Panama and into the Pacific

Panama, then out to the Marquesas-French Polynesia

Hello To You All Again

Our resident croc in the marina

Reluctantly we settle into life in Shelter Bay Marina (Shelter “Pay” Marina as it is known, and yes it is so expensive in here) as we await the arrival of our two replacement rudders. Alec spends hours on the internet sorting out other replacement parts, and spares, for the long crossing across the Pacific. There will be no suppliers till we reach Tahiti, so one needs to be well prepared. He orders a new wind transducer for the top of the mast, plus the wind instrument at the helm. After sitting in the marina without being connected to mains power we also discover it is time for new house batteries. This set has only lasted four years, whereas the first set we had lasted eight years. We replace some of our sheets and halyards keeping the old ones for spares.

When we have done as much as we can with SHAMAL in the water, we make our list of everything to be done when she is lifted. Now with time while we wait for the rudders to arrive, we get out our folding bikes and explore some of the local area. We also go on jungle walks to see the monkeys and whatever else pops out from among the foliage. The bird life here is also amazing, and quite noisy.

Rainy Season is on its way

Life in the marina is also interesting. We are surprised at how many kiwi boats are coming in while waiting for their time to transit the canal. There are others, like us, waiting on parts to arrive. One boat needs their boom fixed after one of the so called skilled workmen made a huge cock-up in drilling out rivets and replacing them with bolts. They are in a great dilemma as what to do as the marina is not accepting responsible. There is another boat just up the coast waiting on a replacement mast. They do not want to wait in here due to the cost. It is such a pity there is not another marina somewhere around Colon on this side of the canal, as these guys are really bleeding the yachting community dry with their costs, and workmanship is not of a very high standard.

Shelter Bay Marina

Marina pool on a good day

Then there are a number of boats here which call the marina “home” and have set up a schedule of activities for one to patriciate in should one wish. There is also a swimming pool which is a real bonus as the weather is getting hotter and more humid. Again the marina staff don’t seem to be given all the necessary cleaning materials for it, and it has been closed on and off for a few days once it turns green, and a parent complains their children now have ear infections.  A bus leaves for Colon a couple of times a day during the week so one can pick up supplies. The trip takes about 3/4 of an hour each way all going well. It would depend if the locks on the canal were busy as we had to cross it and would have to sometimes wait. On the return trip we often crossed the canal on a small car carrier barge, and again sometimes had to wait for that. But in saying all that, there is a brand new bridge which should be open later in the year. That will make a huge difference to the trip.

New rudders arrive

While waiting in the marina we also did a couple of trips into Panama City. Both times to collect replacement parts. Once was on the marina bus, and the other time we caught a local bus from Colon. We were dropped at the Albrook Shopping Mall, said to be the largest mall in Central America. From the outside it looks like a giant multi coloured warehouse, but inside are all the usual modern shops one would find in any mall around the world.

That horrid Sargasso weed in marina

Then finally, a month after we arrived into the marina, we had the new rudders and parts, and were ready to be lifted. We had had to wait an extra week as the bushes and bearing had been forgotten to be included with the rudders, so were sent separately. Now we are ready to move SHAMAL to the lift out area. In the past week the winds and tide had brought into the marina that horrible Sargasso weed! Oh help we are on the dock at the far end of the marina and have to move out to the entrance. The waterway is totally clogged up. We untie SHAMAL and motor out slowly. Straight away the props are clogged up. It takes a good twenty minutes to manoeuvre our way to the lift out area. The boys here move slowly, and the process takes four hours from leaving the dock, to be lifted, washed down and be chocked before we can start work.

