Panama - The Real Deal

1st April to 6th April 2007

Pete……….

We decided that it was easiest to catch a taxi back to Colon after being awakened at 06:00. The drive back through the jungle was really pretty and we arrived back at 09:00 to find that our transit had slipped to Sunday the 8th.

The next couple of days we spent re-provisioning and generally just lolling around waiting for transit. Whilst in the yacht club, I overheard that a couple of Finnish guys had got hold of a set of South Pacific charts and were off to photocopy them. I quickly introduced myself and they agreed to make two copies of all charts and to give us a set. Some of the charts were already photocopies and the end result of re-photocopying left a bit to be desired but others were good re-productions. I am a little worried by the ones that state “Orientation Chart Only – Not to be used for navigation” but, since most charts of the South Pacific Islands are inaccurate anyway, I think that they will have to do! The idea with all landfalls is to arrive in daylight and eyeball into the anchorage.

On the Thursday, we heard that schedules for transit were moving. The line-handlers that we had recruited (Dick and Sam) had been moved to transit the same day as us and so we had another recruitment drive on. I rang the scheduler and he re-instated our original date of Saturday the 7th.

Luckily, we had met a couple who had arrived recently and who we last met in Gran Canaria – small world. Graham & Judy were sailing with another crew member, Herbert from Switzerland. Graham and Herbert were doing a trial transit with another boat (Thursday & Friday) and Graham and Judy agreed to come with us on the Saturday/Sunday. They are a great couple and will be fun to have aboard.

Saturday 7th April 2007

Fliss…………….

The day has arrived and we are due to pick up our pilot at 16:00hrs on “The Flats”. “The flats” is really the entrance to the canal and also the anchorage.

This morning Pete picked up our lines from Roger at the yacht club and we had agreed with Bolivar that we would meet him at 2pm and Graham & Judy should be on the boat at 3:30pm, just making sure that everyone was onboard ready for kick-off.

Pete left me on Nadezhda at 1:30pm to pick up Bolivar and I was on VHF listening duty just in case the scheduling department called us up.

At 2:45pm (Pete was still nowhere to be seen) I watched Graham heading off to the yacht club and a call came for us over the VHF advising us that our time had been brought forward to 3:30pm.

Pete………….

At the yacht club, rumour had it that a boat had been bumped to the next Monday and so I rang the scheduler to confirm our transit. He informed me that our departure had been brought forward to 15:50.

Fliss…………..

A mild form of panic ensued as I had no skipper, no crew and we had 45 minutes to get the boat ready and on “The Flats” ready to receive our pilot. The penalty for not being ready is that you get fined and you drop back to the bottom off the waiting list.

I tried calling on the Yacht Club on channel 12, 14 and 16 no reply! I found the phone number for the club and the line was constantly engaged, damn!

It was now 3pm and no sign of the errant crew members! Behind us was a really nice elderly South African couple and I spotted the hubby in the cockpit. “Hello, Hello (in my best British accent) I wonder if you know the VHF channel for the Yacht Club as I need to get in touch with Pete as we have had our time brought forward”….he was a star and said “Don’t worry I’ll go & find him” and off he roared in his super fast dinghy.

Luckily Pete was on his way back with Bolivar when the man caught up with him but we were still missing our crew members. Pete deposited Bolivar and went back to the Yacht club to round them up.

At 3:20pm, thank god! We had every one on board! One reason for the mild panic is that the holding is on smelly black glup so whilst taking the anchor up someone had to scrub and wash the chain down, this all takes time!!.

It was raining! (the beginning of the rainy season) we motored past a Russian boat that was to transit with us and wondered why they hadn’t got any lines or fenders ready, we called over to the skipper and asked if they were still transiting through the canal, they said that they were due to pick up their pilot at 18:00hrs. Next thing we knew their pilot was promptly delivered but they were not ready! They also didn’t have their line handlers onboard, a complete nightmare. The Russians had already been let down the day before and were desperately trying to recruit people last night.

Our pilot was delivered at 3:45pm. Pete did an excellent job at keeping Nadezhda still whilst he got onboard.

It was still raining!

Bolivar was superb at getting the boat ready, he was like a whirling dervish! Fenders adjusted, lines flaked out and he gave Pete a great sense of being in control, plus he’s a really nice man.

Whilst making our way to the Canal entrance our pilot said “The Ruskies won’t make it, they are too late” we all really felt for them as they really had been messed about.

This is where is gets interesting! We were going to raft up against a motor boat and they were going to go against the wall. Umm….. the motor boat was much smaller than us and definitely lighter.

Graham



Bolivar said “Pedro (Pete) the cleats on the motor boat are too small for your lines, do you have any cotton” actually he never said cotton but the thickness would have been about right! So lines swapped over we rafted together.

The motor boat drove us into the lock and Pete said to the skipper “Just to let you know we are 16+ tonnes and we don’t stop that well” the skipper off the other boat replied “16 tonnes, oh shit!”.

The main concerns where that 1; we were going to crush them and 2; we would pull the cleats off the deck.

Judi

Thankfully none of the above happened and we had a very easy transit through the 1st set of locks. The motor boat had a slightly different experience as all hands were on deck trying to keep the boat and its nice shiny new metal guardrails from being mashed up on the wall. I asked the pilot if we would be with them the next day and he said that they were going straight through. Had they just decided this????

