Shelter Bay Part 2 & Panama Canal Transit

Not a Howler monkey, but a Capucin I believe

We left the howler monkeys of Shelter Bay last Thursday to make our transit of the Panama Canal. We had spent about a week and a half there getting Brio ready for the next leg of her journey and doing the administration required for the Canal transit. The marina at Shelter Bay is a very comfortable place to be – the restaurant has excellent food at equally excellent prices, there is a very good grocery shop there, they have a swimming pool (which unfortunately we didn’t have time to use) and the marina is bordered by national park. We met some wonderful people during our stay there and the place is teeming with Aussies making the trek back home.

We had Brio hauled out so we could clean and antifoul her bottom and do some other ‘out-of-the-water’ jobs including the biggest head job I’ve done in my life. For those not familiar with nautical terms, the head is the toilet, so I will spare you the details of what the job actually involved.

To transit the Panama Canal several things are required: first you need to hand over your wallet! We used an agent, Erick, to make our transit arrangements which felt worth it to us so we didn’t have to run around to the various offices getting bits of paper copied, stamped and signed. They just love paperwork in Panama! Every boat needs to have a Skipper and four line handlers. John, our Canadian friend, and I (Louise) were two and we had a German couple with us as our other two line handlers. Dani and Jens had left their yacht in Cartegena, Columbia while waiting for a new tiller pilot to arrive and were seeking a transit to get some practice before they transit themselves. They were really great and it was a pleasure to have them aboard.

I (Louise) did a transit as a line handler with another boat a few days before we did our own transit. This is recommended and I found it really beneficial to do. I went aboard Cornelia that is skippered by a lovely young Dutchman Marc, and his girlfriend Vanessa. Marc casually mentioned that when he was 28 he decided he wanted to do something ‘a bit special’ so he circumnavigated the globe solo, non-stop in Cornelia. It took him 7 ½ months. That’s what I call a bit special!

Every Canal transit is different it seems. Whether you raft up with other yachts in a lock, hug a sidewall or get put next to a huge sports fishing boat depends as much on the speed of your boat, as it does  the weather and the frame of mind of your Advisor! Our transit began with us motoring from Shelter Bay Marina across the channel to an area called The Flats to wait for our Advisor to board. Every boat transiting the Canal must have an Advisor on board. Advisors know the Canal and lock procedures intimately. They issue instructions to the skipper and line handlers to ensure we manoeuvre correctly and quickly. Our Advisor (another Ivan!) boarded at 4.15pm and we upped anchor and motored off towards the Gatun locks – a series of 3 locks through which we would rise up 26 metres - about 2 miles away. Two other yachts followed us and we had a huge refrigerated cargo ship in front and other huge ships coming up behind. There is a constant stream of traffic in the Canal.

Waiting to go into the Gatun Locks

We had quite a long wait before we could enter the locks which meant we had to keep motoring around in circles to make sure that we didn’t get ahead of the carrier in front of us. There is quite a current there and we had a breeze blowing from behind. It was a bonus to spot a crocodile on the shore. Finally we were instructed to raft up with the other two yachts – Brio on the port side, an enormous French catamaran in the middle and a large monohull on the starboard side. For protection (from each other and the lock walls) we all had a dozen or more car tyres hanging against our hulls as well as our own fenders. It all happens very quickly in the lock with men high up on the wall throwing lines down to our boat which we, the line handlers have to attach to our lines so they can be hoisted back up and placed on bollards. Then the gates closed behind us and the water started swelling in. Ivan was constantly instructed to motor forward and reverse in order to keep our raft of yachts straight while we line handlers had to bring in the lines as they slackened. All went well for the 3 locks.

We then motored as fast as our little Brio could across the 38 km (20 nm) of the man made Gatun Lake. By this time it was well and truly dark so mostly what we saw was a very pretty row of red and green lights marking the channel, and the occasional eerie looming black mass of a ship passing us. Yacht transits in the Canal have recently changed, so rather than spending the night moored in the Lake and then descending the locks into the Pacific the next day, pleasure craft are now required to complete the transit all in one go. It certainly takes the tourism element out of the transit as we don’t get to see the famed forests, sloths, birds and crocodiles of the Lake. On the plus side though, it’s not hot - a very good thing for Brio as our shade arrangements are not the best.

Well wouldn't we all love that!

