Where in the world's Wally????

PANAMA CANAL CROSSING

On Feb. 12, 2012 began our big day. We were OK'd to do our corossing. We left the marina and went over to a spot just outside the canal to await the arival of an 'advisor' to tutor us thru. We had a friend join us a few days earlier. 'Robin Berthet' is from the UK living in Western Massachussetts robinberthet.com. We met him last summer during our trip up to Boston.while staying in the Cape Cod area. Robin was on his yacht in Province Town harbor. We mutually befriended each other as most sailors in anchorages do. As we came to know each other Robin volunteered to loan us his charts for the trip back down the coast,which he then traded for his Smart car and a stay at his home for a land trip that Joni and I wanted to do. We drove through the area almost all the way up to Canada returning a week later to Robin's home where he hosted a dinner for us with his friends. Anyway to make a long story short we invited Robin to join us and his first trip with us is now. He flew down to Panama and is doing the crossing with us and on to Cocos and the Galapagos over the next several weeks.

We needed 4 line handlers for the trip through the canal so we inquired at the marina and found a couple from Finland and Holand called Kari and Helena, who were also planning a transit and wanted to experience a 'dry run'. Off we went.........

On our way up to the canal we saw several large ships. Here one coming out is seen (blue) headed past one that we were to share the locks with going up......

This is the first lock of 3 on the way up. Each is probably about 30 ft..............

The locks authority required us to tie up with another boat that was transiting seen here..............

Once we entered the lock the lines people from the canal threw us a tracer line called a 'monkey fist' and we secured our lines to these lines and they drew them back and secured them to 4 cleats at the top of the lock, 2 on each side, front and back on our boat.

Our 'advisor is seen here with the hat looking back at the first gate in the first lock before closing.......

And now closing........................

This is a pic. of the couple that volunteered to help us. He is Finish and she is Dutch. It was a pleasure to have them on board.

You can now see the gate has been clsoed and the lock is filled and you can see the top of another ship getting ready to enter after we leave....

There are 2 locks paralell as can be seen here with another on the right. The water from one is used to raise the other I believe..............

Here you can look back 2 locks with the back gates of the last lock in the foreground........

This first set of 3 locks is called 'Gatun' built around 1913. You can see the railway tracks here. There is a 'mule' locomotive that pulls the big ships forward thru the locks. We motored forward.

After getting through the 3rd lock up we anchored for the night. In this picture you can see a trench being excavated for the new locks being constructed for the really really big ships to go thru sometime around 2014.

The next day we motored through the inland lake and then through a 7 mile long cut that was created for the first canal 100 years ago to carry the boats through the highest part of the crossing. Many people died digging this trench. In total something like 30,000 people lost their lives due to various causes including heat and malaria. Here is seen a bridge crossing the canal a few miles before the next locks down to the Pacific. The work required cutting through this mountain seen here..........Paul Gaugin the French painter worked in this cut for $5a day working 45 minutes in the hole and then taking a break due to the intense heat !..

We managed to have some relaxing moments. The crew stayed with us overnight so Joni had a big job feeding everyone several feeds............

Here is seen drilling for blasting to widen the canal for the extra traffic.............

We saw a big trimaran that was the US navy here coming from the Pacific to the Caribbean side. These boats are reported to go 50 m.p.h.

Here we are entering the first lock on our way down to the Pacific............

We tied along side the forward one of these 2 tourist boats so we did not have to manage lines on the way down thru the 3 locks. As a foot note I forgot to say that canal crossings are expensive. Ours was just over $1,000 but nothing like the biggest ships which can cost something over $300,000.00

This is a view down thru the last 2 locks to the Pacific side..............

We were both happy and relieved...................

Our trusty advisor always pointing one way or another and once scolding me for not watching him closely enough while I took pictures....................

Our friend Robin with Joni................a hard days work all done...............

Me smiling too.....................

The 'Bridge of the Americas'

Our anchorage at the Balboa Yacht Club at Panama City........

We were sent the link to a 3 minute video of our neighbor Matt's boat, Mojomo, who went through the canal the day before us. It was made by his friend and linehandler, Axel, from Germany with his GoPro camera. It's really great and well worth a quick look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0-PHGGBcVg Thank you, Axel!!

Thats all for now..................

KEY WEST TO SHELTER BAY MARINA, PANAMA

We finally got out of Key West a few weeks back (today is Feb. 15th). Leading up to that we waited for some big winds to pass South of Cuba. We sailed into the setting sun. For the next 2 days there was almost no wind (but we did get a chance to see a few frolicking pilot whales!) so it took almost 3 days to make only some 150 miles and before we rounded Cuba to head S.E. For the next few days the winds continued light until we got south a few hundred miles past Cuba. Just after dark one night the main sail fell down from the mast into the sail bag. A 'D' ring had broken. We elected to motor overnight and in the a.m. I went up the mast to fix the problem. Unfortunately, during the night the wind had picked up so we had to turn downwind in 20 kts with 8 ft swells while I hung on for dear life to retrieve the halyard for the main. It wasn't pretty...I ended up with bruises all over the insides of my legs but don't want to imagine what would've happened if I had let go!!!! Some 4 or 5 days later we arrived in Colon on Panama's N. coast at the canal entrance.

There is a big breakwater across a harbor here with many big ships anchored outside and a few inside as well as a large port facility for big ships at Colon. Below you can see the breakwater and a tall post showing one side of the entrance through the break water into the main harbor. It was late afternoon when we arrived on a Thurs. We quickly went West inside to the marina where we intended to haul out in a few days.

The local authority quickly came and told us that we needed to purchase a Panama courtesy flag.....

This is a picture of the offices, hotel and restaurant at the marina............

The around the World Arc was travelling through the canal when we arrived. Some 40 boats are on an around the world rally. While most of them had already gone through there remained some stragglers shown here....

Then that fateful day arrived and 'Wally' aka Dancing Walrus' was lifted out for a bottom cleaning and some repairs.....

We last hauled out in Trinidad about a year ago, March. The bottom paint is meant to stop barnacle growth for a year or two but this brand was not as effective as we had hoped (although any areas where we missed paint last year were much worse than what is seen here). We are trying a different bottom paint this time.

The barnacles did pop off with some persuasion..............

The next few days were full of hard work and no pictures but eventually we got Wally back in the water and we took a 5 mile hike into a local park.

The jungle produces all sorts of funny growth along the road.

We saw 2 sloths hanging from the branches above. This is one of them.

Some leaf cutter ants were busy below.................

Finally we arrived at a Spanish built fort some 400 years ago. It overlooks a bay leading into the river Chagres some 100 feet down a cliff. The river leads inland about 2/3 of the way across Panama to Panama City. A dam was built as part of the canal construction around 100 years ago. This created a big inland lake. The Panama Canal locks are used to lift boats up into this lake, sail across to the other side and then through a 7 mile long trench in the rock to the locks on the Pacific side where the boats go back down. More to be said later. Anyway Captain Morgan the pirate came along about 300 years ago and captured the fort from the Spanish. He then took his boats and men inland as far as he could. He then found 500 mules and transported guns and canons and supplies another 7 miles to Panama City where he plundered all the gold for himself and men that the Spanish had plundered from local Indians. It is hard to tell who was the bad guy here???