Greeting from the Pacific Ocean! We made it. When we published our last blog entry on March 11 we had just arrived in Shelter Bay Marina on the Colon side of the Canal. As you know, Colon is the East entry and exit point for transit through the Panama Canal. Transit through the Canal is no casual affair. Scheduling is controlled by the Canal authorities. You must book in advance and acquaint yourselves with the process, rules and regulations of the passage. One of the benefits of transiting the Panama Canal as part of an organized rally — with organizers like the World Cruising Club (WCC) who have done this many, many times — is that we had someone else to take care of the paper work. We still needed to learn Canal etiquette and get ourselves through the Canal but having someone take care of the “administrative” side of things was very nice, particularly because we were on a tight schedule with only 3 full days to prepare before our scheduled lockage. Another benefit was that WCC was able to negotiate a special lockage for us. That meant that the World ARC Pacific fleet was able to go through in two special transits with just other boats in the fleet rather than along with freighters and cargo ships. Having now completed our transit through the Canal — an awesome experience — we were very glad that those in the lock with us were other sailboats vs. large cargo ships and freighters built to the width specifications of the lock to optimize their payload. It would have been incredibly claustrophobic to have high lock walls on either side and tall ships that block your view in front and/or in back.
Three days to prepare for the transit may sound like a lot of time but we had a ton to do. And there would be little to no respite on the Panama City side of the Canal once we got there with only two days before the scheduled departure to Las Perlas Islands. First, we had to prepare for our transit itself which occurred on the Atlantic side of the Canal. Second, we had to begin our preparations for our visit to the Galápagos Islands which occurred on both sides of the Canal. As a highly protected area, there are many rules that we had to be aware of and adhere to in order to visit these lovely islands in a private yacht — something that very few people do. Finally, we had to look ahead to our longest passage of our circumnavigation — the ~ 3,000 nautical mile sail from Galápagos to the Marquesas.
We will start with the preparation for the Panama Canal transit. First, we needed to have 4 line handlers in addition to our skipper (Zack). We had 2 people — Jill and Mark — but the authorities require you to have 2 more. In addition, you must allow an “advisor” from the Canal authorities to board your vessel and transit with you to help you transit the Canal safely — safely for yourself and others. We could have hired 2 “professional” line handlers for $150 USD a piece but we were fortunate that 2 crew members — Marcus and Uwe from another boat in our fleet (Seaside) — offered to serve as our additional line handlers. We were in the second group going through the Canal and they had gone through the Canal with the first group so they were able to complete the first transit and take a shuttle from La Playita Marina in Panama City back to Shelter Bay Marina on the Atlantic side. Our line handlers would stay with us from the beginning to the end of our transit while our advisor (with the assist of a pilot boat) would join us right after we left the marina before going through the first lock on the Atlantic side, exit our boat to sleep after we arrived in Gatun Lake and were secured for the night and then rejoin us the next morning to complete the transit through the remaining locks on the Pacific side.
Second, we needed to attend a briefing to learn about the protocols for transiting through the Canal and also get our “nest” assignments. When we say “nest” assignment we are referring to information regarding what other boats would be rafted together with during our transit as well well as the order of our raft up. In our case we had Casamara on our port side and Choucas 3 on our starboard side. (Our feature photo for this post is a picture of our “nest”.) That meant we were in the middle of two other boats. This is important because your position in the raft up determines your role in the process. As the middle boat our primary job was powering the boat, steering ever so carefully, to get us into and out of the locks without incident. As part of their service, the good people with the WCC rented very large fender balls that were secured to the outer side of the outer boats in the nest. Still, those fenders would only go so far if there was a collision and we would have made some of our new friends very unhappy if we steered them into a concrete wall. The job of the outer boats was to manage two lines — one near the bow of the boat and one towards the stern — to hold the boat securely to the side of the lock walls. They either had to keep tightening the lines as the boat went up through a lock with rising water (the Atlantic side) or loosening up the lines in a lock with water lowering (the Pacific side). Though we were the middle boat, and would not be handling the lines holding the nest securely to both sides of the locks, we were required to bring 4 very heavy lines with us during the transit that would be used as spares should something untoward happen to any of the lines actually in service. We will describe the actual transit more below but, for those of you on pins and needles wanting to know how we did, we’ll give you a spoiler alert: Zack did a masterful job and got us through all the locks without even the slightest of close calls. Nothing less than Jill has come to expect of Zack’s piloting skills.