Alec working on removing bushes

Tools used to remove bushes

Now the fun begins. While we are still in the travel lift the old rudder stock on the port side ( the one that broke) and the starboard rudder, needed to be removed while we have the height. This does not take long. Alec has engaged the help of a “Swampy” ( Jack of all trades, master of none – a guy who lives on his boat in the marina, having arrived and not left, and now makes a living doing different jobs for others passing through ) He has very little in the way of tools, but thank goodness we have.  Once on the chocks, they start on removing the bushes/ bearings. This is where things get really interesting.  To remove the bottom ones requires a hack saw blade and a couple of hours work. The top ones are a different story. They will not budge. Alec is now sending off emails to another “Seawind” owner who has put on the web how to remove them. A week later we get the first one out, but the other is still held hard and fast. Between using half a hack saw blade, as that is all that will fit in the tiny space we have to work in, a piece of pipe with a fence post cap on the top ( which our son-in-law has sent down from Florida ) so we can ram it up from the bottom to try and knock them out, the heat gun to soften the epoxy which is holding them in, a car jack – which to start with only lifts the whole boat up, plus, advice from every person who comes past, it takes another two days before we finally get the last one out. We have not been working all that time fully on the bearings. We take a break and do other jobs.

Small space showing top bearing

We spend nearly three weeks out on the hard. We knew it was far too long, especially when for about three mornings in a row we are woken buy a hen clacking on the front deck. On one of my visits up front, I find she has laid an egg under the kayak. Then on another morning Alec falls from the bottom step of SHAMAL and onto the ground – about 8ft. Lucky he grabbed the ladder on the way down and fell on his side and not his head. It did leave him with lots of bruising and a very sore heel which took well over a month to come right.

Our hens egg

When all the work is complete, Alec makes arrangements for us to be put back in the water. He has also booked our canal transit. We are to be dropped into the water on a Monday morning to finish off the last of our jobs. We wake on the Monday morning to see a trawler yacht waiting in the lift out area. We end up waiting six hours while it is lifted and washed down, then are told there is another yacht to be lifted before we can be put back in the water.  Again due to the inefficiency of the marina staff, we are not put in the water till the Tuesday. Our canal transit has been booked for Wednesday afternoon. It is now a mad rush for me to organise meals for the line handlers and Advisors for the transit, as I had to go into Colon for the food, and Alec has to fit the new batteries, a last minute decision to fit a new start battery as well, and thank goodness the marina shop has one. A new wind transducer needs to be fitted at the top of the mast, which we could not do on the hard – marina rules. Then it started to rain, so the mast job was delayed until Wednesday morning. Talk about cutting it fine, but, all was completed in time, and we join another kiwi boat for our two day transit of the Panama Canal. We went with s/y “Alesea”, their owners 

Ian and Kate, Gatun Lake

being Ian Kate and daughter Milly.

Rafted up in first set of locks

In the first three locks we were rafted to them, and they were rafted to a tug boat. Once through the first set of locks we were both rafted to a huge buoy in the Gatun Lake for the night. Our Advisors left us here, but our line handlers spent the night on board with us. The following day once we had crossed the Gatun Lake, we rafted just to “Alesea” and were held by our lines off the lock walls. Both days all went smoothly. We did have an incredible downpour of rain as we were passing through the area called Gillard Cut where visibility was nearly zero. If this is what it will be like during the rainy season, it is time to leave here.

In a Lock

Last Lock. Pacific Ocean here we come

Once through the canal, we drop off our line handlers, who by the way were fabulous. Very efficient and polite, along with the two Advisors, opposite the Balboa Yacht Club, which is situated just after the Bridge of Americas, then we continue on and drop anchor outside La Playita Marina. Here we can take the tender into the marina, for a hefty charge, to use the dock to load the last of our supplies. We are there for 11 days doing last minute jobs, getting the last of our fresh supplies, and waiting for a weather window to leave. Unfortunately the winds have really died off, and we can see getting out of the Gulf of Panama is going to be a bit of a struggle.  There are boats leaving every day, so when we are ready, we will just have to up anchor and hope the winds arrive. We are oh so ready to see Panama in our wake! This has been a very long and very expensive stopover.

