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Latitude:
09-00.96N
Longitude: 079-36.56W
Pedro Miguel
Boat Club - Panama Canal
 Today
was the BIG DAY - Part One. Today we transited the Panama Canal
- mostly! What this means is that, although we have one lock to
go before the Pacific, we have, as of today, crossed the continental
divide. We took a position report from midway through Gatun Lake
which I will post tonight, which we will let stand for a few days
before posting our position here. I guess that's called manipulating
the data, but hey...!
We had a smooth transit,
not without a little excitement. I guess much of that stepped up
intensity comes simply from it being your own boat. Our "advisor"
Ernie Cooper(the yachts get pilots-in-training) stunned us by showing
up on schedule..which was, by the way 0500 (like 5am!). No one we
knew had started out less than two hours late! Our crew had barely
been handed a cup of coffee before the pilot boat dropped him off
and we were underway in the dark!
 We
did the Gatun Locks just after sunrise center-locked in a "nest"
of three sailboats: us, Swarra II a 42' Australian steel boat and
Salamander a 34' British-flagged pipsqueak-- tucked up under the
stern of the Trinidad, a 623' car carrier which was, by the way,
105.77' wide...in locks that are only 110' wide! After some rearranging
and rethinking, we ended up the center boat, which means Don didn't
just drive one boat through, he drove three! The good news was that
once rafted together, the crews of the other boats had to do the
work of tending the four long lines that kept the flotilla centered
in each lock as the waters rose. There is some turbulence as the
water flows into the locks from culverts beneath it, and there is
more turbulence at the top when the giant ship in the lock with
you uses their props to drive themselves out ahead. An inattentive
line handler could sent the raft-up corkscrewing into the lock wall,
which, aside from ruining your day would result in losing your $800
security deposit!
The Gatun Locks raise
vessels 76' to Gatun Lake in three stages. At the top everybody
goes their own way, the ships following the buoyed channel, the
small boats taking several short cuts. On our trial run Saturday
as line handlers aboard the yacht Maritime Express, we saw several
spider monkeys in the high branches of the trees of tiny islands
we passed through. Today, who'd know as we were wolfing down bagels
at the time!
 Gatun
Lake is a man-made lake created by damming up that same Chagres
River in whose mouth we were so peacefully anchored last week. It
took us about five hours to motor across it and down the Gaillard
Cut, the water becoming increasingly muddy and strewn with water
hyacinths and floating grass islands as we neared the original Chagres.
In contrast to our trip Saturday which had on and off showers, today
was hot sunny and gorgeous and this part is the festive, social
part. Much like a charter, a big hot lunch is de rigeur for the
advisor and your line handling crew. We had a total of eight on
board, and Judy should note that my Panama version of crepes Ensenada
with Greek salad was a big hit!
Gaillard Cut is the narrowest
part of the Canal Waterway, and the Canal Authority is in the process
of widening this stretch. Unlike our Saturday trip where we encountered
no traffic to speak of, today we had boats passing regularly. What
a minute...these are not "boats"....these are huge container
ships stacked to the brim! In fact, we made such good time, that
we down-locked with the same car carrier we went up with! Except
that neither of the other sailboats made it in time. So this time
we down locked side-tied to a tugboat, the easiest of all the options.
 Pedro
Miguel Boat Club is barely tucked in behind the east side of the
Pedro Miguel Locks. It is far less a marina or yacht club than it
is a boatie commune! Sailboats are moored bow or stern to the shore
and some rickety docks behind which are a bunch of do-it-yourself
workshops plus a club-house with an open kitchen and a drink machine
with beer and coke in it! Although you would think the spot would
be well-protected from weather and "sea", artificial waves
created by tugboat wakes periodically set all the boats rocking
wildly. Plus, it is probably the only place in the world that has
a 6" tide dozens of times a day! It is testimony to how few
the secure mooring options are in Panama and how strong is the communal
personality of the club that this place is so popular.
We made such good time,
exiting the lock at 1:30, that no one at Pedro Miguel was even looking
for us yet. However, they rallied quickly, and directed us to back
TII into a prime spot right next to the commodore's own boat. Although
we feel like we are in a spider's web of mooring lines, this spot
happens to put our bow right into the tugboat tsunamis minimizing
their effect. Could the fact that the commodore's boat is a CSY
have anything to do with our prime position?
 I
can't end this update without a word of gratitude for the great
"crew" we had aboard today. Our friends Lourae and Randy
of Pizazz, George of Suething, and Sam of Sandi Lee made up our
our core crew, plus a Yorkshire backpacker named Jim Spence (who
took a year off before college to travel 22 years ago, and never
stopped) who was keen to add a Canal transit to his roster of world
adventures! Everybody was there for everything that needed to be
done, (including dishes!), which made the trip into a great day's
outing for us all!
By the way, I made a
mistake in the website address I posted in the last update and I'm
not sure the correction made it out. The correct address is www.cristobalmarina.bizland.com.
 Friday
I am flying to Miami/Ft. Lauderdale to spend a week collecting some
important boat parts that just aren't available in Panama. We stumbled
over a great fare that more than covers air freight, although I
do think we failed to factor in motel room and car rental! So, the
Update front will be quiet for a while, unless the other Captain
gets motivated.
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