less than 700 miles to go now.

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Day 1 - Galapagos Passage

 Date: 19th February 2023

Location: Contadora Island, Panama

We left La Playita this morning at 8.30 having checked out with the marina. We and Meraki 2 motored out and circled our friends in the anchorage to wave goodbye.

15 knots on a port beam reach gave us a wonderful sail almost all the way here, an eight hour sail. Soon after departure we set up Paul, the wind steering. We had full main up and rather a lot of weather helm which make his work very hard with continual tweaking required. But the sea was flat, the company good and the fishing rods were out. Unfortunately...no fish.

Mareki 2 reported by radio that they had a problem with their external mainsail furler and they are working on that now anchored 50m away from us.

Peter and Sally seemed to enjoy themselves and we learned a bit of sail trimming from them. By now Paul was working great and for most of the time we just left him to it. Even better Sally, who had feared sea sickness had no I'll effects which bodes well for the rest of the passage.

So now we are anchored off a lovely sandy beach with a few other sailing boats and plenty of motor boats too. After all it is Carnival weekend.

Of course the day was not without a few setbacks as well. Our fridge has stopped working (great timing!) so tomorrow we will see if we can use the freezer (normally not switched on) instead.

PS: I am having trouble sending these blogs. You might not received anything til we are in Galapagos. Apologies.

And our hull that was supposedly cleaned in La Playita seems dirty and our agent is getting stroppy about recleaning.

But overall today a great shakedown both crew and boatwise.

Final Preparations

Date: 17th February 2023

Location: La Playita Marina, Panama City

Well, were just about ready. Today is Friday. We aim to leave early on Sunday. We will set off with Meraki 2 with the intention of keeping reasonably close to them until the Galapagos.

Its been an absolutely manic week. We still weren't happy with the rudder repair so Kevin on Meraki 2 has done a huge fibreglass reinforcing job on it. It is now magnificent and probably the strongest part of the boat. And the wheel which has always been a bit stiff to turn now turns great. But that's taken lots of time for us all with no shop stocking all the requirements. Uber taxi profits will be up this year!

Men at work.

Complete! New basket, new cap, new fillets.

And then there's diesel, water, provisioning, communications, engine checks, rigging, windsteering, cleaning.....the list seems never to end. But we will be ready.

Today it's Galapagos fumigation, meet the crew, check out of Panama, get Galapagos ship arrival document printed, go to the other side of Panama for a dental filling, meet up with everyone to say goodbye.

The other, very bad, news is that our friends Ford and Michelle with their dog Izzy were boarded at night whilst in a remote anchorage and held up at gunpoint. They are very traumatized and considering whether to continue sailing. This in a location generally considered safe. Very sobering and makes us all the more keen to leave Panama.

COMMUNICATIONS - Important. Please read.

We will try to send a short daily text-only blog as we did during our Atlantic crossings. It should take around a week to get to Galapagos where we will spend around three weeks and a further month to the Marquesas the first island group in French Polynesia.

The blog messages will come daily via a connection to long range radio. Our Sailmail email address is:

MVGC3@sailmail.com

We would welcome TEXT ONLY emails to that address but please DO NOT HIT "REPLY" as that will send back our message to you as well. START A NEW EMAIL ADDRESSED TO MVGC3@sailmail.com

You can track us by using https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/mehalah/journey

Our great friend Jack will be providing weather updates for us as we cross. Thanks Jack!

Heron on the dock.

Looking Westward

Date: 7th February 2023

Location: La Playita

Every 15 minutes, every hour, every day, every week, all year another large ship enters or leaves the Panama Canal sending nasty bow waves a few hundred yards across to our anchorage at La Playita, Panama City. They slap against our stern and it sounds as though we've just been hit by something.

All the talk here is of forthcoming passages. There are around a dozen boats anchored here. Most are headed west either to the Galapagos or straight to French Polynesia. A new world for all of us. Long passages ahead and more decisions to make. We are Galapagos headed but that means a lot of expense and a LOT of hassle.