In addition to learning about our nest and our role, we also got a brief history lesson and an overview of what to expect when transiting through the Canal. In short, there were 6 locks total in the Canal: 3 on the Atlantic side and 3 on the Pacific side. We would transit the first 3 locks late afternoon on March 15, arriving in Gatun Lake after dark. Gatun Lake is a man-made lake created by damming the Chagres River. At the time of its creation it was the largest made-made lake on the planet at the 164-square miles. (It is now the second largest). The lake has very large mooring buoys on both ends and boats in our fleet would secure themselves to the mooring buoys while other boats in the fleet would raft up with them for the night. We would remain there until about 8:30 or 9:00 AM the next morning when we would motor across the lake — all 21 miles — until we got to the first of the 3 locks on the other side, beginning our journey into the Pacific. Once we were through all 3 of the locks we would be in the Pacific Ocean!
Finally, aside from securing line handlers to assist with our transit and learning about the logistics, we had to prepare food. Unfortunately, people can’t go without food and water for 2 days. You are expected to feed your crew members as well as the advisor and feed them well. You are also required to have unopened bottle water on board for your advisor. This meant that Jill was provisioning to feed 6 people (5 hungry men and one small female vegan) for 2 days. To stick with a crowd pleaser, Jill prepared her home-made marinara sauce along with a Caesar salad for dinner the first night, an egg scramble loaded with garlic, onion, red pepper and cheddar cheese along with a side of breakfast sausage and toast made out of Jill’s home-made bread for breakfast the next morning and wraps with a variety of cold cuts and cheeses for lunch the next day. She also made sure that the cupboards of Che Figata were full of cookies and snacks that our crew could grab at their convenience. And, just in case that wasn’t enough, she also took two of her reserve meals out of the freezer — coconut pumpkin chickpea curry and jackfruit white bean chili with corn — to serve to anyone who wasn’t keen on the planned menu. It took Jill the better part of an entire day to provision and then pre-cook the food that was part of the Canal transit menu.
But, as noted above, that is not all that kept us busy. We needed to begin our preparations for our Galápagos Islands visit. The plan was to head to the Galápagos Islands after leaving Panama City following a very brief stop in the Las Perlas Islands. To maintain the healthy eco system that has kept the Galápagos Islands rich in plant and animal diversity there are many rules you need to follow if you are visiting by boat. One is that the bottom of your boat is pristine meaning that it is 100% free of even the tiniest speck of seaweed or barnacles. You are expected to have had the bottom of your boat painted fairly recently before your visit with anti-foul paint. (We had ours painted in early November). You also needed to arrange for a diver to get in the water to thoroughly clean your hull including the hard to reach places like through-holes. Divers from the Ecuadorian government inspect your boat upon arrival in the Galápagos Islands and if they find even the slightest trace of algae or any other growth they impose a fine and make you go 40 nautical miles off shore with a professional diver to clean your hull. This process takes 2 full days which would cause you to lose precious time during your short 12 day stay in the Galápagos Islands. Unfortunately, the Ecuadorian authorities found a small bit of algae (less than enough to fill a thimble) on one of the boats in the World ARC Circumnavigators fleet that left from St. Lucia about 6 weeks before we did so they got first hand experience with the remediation fees and process. We were determined not to repeat their experience. That meant that, in addition to having a diver clean our bottom in Panama City, we planned to check the bottom of our boat again in Las Perlas to be assured that it was squeaky clean. (Another spoiler alert: it was not! More on that when we describe our Las Perlas visit below).