The Lake narrows into the Culebra (or Gaillard) Cut; arguably the most well known part of the Canal due to its black history of deaths through landslides and other accidents, malaria and yellow fever while its 14km (7 nm) length was being cut. Transiting here we passed a number of dredges in operation and caught glimpses of work proceeding on the excavation of the new Canal. At this point we knew we were going to be able to complete our transit (and not have to stay the night in the Lake and be fined a huge amount for doing so) because there was a bulk carrier somewhere behind us that we could go through the descending locks with. Being a relatively small vessel with a small engine, the other yachts had left us for dead in the Lake and we therefore needed to make sure there was at least one other vessel that we could go through the locks with as the canal authority will not open the locks for pleasure craft only.

entering the Miraflores Locks

We entered the Pedro Miguel Lock ahead of the dry bulk carrier Sujitra Naree. As we were the only other vessel in this and the next 2 locks apart from the Sujitra Maree, we did what they call a ‘centre chamber’ which as you might imagine is where we are attached by all four of our lines to the lock sides so that we descended each lock in the centre of the lock chamber. We descended the 9 metres of the Pedro Miguel Lock and motored the mile or so to the Miraflores Locks. All went relatively smoothly apart from the last lock, known for its strong currents as the fresh water of the canal mixes with the salt water of the Pacific. John and I were at the bow dealing with our lines so we missed seeing the events that led up to Brio skewing to one side and thumping her starboard stern against the lock wall. According to skipper Ivan what happened was that the man on the stern port side of the wall was too slow to throw us his rope to attach to our line and then when he drew our line back to himself he attached it to the wrong bollard. Because the line was too slack there the currents pushed Brio to the side and her stern connected with the wall. The only damage done was some paint removal and once again we knew there was a good reason Ivan had insisted he wanted a steel boat.

Where will John fit on Sapphire all the new gear he bought?

On exiting the last lock we did the fastest speed we had done all night due to the strong current – 8kts – for a couple of hundred metres anyway! It was then another hour or so of motoring, passing under the beautifully named Bridge of the Americas (which looks like a mini Sydney Harbour Bridge), before Ivan our advisor was spirited away by a speedy pilot boat and we finally dropped anchor at La Playita anchorage. It was 4.15am, exactly 12 hours since our transit began (or 15 if you want to count from when we left Shelter Bay Marina). We had a quick toast to the transit/canal/Pacific/good teamwork and great line handlers and then got some much needed shut eye.

John has now gone back to Sapphire in the San Blas Islands and Daniel, Ivan's son, has joined us for the trip to the Galapagos Islands.

Shelter Bay

We bid a fond farewell to our friends and helpers at Marina Carenero on Saturday afternoon, leaving somewhat later than we had anticipated as we discovered the engine's alternator had seized and needed replacing. Not a huge problem as we had a spare alternator available, but a hot and sweaty job for Ivan as access to our engine is verrrry squeezy. Anyway, a few hours and many curses later we were on our way.

Leaving Marina Carenero, Bocas del Toro

We hadn't planned on going too far anyway, just a little closer to the open sea to be able to leave reasonably early the next morning. We motored over to Isla Bastimentos and spent the night anchored off the village there. For dinner we hiked up the hill by torchlight to the Thai restaurant only to find they were ully booked. So we hiked back down the (very muddy) hill and ate in Ca Venice, a place that focussed on Italian style food because that's where the proprietors are from.

We left Isla Bastimentos at around 9.30am the following morning heading towards Shelter Bay at the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal. We had a "jolly lively time of it" as Dick from the Famous Five might say as the winds were fair and there was a bit of swell. I think we were averaging 6 knots over the 130 mile passage. We arrived at Shelter Bay somewhat bleary eyed as we had to hand steer all the way because the tiller pilot and the wind moitor both decided not to work.

Tomorrow we haul Brio out of the water to remove the seafood salad that has grown on her in the past 6 months, put a new coat of anti-foul on her and do a few other out-of-the-water jobs.

Back to Bocas

Well it's been a long time between posts, but as most of you know anyway, we have been back home in Australia enjoying the summer with family and friends. It all went too quickly and now here we are again in Bocas del Toro aboard Brio.

John & Marilyn with Cole and Huck the dog

We arrived here a week ago, having spent a lovely few days on the way over with our friends John and Marilyn who live in Los Angeles. As always, they were incredibly welcoming and we were lucky enough to be with them while they were babysitting their grandson, Cole, for a few days. He is just a magic little bundle of energy and laughs.

We arrived at Marina Carenero in Bocas just as the weekly 'pot luck' was happening (this is the saturday night communal dinner for people staying at the marina where everybody brings a dish to share). It didn't matter that we had just stepped off the plane and had nothing to offer, we were made to feel extremely welcome and got to say hello again to some folk who were here when we left 6 months ago, and got to meet lots of new people too. Since then, our Canadian friend John has joined us and we have been working at getting the boat ready to sail over to Shelter Bay marina at the Carribean entrance of the Panama Canal. Brio seems to have sat contentedly in her berth while we were away, so most of the work has been trying to remember what sails and sheets go where...oh and the small matter of evicting a few pets (weevils!).

John hamming it up in the main st of Bocas

The weather during the past week has been unseasonally wet and windy so no boats have been moving anywhere, but it looks like there is a break in it and we may even be able to get going tomorrow.

