Panama Outbound Day 1

Hi everyone,
At noon today we were at 06 32N 080 08W steering 240M,  sailing under single-reefed main and full yankee at 4.5 knots, 6 knots including current.  The wind was 10G15 from the NNE.  Our noon to noon distance over the ground was 129nm.

Departing La Playita

We spent our two days in Panama City topping up fuel and water, shopping for fresh food, cleaning the hull, changing the engine oil & filter and clearing out.  The latter was simple with port/customs & immigration offices in the same building.  We have 300 litres of water and 280 litres of diesel aboard.

The departure from La Playita anchorage is simple.  We stayed E of the Traffic Separation Scheme which is busy with cargo ships coming or going from the canal.  We departed within a few hours of SVs Lets Go, Onyx, Sea Change and Xora - three Aussies and a Pom.  52, 55, 41 and 49 footers respectively.  We 'raced' S beside the TSS all day and into the night.  The wind started 10G15 and ended 25G30.

We were under double-reefed main and triple-furled yankee for most of the afternoon and overnight.  Zen Again loved it, reaching over 9 knots down some waves.  Amazingly we kept up with all except Let's Go.  Onyx and Xora overtook us during the afternoon but we passed them overnight.  This morning we passed on the location of drifting trees from Let's Go to the others.

Yesterday afternoon we were accompanied by a pod of dolphins.  They put on a great show jumping out of the water vertically. Overnight had a lovely full moon above a clear sky.  Very good visibility.

Dawn

This morning winds were light again but we got into a WSW current which is helped us along.  In the early afternoon we gybed S, along with sv Sea Breeze.

Trust all's well where you are!

Panama Canal Transit

Hi everyone,

Today we are anchored at La Playita in the Pacific.  Yesterday was an epic day.  We transited the Panama Canal.

Doors about to close on the Atlantic

Here are the usual images...

Track

Graphs

The morning prior to our transit our lines and fenders were delivered by Stanley.  He is an agent but can provide lines, fenders and line handlers for the transit.  We had arranged a couple of yachties to come along as line handlers, and booked one line handler with Stanley.  Unfortunately the couple booked their transit for the day after ours and so couldn't come with us.  So we ended up with three professionals and that worked out very well.  Two had been aboard UK sv White Malkin with us when we joined Mike as line handlers.

Fendered!

We had dinner at the marina restaurant on our last day.  Twas a nice way to finish our stay.  Then we turned-in early to get some sleep before our 0230 start.

We were up on time and ready for our line handlers arrival at 0300.  We called Cristobal Signal on the VHF and they advised our advisor's boarding time would be 0445.  So we stayed in the pen until 0400.  Then we motored out to the flats off the marina where the advisor came aboard at 0430.

From the flats our group of three boats motored to the first locks.  By the time we arrived it was twilight and we 'nested' into a single three-boat group, secured alongside each-other.  Once nested we motored into the lock.  The canal line handlers and our onboard line handlers did a good job throwing the monkey fist messengers and handling the lines.  Before long we were going up - about 9m per lock in this flight of three.

Getting Nested

Entering the first lock

Gates closing on the Atlantic

Once the 'climb' was complete we motored out of the lock and de-nested.  From there we had a 25nm motor across the lake to the Pacific side.  It was the most sustained workout for our Craftsman CM3.27 engine since installation in 2014.  Five hours at 2000 rpm.  Normally we motor between 1600 and 1800 rpm.  2000 gave us 5.5 knots, avoiding our being the 'laggard' of the group.  And it was good to stress test the motor before a lot of motoring out of the Bay of Panama.

De-nesting

Aussie sv Matahair takes the lead

Nic did a fantastic job cooking for the crew of six.  At the start of the long motor we had a cooked breakfast.  Along the way we had chilled fresh fruit.  And on arrival at the down locks we had lunch of chilli con carne.  Throughout we had an endless supply of cold bottled water on offer. 