We also had to have our boat professionally fumigated to ensure it was free of hitch hiking insects. We would be given certificates to validate that the bottom of our boat was thoroughly cleaned and that our boat was fully fumigated in advance of our visit. Finally, we needed to create a check list (much to the delight of Jill, our spreadsheet queen) to make sure we completed all of the tasks required to successfully enter the Galápagos Islands. In addition to those things already mentioned, we needed to make sure that the soles of our shoes were clean of any soil and that we used up or removed any prohibited items from our boat before entering the islands’ waters. This included removal of oranges, passion fruit, blackberries, blueberries, whole pineapple, mangos and plants including cut flowers as well as any unfrozen meat and eggs.
Finally, if the prep work to transit the Canal and visit the Galápagos Islands was not enough, we also needed to provision for our passage to the Galápagos Islands as well as the approximate 3 week passage from the Galápagos Islands to the Marquesas (French Polynesia). As you might imagine, food shopping in the Galápagos Islands is fairly limited so Panama was the last best place to get everything we needed. Plus, with only 12 days in the Galápagos, most of the World ARC Pacific fleet, including us, had filled their days their with day tours and multi-day cruises leaving very little time for a major provisioning. We’d barely have time to do laundry! So we needed to review our inventory of non-perishables (we had done a fair amount of provisioning in St. Lucia), think through a meal plan and get enough to feed 3 people for 1 week (the passage from Las Perlas to Galápagos) and 4 people for an additional 3 weeks (Galápagos to the Marquesas). $1,500 USD — and 5 hours — later we had completed our provisioning to get us through to the Marquesas and stored our over flowing bounty in the many storage areas around the boat in cabins and under and behind the settees. With so much food stored on our boat things are really crammed in places. Retrieving our various items as we cook meals will definitely be a “process” but we have what we need to ensure that no one goes hungry for the next month. (We may be eating pasta, rice and beans for 4 weeks but no one will starve!) So, yes, we were really, really busy on both of sides of the Panama Canal. If it sounds exhausting, it was. If it doesn’t sound exhausting we didn’t do the description of the preparations justice and need to edit this blog entry until your are exhausted just reading it! Let us know.
Despite all that we had to do in a relatively short period of time, we did fit in a tour on both the Colon side (a full day tour of an Embera Indian Village) and the Panama side (a half day tour of Panama City) of the Canal. Well, in full disclosure, this use of the word “we” is the royal we because Zack was unable to attend the Embera Indian Village tour. Unfortunately, our bilge pump died and had to be replaced. We tried to get mechanics at the boatyard in Shelter Bay Marina to replace it but it was clear, despite numerous assurances that they would be visiting our boat shortly, that we could not rely on the yard to do the work. Zack and our crew member Mark took one for the team and spent 5 hours leaning down into our very deep bilge to replace it. The operation was successful but they missed a really lovely tour. What was really nice about the tour was that you got to experience several adventures in one day. The day started with a 90 minute shuttle bus ride North into the jungles of Panama. As the paved road gave away to a dirt road we boarded 4 wheel drive vehicles that, for another hour, took us further into the jungle towards the Chucunaque river deep in rain forest. Once at the river we were met by members of the Embera Indian tribe who loaded us into dug out canoes powered by outboard engines and we headed up river for another hour to get to the village. While going up river we were able to spot sloths, many bird species and snakes swimming across the water.
Though it was a wonderful trip up river it did make us feel very privileged in a not so good way. Our tour of the village coincided with the tail end of Panama’s dry season. As a result, the river was very low. So low in parts that we hit bottom and members of the tribe had to use poles to move us along and, when that didn’t work (as it often didn’t), they had to get out and pull us against the current as we sat comfortably in the canoes enjoying the views of the jungle as we floated by. Once we arrive in the village we were greeted by a drumbeat courtesy of members of the tribe. We had time to explore the village, visiting the communal kitchen and walking around the huts that were home to the tribe. All the structures were on stilts to accommodate the rising waters during rainy season. Following this bit of free-time we were treated to a brief question and answer session led by the regional chief with our tour guide Clemente serving as translator. We were also served a traditional lunch, presented in pouches made of palm leaves (no utensils), of fried fresh tilapia and pounded and fried plantains (patacones) with lots of fresh pineapple, bananas and papaya for Jill to eat. (Jill donated her piece of tilapia to a very grateful fellow World ARC Pacific participant).