They don't really want cruising yachts there maybe because we don't spend enough. So we must employ an agent to enter, we need to have the hull professionally cleaned before we leave Panama, we must pay to be fumigated not more than 72 hours before departure, provide details of our last 10 ports and so the list goes on. All documentation must of course, be submitted electronically, as pdf files, in colour. What a palaver!

But when else will we ever get the opportunity to sail in our own boat to the famous Galapagos Islands? Answer? Never. So we will go. And joining us will be Canadian friends Peter and Sally of sailing vessel Milly who we helped through the canal last year.

It's all a compromise though. Leaving here early to get to Galapagos means we don't have time to wait two months for an interview and a six month visa for French Polynesia. So we will have to pass through that wonderful cruising ground in a mere three months. Thank you Brexit!

There are a couple of easy island destinations from here, Taboga and the Las Perlas islands. Ideal get away spots providing welcome respite from the hurly burly of Panama City and the endless trips to PriceSmart, Rey's, the fish market and Riba Smith to stock up for the next six months. Food and especially alcohol is apparently twice as expensive in French Polynesia.

It's also been an opportunity to get checked out healthwise. We paid a visit to Hotel Clinic Panama. For $45 or Balboas as they are called here my routine PSA test was effortlessly carried out and next day I was emailed the result. 1.8, up from 1.7. That'll do pig. Dr Duncan, my consultant back in the UK wants to keep me on his books and wants to follow our progress too. Thank you for everything Duncan.

We spent a few days in Taboga with Pisces and Meraki II where we made the hot sweaty climb to the top of Cross Hill.

It seems that we all know each other now or at least friends of friends. This is getting to be a small, select group and we are all trying to decide on routes, weather options, communication equipment, agents. There is an undercurrent of apprehension, of excitement and wonder that we have all got this far. It's a mere 900 miles to the Galapagos and another 3,000+ to the next tiny spots in the middle of the Pacific, French Polynesia. FP is made up of several island groups, thousands of tiny islands. We will make landfall in the first group, the Marquesas and probably check in at Hiva Oa.

After that it's the Tuamotus, Society Islands and then we leave the French islands and start to look towards New Zealand with the Cook Islands, Fiji and Tonga. It's a long way. Total mileage to New Zealand? Around 8,000 miles. At say 5 knots, that's 1,600 hours of sailing. (Yikes, I just worked that out!). Did you know, more people climbed Everest last year than sailed across the Pacific?

We've started playing, "What's your biggest worry?". It changes every day. Provisioning, things breaking, the rudder, the engine, the crew (haha P&S), communications, lurking coral reefs, hitting a whale. Best to just listen to Southampton football club's old manager and "control the controlables".

One interesting technical topic that keeps recurring this year is Starlink. Elon Musk of Twitter fame is also launching a rocket every two weeks each with sixty small satellites. They now cover the entire world and provide superfast internet in every country that has given him permission to use it. Rumour has it that it even works across the Pacific to Polynesia. Quite a few of the more upmarket or tech savvy boats have installed it and it's great here at anchor. It's cheaper and much faster than sat phones. But, and for me it's a big but, do you really want fast internet in the middle of the ocean? Surely that's the time to slow down, switch off and watch the ocean. I guess time will tell but for now we'll stick with daily position reports and a short daily blog sent to you via our HF radio.

Current Starlink satellites!

Our time in the anchorage here is the usual mix of jobs and pleasure. Jobs have included clearing a blocked toilet (always fun), various sewing jobs, small mending jobs, cleaning and stowing ready for the forthcoming passage.

Hoses cleaned, filter cleaned, no leaks.

And we've paddled our canoe with the fabulous skyline of Panama City in the background.

Panama City and a pelican.

It's been eventful on the wildlife front too with racoons, fish and finally for Gill some sloths including one actually in the marina.

Gill's favourite sloth.

So our next post will probably be on Day 1 of the Galapagos passage. We aim to leave around the 19th of this month. You should be able to track our progress at https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/mehalah/journey

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.