Very BIG ships

Constant dredging

On arrival the three boats hadn't been quite fast enough to go through the down locks with the ship we ascended with.  So we had to wait 40 minutes for the next ship - another big car carrier.  In the interim we went alongside the lock wall and nested-up there.  This avoided one of the three monkey fist catching episodes so wasn't all bad!

Company in the down locks

Ready to descend

Pacific Ocean in sight!

Doors opening on the Pacific

Once free of the down locks we de-nested one last time and motored under the Bridge of the Americas to the Balboa YC where the Advisor was collected by a Pilot boat.  Great job Amado!  Then the line handlers Rocky, Alex & Manuel were collected.  Thanks guys!  We'd definitely recommend having at least one professional line handler aboard.  All three knew the drill and made our time in the locks very very easy.

De-nesting

The Bridge of the Americas

Advisor extraction

So here we are in the Pacific Ocean!  The La Playita anchorage is a bit rolly from the wash of passing vessels but less so at night.  The anchorage is off the La Playita Marina and a 10 minute (US$15 return) taxi ride to Panama City.  It's nice to be at anchor again with a good draft through the boat.

Trust all's well where you are.

Panama Canal Preparation

Hi everyone,

We've now been at Shelter Bay Marina for three weeks.  The time has flown.  There are a bunch of Aussie, Kiwi and Pommie boats here and we've all become members of the 'pirate' Egg & Bacon Bay Yacht Club.  Commodore Danielle (aka Mopsie) of sv Let's Go organises daily get-togethers at the pool.

Shelter Bay Marina

We started preparing for our Panama Canal transit as soon as we arrived in country.  We had decided to do the transit without an agent, using the official web site setup for the purpose.  Andy Pag's article in Yachting Monthly helped convince us to give it a try.

The web site has very helpful instruction videos.  Definitely worth watching closely.

From our experience there were several phases involved:

1. Setup your account;

2. Obtain a Ship Identification Number (SIN);

3. Achieve "AdMeasured";

4. Complete Deposit Refund Payment details;

5. Complete Payment; and 

6. Book Transit Date.

The process can be started prior to arrival in "Canal Waters".  The definition of Canal Waters is unclear but we presumed Linton Bay wasn't included.  Initially one has to declare an ETA and much of the process can be completed prior to arrival.

The first two steps were simple for us.  Here's our SIN.

Step 3 requires the input of a lot of information, including photos of the bow, stern and beam overhangs and an overall profile picture.  We have no beam overhangs so here are the photos we submitted successfully.

Bow Overhang

Stern Overhang

Overall Profile

The only trick we encountered was the checkbox "awning".  We initially left this unchecked since ours isn't permanently rigged.  Turns out that an awning is mandatory to provide shade for the Advisor.  We received an email suggesting modifications and with them submitted we were "Admeasured".

AdMeasured!

Step 4 was tricky for us.  The first trick was filling in the "Tax ID" field.  Turns out what's wanted is an ID your bank will recognise.  We were using WISE and they had my passport number, so that worked.  The second trick was setting up a bank account which had all the characteristics required by the Canal.  This included an IBAN which our Australian bank doesn't provide.  We setup a WISE account in Australia and from that a UK WISE account - which had an IBAN.  Success, but it took a week.

Shortly after completing step 4 we arrived in Shelter Bay Marina.  We advised our arrival and received confirmation.

On arrival at SBM

Step 5 can only be attempted after arrival in Canal Waters.  It to  was tricky.  We exchanged emails with the Canal but the information they provided just didn't work.  In the end we went back to Andy Pag's article and that gave us the clues we needed.

Here are the WISE Recipient Details which worked for us.

WISE Recipient Details

A day after receiving the payment confirmation email from the Canal we could call to schedule our transit.  We received the email on 18th March.  The following day we called and chose 9th April.  We could have gone through a week or so earlier but wanted the week of the 7th.