Aside from the experience of getting to the village what made this tour so special was that this village (one of 8 villages that are part of the tribe) had very little interaction with the outside world until the year 2000. As a result, the tribe has retained its traditions giving the visitor a unique glimpse into a very different but rich culture. The reason why the community opened itself up to visitors is very interesting as well. The short story is that the government of Panama declared the land around the river where the Embera live as National Park land in the 1990s. Along with that declaration came many new rules that made it difficult for the Embera to subsist on the land. For example, they could no longer hunt and kill certain animals for food. They relied on the bark of certain trees to make their clothing but they were no longer permitted to debark the tree because it could injure the tree. Without these resources they had to purchase some food and cloth from the outside world but had no money to do so. To help the tribe gain the revenue they needed to purchase those things they could no longer supply for themselves through the land and river the government worked with the tribe to allow tours of their village. In addition to revenue from the tours themselves, the Embera people — who are very skilled artisans — sell amazing carvings and intricately weaved items including colorful baskets and bracelets. It seemed to be working for the tribe and the regional chief appeared to be genuinely proud of their way of life and pleased to have the opportunity to share their cultural heritage with outsiders.
As briefly mentioned, we took a half day tour of Panama City the morning after we arrived following our Canal transit. (In this case the “we” does mean Jill and Zack because despite our long to do list once we arrived in Panama City and the short 2 days we had there before heading off, Jill insisted that he tag along. She persuaded him that his stay in mainland Panama shouldn’t be like those visits to some city where all you saw was the inside of the airport during a layover.) We learned a lot about Panama and, particularly, the Canal that we don’t recall learning in school. We were particularly fascinated about the role that the US played in the formal separation of Panama from Columbia and how the US used Panama’s strong desire for independence to its advantage in securing the deal that would allow the US to build the Panama Canal and obtain rights to the Canal Zone for many years (originally, in perpetuity) after construction.
The real highlight of our trip to mainland Panama, of course, was our transit through the Canal. We’ve already described what we had to do to prepare and the process of going through the Canal. Wen will now try to capture the experience itself. As mentioned, our Canal transit started on the Atlantic side. We left Shelter Bay Marina at around 3:30 PM and, after rafting up with Casamara and Choucas 3 we entered the first canal around 5 PM. For the three canals on the Atlantic side you start at the bottom of the canal and the water in each Canal rises slowly until you are at the top, a distance of about 28 feet for each of the canals. Because we didn’t arrive at the first lock until dusk it was dark by the time we exited the canal making if difficult to really appreciate the magnitude of the lock system and the size of the commercial vessels transiting the canal. After going through the 3 step Gatun lock system we arrived in Gatun lake and quickly released the lines that kept us tethered to the other boats in our nest. Then, in the dark, we had to find the other boats that we were supposed to raft up next to for the overnight in Gatun lake. By the time we found our assigned boats and successfully rafted along side them for the evening, everyone was pretty exhausted. Because we weren’t on a 24/7 passage, the crew of Che Figata was allowed to enjoy a drink before heading off to bed but there was little revelry. We went to bed tired from a long day and totally unaware of the beauty we would wake up to the next morning.
