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Finally today I really did get up early and walk to the Canal Administration Building and up Ancon Hill! A good workout for sure after yesterdays turkey binge.
On the way down, we say 3 nocturnal monkeys sleeping in a tree. They woke up and came to check us out. I hear they like bananas, but I didn't have any.
We went to the mercado de Abastos and toured the streets of produce venders from all over Panama. Picked out a few fresh veggies and caught a cab back just as the rain started.
I have so much to be thankful for... Of course, my family and friends in the US, my health, but at the moment, I am thinking of the cool breeze, the solar panels and 12volt fans, Wifi, and an American style Thanksgiving dinner with the other sailors in Panama City prepared by the local pizza place.
50 cruisers showed up for the buffet style meal. Absolutely delicious moist turkey , gravy, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mixed vegetables, cranberries, a roll, pumkin and apple pie. Yum yum. Paul wore a mickey mouse tie, blake and sunny sat with Russ, Paul and I. Really great food and company. Since I couldn't be with friends and family, my cruising community really came thru making it a close second.
Yesterday, Aspara got a new dinghy. Christned "Gus"...get it? Asparagus? Anyways, its smaller and has a rigid floor. No water on the inside and air stays in the compartments...yeah! We tried Abernathy's but ended up leaving there with foul weather gear and just as we walked out the door, the skies let loose with a torrential down pour. We took a cab to Centro Marino and stepped out to steaming sunshine. They had a small 8' Mercury inflatable that they were happy to deliver to the dock.
Today, I visited the villiage of Embera Drua. A group of sailors got together and Carmen was our guide. After a winding van ride through the park along the canal, we went up along the Chagres River and loaded into a very large cayuca or wooden canoe with a large outboard. Embera indians wearing nothing more than a simple loin cloth greeted us with life jackets and sped up the flooded river. The rapids were exciting enough to need a bowman with a long pole to assist the engines.
A welcoming commitee of drummers and flutes played as we arrived at the village just as the raun started. After the history talk, we were shown their arts and crafts and offered tattoes. I, of course, jumped at the chance. A beautiful young man proceeded to decorate my calf with a traditional design. I liked it. It should last a few weeks.
I enjoyed the talapia caught in the river and they did a little traditional dance of course. It was good fun. We escaped just before the rain started again.
Our timing was fortunate to meet Russ, s/v Aspara, when we did. He's leaving Panama, having been here the better part of two years, and going to Alaska via Hawaii to visit family. Every cruiser size boat transiting the canal is required to have at least four line handlers, he'd lined up two. You can hire line handers in Colon but then you have strangers on your boat for two days. While I wouldn't call us close friends, we have found enough things in common to keep us talking for hours at Captain Jacks on several occasions so when he mentioned his timing for canal transit we jumped at the opportunity to be line handers for him. s/v Aspara is a 32' sailboat.
We take the local bus to Colon then a taxi to Club Nautico Cartbe. Unlike Cartagena's, this Club Nautico is an actual building, and part of a gated compound with a restaurant, chandlery / dive shop & dingy dock. Cruisers going from the Caribbean to the Pacific usually pick up their extra crew here. Between heavy rain showers we dash to s/v Aspara. When all five of us are on board we motor to The Flats anchorage to wait for our canal Advisor, a canal employee who will coordinate our transit with the Canal Authority. They want small boats anchored in The Flats by noon but the Advisor isn't expected to arrive until later in the afternoon. Five people trying to stay dry on a 32' sailboat is very cozy. Thankfully as the afternoon ticks away so does the rain. When the Advisor joins us at 6:20pm the rain has stopped.
The first part of our transit, three "up" locks will be in the dark. The "up" locks are much more turbulent than "down" locks due of the flow of the water and because small boats are positioned behind the ships in these locks. Heavily laden ships need to use their engines to assist the canal mules to move between the connected locks which adds to the rush of water coming at a small boat. Russ is nervous. We get in position by the first lock and wait for our ship, Meking Star, to arrive. I take photos of the ships that pass by going into the locks but very few of them turn out due to the bright lights of the locks. At 7:15, Meking Star arrives and is tied up to the mules. The lock doors open & she's moved in place. We will be tied up to a Viking sport fishing boat, Becky Lu, which will be tied to the lock wall. Once she's in place, we tie up and the doors close behind us. Up we go! When the lock door opens everyone moves into the second lock; first Meking Star then we untie from Becky Lu, Becky Lu unties from the wall and moves ahead of us to get tied to the next lock wall. We tied up to her as soon as she's in place. This process repeats itself in the third lock. When the doors of the third lock opens, Meking Star is detached from the canal mules and goes on her way. We and the family & crew aboard Becky Lu spend the night tied to a large buoy in Gatun Lake. It's late by the time we get secured to the buoy. We have a celebration drink and hit the sack.
Transiting The Panama Canal Aboard s/v Aspara, Day 2
Susan / overcast, 84 degrees F
11/13/2011, Panama Canal, Panama
Jerry's alarm goes off at 6am. Yikes! By the time we find the offending cellphone everyone is awake. We all slept in our clothes so really didn't need more an half an hour to be ready to continue our transit when our canal Advisor joins us, scheduled for 7am, but awake we are. We're more than ready to go when he boards at a quarter to 8am. Traveling at 5kts the fastest Aspara can go under motor, it's going to be a long day. The Canal Transit photo album, under the Panama one, has lots of pictures of the canal as we travel across Gatun Lake and through the Gaillard Cut. In the late afternoon we arrive at the first of the locks, Pedro Miguel Locks, that will take us down to the Pacific side and wait for Brilliant Sky. In this lock Aspara is tied to the lock wall in front of Brilliant Sky.
