Panama Chapter 2
Ariel
Thu 27 Apr 2006 18:16
It is almost nine pm Wednesday evening & the town is certainly not rocking
the way it did on Friday & Saturday night when we first arrived.The Latinos
certainly know how to entertain themselves.The music was so loud we were all
woken up by their grand finale at 4.00am Sunday morning, even though we are
sitting at anchor about 1k from where the action is.There is obviously great
opportunity here for an ear, throat & left nostril specialist.
The trip thru the Panama Canal was interesting & pleasantly uneventful,
though we did have one anxious moment when the character on one of the other
boats was not paying attention to what he was doing, which caused our stern
to swing towards the wall momentarily, before we got the boat under
control.Apart from that & all the drama & rumours of necessary brides to be
paid to officials prior to going thru, the process was smooth once proper
procedures were explained & followed.The answer to all our quandaries was
thru official channels you pay an extra $2250.00 (US) if you want quick
transit.- 2 to 3 days as opposed to 3 to 4 or 5 weeks for some.Yachts are
seen as a gross inconvenience, as they only pay approx $1450.00, whereas the
average tanker pays $125,000.00.Latest rumour is they are considering
stopping yachts transiting, so we may have got thru just in time.
The canal is not so much a canal as more a lake & river, with a lesser
percentage man made.It is very wide in parts with a few islands dotted
around parts of the passage..The Smithsonian Institute has a very
pleasant"Resort" nestled in the jungle overlooking the lake under the guise
of doing environmental research of some sort.We also spotted some pleasant &
aesthetically matched huts (to the environment)that can be hired I was told for brief stays.You
would certainly feel you were getting away from it all.
The actual transit took 9 hours travelling at 6 knots, except where we were
required to go through a total (from memory,) 6 locks-3 at either end.we
left Colon 8.00pm Thursday night & tied up at a mooring at 11.00pm at Lake
Gatun.
Friday morning about 9.15 the pilot arrived to allow us to continue the
journey which
in daylight gave us a better perspective of the surroundings. A substantial
part of the "channel"
was reserved for small boats, due to it being probably too narrow for
present day shipping. The large ships follow an alternate route that takes
them
into a wider part of the lake a couple of kilometres away on a parallel
course.
There is no one living along the canal as it is well away from civilisation
and reasonably
dense jungle.There is as I mentioned earlier the institute,huts,but also a
jail for some
of the local populous, though from what I have heard most of them are on the
wrong side
of the fence.
After the difficulties encountered prior to transiting it was a relief to
exit on the Pacific side (our side of the world & the beginning of the trip home)
just near Balboa, where one of the yacht clubs is located.We decided to go a
little further south
and park (anchor) ourselves at a place called La Playita, where we can stay
for free apart
from paying a fee of $5.00 a day to tie our dinghy up at the wharf.
Panama city is quite a large modern city with a population of approx 1.3mill.
It seems to be ok to get around during the day but we have been again warned not to walk around at night, even though it is far safer. There are some very fine old buildings, dating back around 400 years but does not seem to have much of great significance. It does have a colourful past as it was regularly plundered by pirates, Morgan & Sir Francis Drake amongst them.The churches have interconnecting tunnels as a means of escape from the pirates.They apparently painted the gold alter black so as not to be detected by the pirates.I detect Colon is an embarrassment to the locals
(I have suggested a change of name would help,)due to the high crime level & the general degeneration of the city.It is the gateway to the Panama from the Atlantic side but is the Bombay of the Mexican/Caribbean Gulf area.(A end of the world I am told.) There have been plans apparently to bulldoze the city & start again, but of course relocating the populace is difficult.
We have been resupplying over the last couple of days, a new fitting had to be made at a local engineering factory, and we are waiting for our alternator to be repaired & returned to be (hopefully) installed today. So with luck & good weather we shall be heading off on Friday morning our time for Galapagos, where we will spend a few days before the big leg to Marquesas.This part of the trip should develop into the most pleasant,scenic & interesting.we should be four desperate sailors by the time we get into Marquesas.
Hopefully next chapter will be more interesting & I can sort out my internet problems so I can send some photos to the mailasail sight.
Best regards to All,
bern