by KC2RIY, on January 9th, 2010 (
Panama)
We have survived day one of our transit. The morning started with boat cleaning and the usual checks. I really should have done the checks the day before in case any problems showed up. I threw in some extra checks including draining water from the fuel filters and checking the zinc anode on the genset. This last one gave us a problem as when I removed the bit that holds the zinc into the heat exchanger it came out with no zinc on it. I felt around and realized the zinc had unscrewed from the holder. I tried pulling it out but the screw end fell off leaving the bulk of the zinc free inside the heat exchanger. I therefore had to open up the heat exchanger and dig out the zinc. All time that had plenty of the afternoon before. It was a good clean out all the same. I found a couple of impeller blades in there that must have come off during charter and worked there way in there. I have accounted for all the blades I have lost so these must have come from earlier.
We set off about 8:30, half an hour later than I planned. Sam helmed the boat down the rest of the Chagres River until we hit the entrance. We had forecasts of 5-15 knots of wind but coming out it was around 20kts. The safe passage in and out of the river is not straight but it is narrow and has reefs either side. In the increased sea state it was hard to see where it was as there was surf all round. Fortunately we had our previous track to follow and the passage could just about be seen as we got close.
Once out to sea we decided to raise the sails. We had though the wind would be right on our nose and we’d be best off plodding into wind on motor. The wind had been up for several days so the seas were a mess. The wind wasn’t quite on our nose so sailing was by far the best option. With the boat bucking in the near shore waves I uncovered the sail and prepared the first reef. We raised the sails ok and were soon sailing.
It took a number of tacks to reach the sea wall entrance. A little way off the entrance it was evident we would get there just ahead of a tanker. However it began to speed up and our margin of safety was eroding. I hailed the master of the vessel and let him know of our intention to squeeze in ahead of him and turn out of the channel as soon as we were through. He said he was going to maintain a constant speed and direction and asked us to stay out of the way. We were almost at the entrance when we decided to tack once more and let him through first. Just as we made this maneuver he began to slow down. This would have given us an easy passage through the entrance ahead of him but it was too late. We soon tacked again and turned to follow the tanker. Soon he had slowed enough for us to overtake him as we passed through the sea wall. Annie was quite impressed by all this.
Once through the sea wall it was a gentle reach all the way to Shelter Bay Marina. I called them up and asked them if we could come in for fuel. They said the fuel guy would be there at 2pm. I asked if I could come onto the dock and wait for the fuel guy. This was my main goal so we could offload trash, let everyone have decent showers and get the lines and tires aboard. All of the latter we managed before having lunch aboard Dignity. I then went to the office to inquire about the fuel. They could not guarantee the chap would be there at 2pm. We had limited time available and I didn’t want to hang around so I appologized for the hassle and said we’d leave without waiting to load fuel.
Next stop was “The Flats”, anchorage area F where we were to await our advisor. Once we were anchored there it was time to set up our 4 120ft lines and place the tires around Dignity as fenders. We also strapped cushions down onto the solar panels in case one of the lines that we would later thrown caused damage. Two other boats were already there, a motor vessel called Navigator and a sailboat called Alcheringa II.
Our advisor arrived around 4:45 pm. He was a nice chap called Larry. He advised us to head towards the locks at slow speed almost immediately. Once in the channel we could see a tanker approaching from behind. This was the tanker we would share our uplocking. Behind that came the two vessels we’d shared the anchorage with.
They each had advisors aboard and soon they’d agreed that Dignity and Alcheringa II should raft up. This we accomplished in front of the locks as we were waiting for them to be ready. The winds continued to be strong and there seemed to be a current heading towards the locks all making us drift along at nearly 3 knots. This gave us plenty of practice maneuvering while rafted together. We eventually made it into the locks. The tanker went in first, then a tug, then Navigator (who had extreme difficulties navigating his boat in a straight line), then us. As we approach the docks, line handlers threw light lines to us with ‘monkey fists’ on the end. Their aim was very good. Helen and John were on the bow and Sam and Annie manned the stern. They tied the light lines to our prepared dock lines which were than hauled ashore. The line handlers then walked up to the top of the dock as we eased our way in.
The lock doors closed behind us and shortly after, somewhere, massive valves were opened and the water entered. It was quite gentle really, not as bad as one could believe from reading all the cautions. Once the waters raised and settled the next set of lock doors opened, we pulled back the light lines and we all moved forward into the next lock. We held back as Navigator continued to have problems and needed to be given plenty of room. The process repeated two more times taking around half an hour per lock.
It was quite dark by the time we exited the final lock. A tanker was already coming in as we powered out which made things interesting. As we exited the lock we unrafted the boats and made for the buoys where we tied up for the night. We arrived around 8:45pm at a position no more than a mile and a half from our first nights anchorage on the river.
We had expected the mornings advisor to arrive around 6:30am and set off at 7am. However Francisco, our new advisor for day 2, arrived at 6:15am and asked for an immediate departure. Day 2 to follow ….
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First order of the day was to hail the launch. This took a while but we finally attained their attention and soon the launch was on its way. After picking us up we headed over to Navigator to collect their crew. This gave us an opportunity to learn more about their problems in the canal. They said they were getting a tremendous amount of turbulence from the tug they were next to which was flipping them around. Must have been quite concerning.
Once ashore we walked along the causeway to the islands at the end. This took a while and by the time we reached the first set of shops it was time for lunch. We found an ok Tiki restaurant. Annie again insisted on paying for dinner which we are again thankful.