As already mentioned, Lake Gatun is a huge artificial lake created by a dam. It is hard to believe that it is not natural. It is incredibly scenic with many tiny islands sprinkled throughout. Notably, the areas around the lake are protected national forest so the surrounding lush rainforest has remained largely undisturbed by human contact allowing wild life to flourish and preserving diverse fauna and flora. In fact, the lake is so beautiful that a tourist industry has sprung up around it and we watch several small tour boats whizz by as we motored from our mooring ball to the first locks that would take us to the pacific side. And we had plenty of time to enjoy the splendor of Gatun lake. As mentioned, from end to end the lake is about 21 nautical miles and it is a very slow 21 miles. You proceed through the lake “single file” as you head East and stay close to the buoys on the south side of the lake to avoid the shipping lanes that allow the commercial traffic — many (as mentioned) constructed to the width specifications of the canal — pass to your port side. This includes huge container ships which can range from approximately 950 – 1200 feet in length, with a width of 106 – 160 feet and a height of up to 108 feet. Nothing makes you feel smaller than passing by a container ship or seeing one next to you in an adjacent lock! This single file process means that you motor through the lake at an average speed of 5 nautical miles per hour which makes the trip across the lake about 4 to 5 hours long. This is why, incidentally, you take about a day and a half to get through the canal. It would be a long and very exhausting day for the crew to manage lines through the first 3 locks, then motor through the lake for 5 hours and go through 3 more locks on the other side. While Zack was at the helm going through the locks, Jill enjoyed steering the boat through the lake seeing how close she could keep Che Figata to the buoys on her starboard side.
By about 2 in the afternoon, after a really enjoyable trip across the lake, we finally reached the first of the locks that would deliver us to the pacific side. What a difference to be transiting the locks in daylight. First you could see much more clearly how imposing the lock structures are. The lock chambers are massive concrete structures. The side walls are from 45 to 55 ft thick at the bases tapering down to about 8 ft think toward the top where less strength is required. The center wall between the chambers is 60 ft thick. You feel like you are passing through a long rectangle shape fortress as you move from lock to lock. Second, you had very good visibility of the cargo ships in the adjacent lock that towered over us. Though intellectually we understood that the shipping containers are well secured using twist locks and lashing rods — and it would be highly unlikely (if not almost impossible) for one to break loose while transiting the Canal given the conditions present — it was still discomforting to look up next to your boat while in a lock and see the shipping containers towering above like a 10 story building. Definitely no where to move should one of those containers tumble down. (The expression “like caged animals” fits well here!). Between the thick and tall concrete walls and the container ships those with claustrophobia should not plan a Canal transit without their Xanax. Still, the Canal is a true engineering marvel and though there have been changes to the Canal over the years (particularly the addition of adjacent locks to accommodate larger vessels), it has been in operation for over one hundred years without any substantial changes in the technology used to power the original lock. Transiting through the Canal was like being a part of a living history. Plus, it delivered us to the Pacific Ocean! At the risk of using an over used cliche, it was a dream come true for a couple of recovering attorneys in seahab!
By the time the time we arrived at La Playita Marina in Panama City on Thursday, March 16 it was well into the evening. Always fun motoring through an unfamiliar anchorage in the dark! Fortunately, with low winds and a wide berth we were able to maneuver into our assigned slip without incident. (By now our readers know that the “we” here is really Captain Zack though Jill does help by keeping watch of the bow and stern of our boat and yelling “forward” or “reverse” with great authority when it appears that we are about to hit the dock, a piling or another boat.). Then we blinked* and it was time to set sail for the Las Perlas Islands. (*See the above description of the 4 days worth of “to dos” we had to fit into 2 days.)
The Las Perlas Islands are a group of about 200 small islands, most uninhabited about 30 miles south of the Panama City coast. The rally planned a brief 2 – 3 day stop there before heading off on the passage to the Galápagos Islands. That gave the fleet an opportunity to catch our breath after a very hectic week (pre and post the Canal transit) and to enjoy a “rendezvous” with the entire fleet since we really didn’t have much of an opportunity to socialize in either Colon and Panama City. With two different transits through the Canal our stay in both places only overlapped with half the fleet. The 30 mile “sail” (okay, we mostly motored) to Contadora Island (the designated rendezvous spot) was quite lovely. We had several porpoise sightings and saw spouts from a whale off in the distance. (Lucky Zack even caught a glimpse of the whale itself!).