La Playita Marina, Panama

While in Shelter Bay we met a New Zealand couple, James and Rosalind Laing. They have a company called Panama Yachting Services, and have been in Panama for 40 years. Chatting with Rosalind we discovered we went to the same school in Wellington New Zealand. Once we were through the canal, Rosalind drove us all around Panama City showing us the sites and taking us to different places to pick up supplies. It was great having someone help us who had all the local knowledge. We also had a meal out together to say goodbye and thank them for their kindness. That kindness really came to play when on Saturday 18^th May when we turn on the engines ready for day one of the Big Leg out into the Pacific. It was 06.30, and oh no, we had this terrible squeaking coming from the Starboard engine. We could not believe it. Alec opened it up and was not sure if it was the alternator belt, or worse still bearings !!?? This needed further investigation. We waited till 07.00 before calling James. Departure Delayed. He would come down as soon as he could and check it out. I end up spending the day ashore with Rosalind while Alec and James replace the alternator belt. It is not quite that simple, as they had to remove our water maker pump, which is engine driven, to get at the belt. But by mid-afternoon the job was done, and everything was working. We delay our departure by a day.

Adios to Panama

Sunday 19^th May – Day 1, 06.00 we up anchor and are on our way. Yes the winds are very light, anywhere between 7-13kts. We initially decide to motor sail as we pass through all the moored ships waiting for their turn to transit the canal. Then we cut the engine and sail. That first 24 hours we only cover 112nm as we tack around thunderstorms, have light winds from all but the right direction, lots of rain, and a 2mt sea at times on the nose. Then things settle down. It still takes us eight days to reach the Galapagos Islands, a distance of 1000nm with all the tacking we did. We later learn from others, that everyone who left around the time we did faced the same predicament.

One of our Boobies

We are not stopping in the Galapagos Islands. It has sadly become a very expensive stopover, and we spent so much money in Panama. Even before we see the islands, the red footed boobies come out to greet us. They are the smallest of the boobies with brown bodies, red web feet which are still able to grip around branches and rails, and a purple/blue tinged beak and around the eye with another splash of red at the top of the beak. They have this reputation of feeding hundreds of kilometres offshore and have learnt to accompany vessels for incredible distances perching on rails and in the rigging and staying with vessels for days on end. They feed on flying fish snatching them in mid-air as they leave the bow waves of your craft. Yes we saw all of this, but along with this wonder, there is a down side. Your vessel becomes covered in guano. Oh how they can poop, and tons of it. We were out there every morning cleaning it off. The birds don’t even move off the rails. In fact you can touch them and all they do is turn and squawk at you. It is like it is there right to be there.

Alec and friends

Now along with these mounds of poop we were cleaning off, there were the flying fish and baby squid which landed on the boat at night attracted by our navigation lights. The squid ink also left its horrid black smudges everywhere. One morning Alec decided we should collect all the baby squid and eat them. They were the same size as the fishermen had sold us in Indonesia. So he picked up about 30 or so and we cleaned them up, marinated then in a ginger and garlic oil, and then had them with a stir fry of rice and vegetables. They were delicious, and our first Pacific seafood meal.

Part of our Squadron
 

We pass the outer northern Galapagos Island of Pinta ( Abingdon) to our Port and then follow our rhumb line down to cross the equator. We now have a “squadron “of 12 boobies with us!!!! You can imagine the mess. Along with the boobies there were the small pure white gulls something the size of a tern. They arrived after dark to fish from the light of our navigation lights. The starboard light gave them an iridescent green glow. There were at least two dozen of them, and we watched as they swooped along the bow waves feeding either on smaller fish or baby squid that the lights attracted.

Crossing the equator
 

On another day when we are well over a thousand miles from any land, a small turtle came swimming past heading in the opposite direction. Again on another day we spot a rather large shark cruising in the swell behind us. But, no dolphins did we see out there in the middle of nowhere.