Our little dinghy finally has her name 'Miss Allie' put on

Canada

Our best laid plans for getting to Bowmanville, Ontario to spend 2 weeks with Daniel, Tanya and Baby Knight, went somewhat awry with Baby Knight’s arrival. However, as I said to Ivan, if I can spend 10 days on a yacht with hardly any sleep, I can sleep one night in an airport! And so we did, before catching the early morning bus to Toronto.

The reason we are here!

Baby Knight now named Zaden Troy Gnarly Knight with his gorgeous parents

Back to Bocas

We caught buses back to Almirante and then a water taxi to Bocas and another water taxi over to Marina Carenero to be reunited with Brio. We were surprised, after all of the rain we had been experiencing, to find the marina in drought. They had not had rain for two weeks and the beautiful basil and other herbs in the kiyuka gardens was dying off and the laundry had been closed for a week to conserve the precious rainwater.

The kiyuka herb garden before it dried up

We had a week to pack up the boat before leaving her for 6 months. It will be an experiment to see just what state she is in when we return. There is all sorts of advice available about how to leave a yacht in a hot, humid environment – foil on the windows, kitty litter in trays, shade cloth over the top. In the end we didn’t do all of these things, although I did try to store things so that air could circulate and cleaned the inside surfaces to try to reduce mould growth. Ivan was busy oiling tools to prevent rust and covering the propeller to prevent barnacle growth amongst other things. We will see when we return!

The day before we left, the rain came in the form of a wild storm. The timing was outrageous – we had just received word from Daniel, Ivan’s son, that Tanya, Daniel’s wife was in the final stages of labour with their first child. The storm caused a power outage and the internet was also out. It was another 6 or 7 hours before we could log back onto the internet to find out how Tanya and the baby were and in doing so we received the great news that she had had a boy and all was well. Of less importance, but also something we were keen to finalise, was our washing that was half done, but now with the power back on could be dried before the morning.

Panama - Boquete

We spent 2 days at Boquete, a town known for its cool climate, coffee, cloud forests and walking trails. We spent our first day enjoying a leisurely breakfast in a converted garage and then walked along a road out of town into the hills. After about an hour the cloud rolled in and the rain pelted, fortunately just as we were passing a bus shelter. So we ate our picnic lunch in the bus shelter and then hailed a passing taxi to take us back to town. We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in chairs watching the river next to our hostel swell from the rain. The hostel (Suenos del Rio) is so close to the river that at night it is hard to tell if you are listening to rain fall or just the usual rushing of the river. It was a nice place to stay, especially as we had a small kitchen/lounge are to ourselves.



Cloud rolls across the forest

 The hostel owner put us in touch with Feliciano, a local guide who has been guiding in the area for most of his 56 years. He is a very fit and personable man. In order to avoid a washout, we were up at 6 the next morning to be ready by 7 for Feliciano to collect us and take us on a walk into the World Heritage listed national park, La Amisted. We had a really enjoyable walk with him – 3 hours up and 2 hours down – through lush, secondary forest. We saw some flowers and birds, but the season for the elusive quetzals was over. At the top of the walk we could see the Altlantic Ocean in one direction and the Pacific in the other. The path we were on continued all the way to Almirante on the Atlantic side. Feliciano sometimes takes people on a walk all the way. It takes 4 days when he takes tourists, but only 2 when he goes alone!



Sometimes the trail was very narrow



We were not long back in town when down came the rain in great torrents, so although the early start was a bit confronting for “she who loves her bed”, it was worth it to avoid a drenching on the walk and walking on a path turned into a river.

Ivan and Feliciano at the top of our walk

Panama - El Valle

After our two weeks in Colombia we spent 6 days on mainland Panama before going back to Brio. I was keen to see some wildlife in the cloud forests if possible.

Our first stop was a town called El Valle. After the beauty of the towns in Colombia, the Panamanian towns look very plain and unkempt. El Valle was one such town, but the Don Pepe Hotel was clean and comfortable. We were hungry after travelling most of the day to get there so bought some kebabs from a street cart. They tasted of firelighters and were completely inedible so we went to a busy looking restaurant for something else. It wasn’t a great culinary experience here either – the service was incredibly slow and at one point the whole restaurant filled with smoke. My rice arrived and was quite ok, but Ivan’s soup didn’t. We asked for the bill and his soup arrived not long after, but it was inedible glug. My Spanish is good enough to indicate the soup was not good so they struck it off the bill. Other people on nearby tables were also having problems with their food arriving, so it seems the restaurant was having a really bad day. Oh well, we retired to our room to take in the luxury of cable TV and proceeded to watch what looked to be the fall of the Gadafi regime as rebels took control of Tripoli.

Finding a good restaurant is tiring business

We spent the next day in the company of an American couple, Bob and Tammy, and we visited the zoo and frog sanctuary, the Macho falls and the local mud pools. We also found a better place to eat!

at the Macho falls

Having fun at the mudpools