We arrived to Contadora late in the afternoon on March 19 and were really looking forward to 2 full days of doing basically nothing. We were fully prepared for our Galápagos visit (well as prepared as you could be at that point) and had provisioned for the long passage to the Marquesas. We had visions of swimming and hiking. Unfortunately, though we did get in some of both of those activities, the stay in Las Perlas was not quite as sedentary as we had hoped. As recommended, Zack got in the water on March 20 after a somewhat leisurely morning to check our hull. Recall, that the bottom of your hull has to be pristine to enter the Galápagos Islands. We expected to find some algae growth that we could easily scrub off. Unfortunately, what we found instead was that the diver in Panama City who had cleaned our hull and issued a “clean hull” certificate had basically done nothing. There was lots of algae on the sides of the hull as well as a few barnacles on the hull and on the upper part of our rudder. We spent the rest of that afternoon trying to find a local diver who could do the job that was not done in Panama City. We were very fortunate to find Guillermo and really impressed the World ARC rally control team with our resourcefulness! The next morning Guillermo arrive at 9 AM and he and Zack spent the better part of 2 hours making sure that our hull was spotless. $250 USD later Guillermo, with Zack’s help, finished the job and issued us our second “clean hull” certificate. Not how we wanted to spend our time or money but worth it if it meant clearing into Galápagos without incident. With that important task complete, that afternoon we finally got an opportunity for a brief but lovely hike around Contadora, enjoying the views for the highest points on the islands.
Despite the unexpected and highly unpleasant surprise, Contadora was not without its high points, most notably the beach BBQ and prize giving arranged by the organizer’s of our rally. After each “leg” the organizers give out prizes for the fastest boats as well as some random prizes for fun competitions. The fun competition this leg was to guess the collective ages of the fleet heading from Santa Marta to the San Blas Islands. After looking at the crew lists and guessing the ages of all crew members, Jill estimated that the average age of the crew was 55 and multiplied that by the number of crew members to submit 5,280 as the Che Figata guess. It turns out that the average age was 55.8 years. Between that slight variation and a minor under estimate on the number of crew, Jill’s guess was only 17 off the actual number, winning Che Figata the top prize in that competition, a highly useful fanny pack and priceless bragging rights. Several people wanted to know if Jill was an actuary in her prior life. The answer to that is no though years as a health insurance executive did give her some experience and advantage. Who knew it would pay off in such a big way! To our surprise, we also won third place in the “race” to the San Blas Islands in Division A. We were shocked when Che Figata was announced as the third place winner, earning us some iridescent Panama coasters that we are sure to treasure for years to come. 😀. It was a big night for Che Figata!
Finally, we should mention that Mark’s really lovely daughter, Maddi, visited us for a few days, arriving in Panama City about a day before our departure to Las Perlas Islands and staying with us until the day before our departure for the Galápagos Islands. Despite the fact that Maddi is an accomplished vegan chef and Jill was looking forward to some cooking lessons, with only a three day stay that was intended to be a much needed vacation for Maddi, Jill didn’t have the heart to put her to work. So, in addition to the company of her dad, Maddi got to enjoy Jill’s vegan delights including Tofu scramble (with lots of yummy ingredients), toast made of fresh baked whole grain bread, avocado toast, lemon and garlic hummus, mango/banana/ginger smoothies and jackfruit white bean chili. Jill doesn’t think Maddi was entirely impressed (she didn’t ask for any recipes!) but Jill took it as a high compliment that Maddi cleaned her plate. It was fun having Maddi along with us for a few days though it did make us miss our own kids which, in part, prompted calls from us to each of them while we were anchored off Contadora.
At 11:00 AM on March 23 we set sail for the Galápagos. (We are motoring up to the starting line as we type this.). Most likely, due to connectivity, we won’t be able to post this blog entry until we arrive in the Galápagos though we will end this post here — it is long enough! — and start a new post covering our 850 nautical mile passage to the Galápagos Islands. We expect that passage will take about 5 to 5.5 days depending on whether the wind holds up. (The winds are usually notoriously light between Las Perlas and the Galápagos. We are beyond excited to get the the Galápagos Islands which will surely be one of the highlights of our circumnavigation. We will tell you all about our passage to the Galápagos, the joys of clearing in (apparently it involves 10 agents from different government authorities visiting our boat to check that we are in compliance with various rules and regulations) and, most importantly, our day tours and 5 day cruise aboard the La Pinta while visiting. Until then, fair winds to all!
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