There are several alternatives for yachts transiting the canal.  The most common is 'nested' which we hope to use.

Nested

There are two daily schedules for yacht transits.  One departs at 0400 and arrives at around 1800.  The other departs at 1600 and arrives the next morning, spending the night moored on the lake.  We'll find out which we're doing on Tuesday, 24 hours prior to our Wednesday transit.

We completed most of our South Pacific boat preparation and much of our provisioning in St Maarten.  By contrast we're surrounded by yachts either manically preparing or waiting for parts to arrive.  Touch wood, our strategy has worked out well and gave us a good 1000nm shake-down passage too.  Since arriving at SBM we've been doing a few small boat jobs and a lot of provisioning.  Our 8 20-litre diesel jerries are full and our lockers and bilge are crammed full of food.

Aloft for the rig check

We now have only two days to our transit.  Looking forward to it!  We'll anchor at La Playita for a couple of nights for final fresh food provisioning and clearing out.  Then we'll be bound towards the Marquesas, in company with a set of EBBYC members.

Trust all's well where you are!

Towards Panama Canal

Hi everyone,

We are now at Shelter Bay Marina, at the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal.  Since arriving in Panama we spent a few days at Banedup anchorage in the San Blas followed by two weeks in Linton Bay Marina.

Fun in the San Blas

Our short stay in the San Blas was "yellow flagged" - we didn't clear-in to Panama there.  This is quite commonly done by cruisers.

Banedup anchorage in the Holandes islands is a popular spot.  Very beautiful.  Facilities ashore have developed since we were last here at Christmas 2022.  There's now a beach bar.  Beer prices are very reasonable.

Banedup beach bar

Bar Tables

It was great to relax for a few days after our passage from St Maarten.  From Banedup it was an easy overnight 60nm passage to Linton Bay.  It was fun to be greeted by Aussie sv Let's Go on arrival.  We last met them in St Helena in 2016.

Holandes to Linton Bay track

Sailing along the S of the Holandes Islands

Approaching Linton Bay

Greeted by Aussie sv Let's Go

In Linton Bay Marina.

We arrived at Linton Bay in the midst of Panama's carnival weekend.  Customs and Immigration were closed and we had to wait 4 days to clear-in.  The marina facilities have improved significantly since 2022 with a new office and a good chandlery.  The Black Pearl restaurant has changed ownership and now has a very nice Panamanian IPA beer.

While there we again met Roxanne, a single-handed sailor who funds her travels playing violin at bars & restaurants.  We last saw her at Les Saintes in Guadeloupe.  Amazing musician.

Sunset from the Black Pearl restaurant

Sundowners aboard Zen Again

Roxanne

At Linton Bay we carried out a series of maintenance tasks.  We cleaned our water tanks which had suddenly started producing dirty water.  We may have got silty water in Sint Maarten.  Happily our tanks are easy to clean.  We applied sticky-back chaff protection to all the mainsail batten pockets.  And we stitched leather patches on our boombag where the lazy checkstays were chafing.

The dregs

Cleaned & resealed

Batten pocket chafe protection

Boombag chafe protection

Nicki created an array of rope bags and organisers from sunbrella and phyfertex.  The galley and head are much better organised now.

Galley organiser

Head organiser

Head handtowel bag

On Sunday we day-sailed the 25nm to Shelter Bay Marina.  Half motoring then half sailing.  Lots of cargo ships anchored off Colon.

Linton Bay to Shelter Bay Track

Shelter Bay arrival

Approaching Colon's outer harbour wall

Into the outer harbour

Shelter Bay Marina is a very friendly place.  One of those focal points where cruising boats gather.  Like Mindelo, Cape Town, Darwin etc.  There are several Aussie boats here, including Let's Go.  Several others have just transited the canal into the Pacific.  Also here are UK boats White Malkin and Rosita whose paths we've crossed previously.

Our main task here is to book our canal transit.  That'll be the topic for our next post.