Safiya in the Panama Canal and Las Pearlas Islands

We started our transit from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean last Tuesday lunch time when we left the Marina and anchored in the "flats" outside the mouth of the canal waiting for our advisors to come aboard. They duly arrived, ours was called Edwin, was very pleasant and spoke excellent English!

As we approached the canal we rafted together with two other 575's into our nest of three, we were on the Starboard side and were resposible for the line handing on that side, the middle boat did the steering.

We headed into the Gatun locks which are a series of three, all ascending. Luckily Harvey, Andy and Declan had all been through the canal a few days previosly as line handlers on the smaller boats, so they knew the form! There was a lot of shouting as the water flooded into the lock and the ropes on each side had to be tightened equally so that the nest didn't go side ways in the lock. We got through unscathed and into the Gatun lake where we moored up and spent the night. The locks fill with 43 millon gallons of water in 9 minutes!

The Gatun lake is huge, 450 square miles of man made water, lined with jungle and spotted with tiny forested islands. It was almost surreal because it was so peaceful and serene as we cruised through the lake passing enormous tankers coming the other way! Not at all the industrial, commercial place that we expected.

We had promised Edwin a full English breakfast which we ate as we cruised through the lake. After about three hours the canal narrowed again and we motored single file towards the next set of locks - the Miraflores. This time the locks descended and as the last set of gates opened we glimpsed the vast bridge of Americas which marks the gateway to the Pacific.

The pilot boat came round to pick up Edwin and we moored up for the night just on the other side of the bridge.

The next morning we left at first light to sail to Las Perlas islands which are an archipelago of over 200 small islands only about 30 miles from Panama City. Most of them are uninhabited apart from Isla Contadora which has a small air strip and is a play ground for rich Panamanians, many of whom have holiday houses here.

We anchored in a bay off Contadora and as dusk fell Declan noticed a small power boat which had capsized not far from us with a load of people in the water. Harvey and Declan launched the dinghy and went to the rescue. There were about eight youngsters in the water, none of them wearing life jackets but luckily no none was hurt. The Safiya rescuers deposited them on the beach and went back for the slavage operation. With the help of three other boats they managed to right the boat and tow it away. The reward for this marine rescue was 4 tins of tonic water which were floating in the water (no gin, that had obviously all been drunk which may have accounted for the accident in the first place!).

We've had a lovely few days cruising around the islands which are very beautiful with pristine white sandy beaches and clear blue (but very cold!) water.

Toworrow we are heading back to Panama city, Andy and Maggie fly home on the 24th and we'll prepare for our passage to the Galapagos Islands