The Ecuadorian Fishermen

Day 11. It is early morning and Alec is up front cleaning. Winds are light so we decide to motor sail for a while and make water. He then yells out to cut the engine as he sees a floating bottle attached to a long line. We are too late, Bugger, we have run over it and it is around our Starboard prop. After trying to free it with the boat hook to no avail, he now has to take a dive and assess the situation. He comes up asking for the knife! Sorry Ecuadorian fishermen, but we have no choice. Once he has cut and removed the line, he climbs back on board, for us only to drift back over the line again. This time we are able to clear it with the boat hook. We drift away from it before starting the engine again and we are on our way. Five minutes later Alec is showered and ready to continue cleaning, when over the horizon zooming up behind us comes a long lining skiff with two people on board. No mother ship or skiff shows up on the radar or AIS. It was as if the seas had opened up and out pops this skiff. He was beside us in minutes! He indicates he wants to raft up, but we strongly say NO. We don’t speak Spanish, and they don’t speak English, but one of the men is telling us his line has been cut. After lots of hand signs between us he gives up and asks for something to eat. Yes we can oblige to that request. We hand over a plastic bag of water, biscuits and apples on the end of the boat hook. They are extremely grateful for this and are soon returning to their fishing.  We are very relieved that it all ended so simply and are on our way again.

We slept in the saloon on the downed table

Day 15. We have been having a few minor issues with the starboard alternator belt. Alec keeps having to tighten it after we have run that engine for a while. Definitely annoying, but something we can cope with. It is early afternoon and I find a couple of black plastic “things” on the deck about three inches long. Oh help, where have they come from. A closer inspection reveals they are from the Carr off the Outhaul slide on the top of the boom. The Outhaul is now nearly frayed through. We do a running repair which we are quite sure will be far stronger than the original set-up. We have a piece of dynema rope threaded through a bit of plastic hose with loops on each end. Shackles are attached to the loops. This contraption is placed around the boom. Then some thick rope is tied to the broken Carr and then well-padded with a piece of cloth and tape. This is done to prevent any chafing of sheets. As I said, I think this arrangement is much stronger than the original set-up.

Our yellow fin tuna
 

For the rest of the crossing the boat behaved. Winds are east to east south east between 12-20kts. Occasionally a little stronger. Seas are between 2-3mts., occasionally a little bigger. The fishing is good. We catch six black skipjack tuna, keeping only one biggish one Alec catches. They are a darker meat fish and not our favourite. We also catch one yellow fin tuna, and three mahi-mahi. At one stage Alec gets something rather large on his line which takes ALL the line off the reel. I have been using a very heavy duty hand-line I made up.

Occasionally another yacht shows up on the AIS, stays with us for a while, and then disappeared again. One particular yacht disappeared for a week, then returned to our screen. Not sure where he had been, as it was a much larger catamaran which we thought would have been miles ahead.

Day 28 Alec's 70th Birthday
 

Out in the middle of no-where

As we are approaching the Marquesas Islands we need to slow down so as to arrive in daylight. We drop the main sail so are now only using the jib, but, we are still doing about 5kts. We wind in half the jib, no, “SHAMAL” just wants to get there, so we hove-to till just before day break, and then are on our way again. Friends off s/y “Pavic” come up behind us, also just completing the crossing. They call on the radio and remind us as it is Sunday we cannot check in to Hive Oa till Monday. We both sail through the canal du Bordeaux, which separates the islands of Hive Oa and Tahuata, and drop anchor in Hana Moe Noe on Tahuata, a truly delightful anchorage with a white sandy beach, vibrant green coconut palms, and the clearest cleanest waters we have seen for a long time. Water temperature is 30.2deg.c. Oh help, we really have arrived in

Hiva Oa, The Marquesas

paradise.

Log: 4,133nm

Trip time: 28 days 6 hours 15 minutes

Average speed: 6.1 kits

Not the fastest of times, but we have arrived safely with no major mishaps.

So we will sign out for now

From The Admiral and the Commander