In the following two locks, we tie Aspara to a tug accompanying Brilliant Sky. One of the tug workers, Flash according to the back of his PFD, takes the opportunity to chat us up while we're along side. Flash has worked in the canal for 31 years, only 7 more to go to retirement. He expects to work on the larger tugs when they're in service in the larger locks currently under construction. He wrote a song about these new locks which he sang to me in the Miraflores Locks, to the amusement of his buddy. All good.
We exit Miraflores Locks into the Pacific just before at dusk. Half an hour later, Aspara drops us off at the Balboa Yacht Club fuel dock in Panama City. They'll continue to an anchorage in the Bay of Panama where they'll stay for a few days before starting their journey to Alaska via Hawaii. Fair Winds & Following Seas, Aspara!
Today, the first orderof business is to patch the dinghy! Every day it is something. Yesterday we went to get groceries with our favorite taxi driver, Rogelio. We loaded garbage and backpacks and real shoes into the dinghy with a broken fishing pole and motored across to the dinghy dock. The little 2 hp sure beats rowing. Tied up to the dock. Ferried across in the little red boat on rope and pulleys and met Rogelio.
Anyways, it started to pour down rain. Rogelio plowed through water over the floor boards as we made stops at the chart store, Mega Depot and Price Smart. We returned with 2 months worth of Peanut butter and canned chicken, filling the trunk with paper towels and toilet paper and even found a big jug of Jellybeans!!!
But, alas, the dinghy was quite deflated! Russ quickly motored toward the boat to get a pump and ran out of gas along the way. I waited in the steps at low tide, praying the rain would hold off. I watched helplessly as he rowed the really flat dinghy slowly to the boat where he had not only to pump up the dinghy, but refuel as well. He returned and we piled it high and prayed the air would hold. It did but barely!
Going backwards, today Russ picked up his diesel jugs, then we went to do internet.
Yesterday, Wednesday, we checked in with the port captain and walked along the causeway and went past the new construction of the Biodiversity Museum. Designed by Frank Gentry, the architect of the Gugenheim, it looks like a hodge podge of colors and shapes. Not all the pleasing to look at, but certainly eye catching! Unfortunately it won't open till next year. Their were naval cadets doing their exercises and a mob gathered around the ice cream cart as we passed.
We made an appointment to haul the sailboat out on the rails to scrape and paint the bottom. Then stepped into the Balboa Yacht Club for lunch just as the rain came pouring down. Good excuse for a cab ride back to Las Brisas.
The dock is missing a critical piece so we are pulling ourselves across the gap in a little red plastic dingy hooked to ropes and pulleys for only the price of $5 a week. This is tippy and usually full of water and logs block the channel. Keeps life interesting.
Tuesday, we went to visit Indian Summer. They had good info on Alaska and fishing gear. Hopalong has a 10' foldaboat. We met with several other cruisers for pizza and I met Deb and Greg. They plan to go north through the canal. We gave them our tires to use as bumpers. We swapped notes on favorite places each side of the canal.
Monday we spent recovering from having 6 people aboard. We listened to the net and scrambled to get the laundry ready for Gente de Mar and took Paul's lines and fenders back. Paul walked around the islands with us and showed us what was what. I was able to get some post cards and a SD card for my camera. Pescadera's had rain gear, a flag, and the cruising guide. Abernathy's was much higher priced.
I am pressed for time, as always in wifi land, but in short...I am aboard a 33' sailboat "Aspara" and we just transited the Panama Canal safely on November 12-13, 2011. We are now anchored off Isla Flamenco and seeing the sights of Panama City.
Well here we wait...in the rain...Since I have arrived in Panama City, there have been no days without thunderstorms, but last night and today have so far been the most dismal, dark, and dreary.
Yet, the excitement mounts as now the only hurdle left to making the transit of the Panama Canal is the remaining linehandlers need to arrive on time tomorrow with the lines and fenders.
Upon arriving at Panama City a week ago, I took the bus to Albrook Mall and made the mistake of getting off too early. I had to pay a taxi $10 to take me the rest of the way to the station. Then after catching the express bus to Colon, the bus sputtered and died, fortunately near the Texaco station in Sabanitas. I called Russ to let him know I was here and then I ran out of minutes. He was waiting in Colon and ran around frantically, carrying a backpack full of booze for the transit, to all the possible bus stops thinking that here meant Colon.
They fixed the bus in 10 minutes or so and I arrived in Colon and immediately bought a $2 phone card and called Russ back. 15 minutes later we were on the bus to Portobelo. This is a long winding road and I was glad to have a seat and not be standing in the aisle!
The rain was nice and held off for the dighy ride to the sailboat "Aspara". She looks beautiful! All new paint inside, fresh varnish and everything working great except the ever frustrating refridgerator. We will just have to buy ice for the transit.
I am excited to be here! When Russ called, I was on the plane in less than 48 hours! In the morning we went up to Captain Jack's. He has done a lot of work. The place really looks great too! The table is in, the floor is tiled, new murals...
Dave from Anasu is there, either really early, or he never left...he offered me a taste of his wasabi bloody mary. Wow that's a wake me up drink! He and the bar tender are making up a theme song for the net or something. We eat omelettes and get some ice and groceries and hurry back before the rain.
We sailed for Colon in the pouring rain on Monday and by Wednesday had managed to get admeasured and paid the bank. Now our Transit appointment is set for Saturday afternoon. We are anchored near Club Nautico bucking and rolling with each passing workboat, watching the parade of container ships and cruiseliners pass by mere hundreds of feet away. If it would just stop raining!