It was still raining, actually torrential rain!

Bolivar said “Madam this is a good sign, if you get through early it means you will have a safe transit through the canal”. And we did get through early! We were on the mooring buoy at 7pm.

Celebration beers cracked and we all found a little spot to shelter from the rain.

At 08:30pm the word went out the Ruskies had made it! Pete got the foghorn out and we all gave them a cheer!!!!.

But, this wasn’t the end off their traumas, they messed up tying up to the buoy, Pete, Graham & Bolivar went out to help (in the torrential rain)… their anxiety was heightened as the pilot kept shouting at them “you don’t listen, I told you how to do it and now its all my fault” he really was a nasty piece of work and obviously didn’t want to do the overtime. The pilot boat arrived to take him off and he left without saying goodbye. They must have had a really stressful time with him.

Pete…………….

I think that the Ruskies cannot have a reverse gear. He missed the buoy by a good few yards but managed to throw us his lines. We pulled him in but he kept going forward and nearly mashed our Aries steering gear, fended-off and eventually tied-up, we slopped our way out of the rain for steaming plates of spicy chilli-con-carne.

The Russians came aboard later for a couple of drinks with their one-year-old daughter. Very friendly people they were and we sat and chatted in the hot, steamy enclosed cabin with the hatches closed to keep out the rain.

A few tins of beer later and Bolivar serenaded us with local Panamanian songs and a surprisingly good voice. The Russians left us to it and we eventually retired at 02:00 ready for our alarm call at 05:30.

Sunday 8th April 2007

The pilot boat arrived soon after we had demolished the first round of coffees. Three boats in all were waiting to run the second leg of the transit – across Gatun Lake and down through the locks on the Pacific side. Bolivar noticed that the pilot boat had only two advisors aboard and said that, sometimes, boats were left to wait until the following day to go through. So, we jumped up and down and waved them over. To no avail, the advisors were deposited on the other two boats and off they went! They then came over and, to our relief told us that they would return with another advisor in half an hour. This puts the pressure on as we would have to catch up with the lead boats in order to pass through the locks with them.

45 minutes later, the pilot boat re-appeared and dumped our pilot aboard.

Fliss……

He certainly made an appearance! He fell onto the cockpit seats and lolled around, I thought he was really hungover but Pete said “oh no he’s just pissed as a newt”. He declared that he had been in the bar till 4am and had come straight to the boat he wasn’t at all embarrassed just proud of the fact. Coffee anyone?

Bolivar said that his brother was a very rich and powerful man in Panama so no one could say anything. I think the pilot boat realised he was drunk and held him back for a while in a vain attempt to sober him up.

He was actually quite nice but the drunk ramblings drove everyone out off the cockpit and on deck, poor Pete being the skipper had to stay behind and just ummed and ahhed in all the right places.

When he asked me which way was left & right I put the kettle back on AGAIN!

Pete……

Having transited previously, I knew which way to head but the entrance to the small boat channel was unclear and it took a few attempts to get our Pilot to guide us to the right-hand side of a yellow buoy. Once in the channel, it was well marked and I was confident I knew where we were going. As we came into the main shipping channel, our Pilot told us to go through the short-cut known as the Monkey Channel. On our trial transit, the advisor told us that it was shallow and the it should only be attempted by shallow draught boats. I queried this and the Advisor said “who cares, it’s not my boat”. Actually, we had no less than 10 metres depth and we continued to take short-cuts and cut-corners until we caught up with the Ruskies and had the other (French) boat in our sights. The Advisor’s main job was as a tug boat captain and he obviously knew Gatun lake very well.

We entered into Guillard Cut (where the hills were cut away into a narrow channel) and soon arrived at the Pacific locks at the same time as the leading French boat. It was decided that we would tie ourselves to the French boat and go through the locks rafted together. This we did and practiced a little manoeuvring whilst we waited. It was agreed that, since Nadezhda had the more powerful engine and also a bowthruster, we would be the driving boat and the French would simply help with any emergency manoeuvrability issues.

Fliss….

The good news was that our Advisor was now back in the land of the living but sporting a monumental hangover, in all fairness he knew his stuff and we had a uneventful transit through the last three locks into the Pacific.

As we entered the last locks we hoisted our English flag (George Cross) so that if anyone was looking at home via the webcam on the dockside they could see us.

As the last lock gate opened the heavens opened, welcome to the Pacific! Celebration beers cracked, Henry Lloyds on we made our way to Balboa to drop off crew and the pilot.

As we went under “The Bridge of Americas” we all threw coins under the bridge as it’s meant to be good luck!.

I think that a good time was had by all and it was great having Bolivar onboard as he really added to the enjoyment of the transit, a real gentleman and a good sport.

As we entered the anchorage we spotted Cameron (a mad Ozzie) and his wife Sharon (Scottish). Sharon being a proud Scot had a Scottish flag flying. Pete said quick get the English flag we promptly pegged it to the guard rails… A loud Scottish voice boomed “Git that roobissh doown”. Followed by an Ozzie accent “Hope you’ve got some cold beers on board”.

We decided to have a quite night as we were both shattered by the last 2 weeks of partying.

Rob & Lilly are here and it was so sweet as when she saw us she cheered and said “You made it! Congratulations and welcome to the Pacific”.

There is so much hype about going through the Canal and too many old wives tales, anyone out there who is planning on going through, fear not!