Panama to Galapagos
– Part 1
0:53.74S
89:36.8W
They attacked
again last night. The main assault is always just before dawn and for the first
time they got past our first line of defense. Fortunately they were repulsed by
our second defensive line and they retreated to think again. They’ll be back.
They’ve tried all sorts of tactics. They sent the children to try to charm us
into dropping our guard, but we were wise to that. They send out regular
scouting patrols to check if there are any gaps in our defenses or to check if
we are aware of their presence, and then the major attack always comes at night.
So far we have held firm but we know they are a cunning enemy and will keep
trying until they succeed.
(More on that
later)
Panama, Colon, the Canal and Panama City.
We left the San
Blas islands on 7th April, with a pleasant downwind sail to Isla
Linton, followed by an equally pleasant sail, past the entrance of the Canal to
the Rio Chagras. This river is navigable for about 6 miles (once past the rather
shallow bar at the entrance) deep into virgin jungle. We anchored about half-way
up, took a dinghy ride up to the Gatun Dam and explored some of the creeks off
the main river. We ended up towing a big wooden pirogue with five Canal
employees back down the river after their engine failed. Our little 8hp Yamaha
performed splendidly. The air was alive with the sounds of the jungle – howler
monkeys barking, parrot screeching and all manor of other birds joining in the
chorus. We saw squirrel monkeys paying in the trees. That night the silence was
split by the continued howling of the monkeys and dawn was a riot with parrots
and paraqueets vying to see who could make the most noise. Then saw a pair of
beautiful yellow-breasted toucans going through their head-bobbing mating
ritual. Wonderful.
Yellow breasted
toucan
Towing the pirogue down the
Rio Chagras
Jungle – Rio Chagras
Next day we went
to Shelter Bay Marina near Colon to wait for
Tony, a friend coming out from England (with the new fridge parts – at least we
could get ice in the marina!) and to prepare for the transit of the Panama Canal. The bureaucracy is extensive and although it
is possible to did it all oneself we chose to use an agent, who though expensive
did smooth the way considerably.
With a couple of
days spare I decided to take the Panama railroad to Panama City for the night and reconnoitre that
end of the Canal. Great train journey alongside the canal, lousy hotel in
Panama City and an interested bus ride (cost
$2.50 for the 50 mile trip) back to Colon.
The Panama
train
Train
interior
Local bus, Colon
Colon itself is a nasty,
run-down town with an evil reputation. You don’t walk around Colon, but take taxis from
one place to the next – all fares extremely negotiable.
Tony arrived and
we fitted the new evaporator plate, but we still have to get a fridge engineer
to vacuum the system and re-gas it with new refrigerant, and then finally we
were called to go through the Canal on the afternoon of Sunday 18th
April.
The Panama Canal
You are required
to have on board 4 line-handlers, plus the helmsman so a German couple, Klaus
and Marina from their yacht ‘Yellowman’ agreed to help. At about 4pm our
‘advisor’ Armarto came on board and we set of for the Gatun locks, a flight of
three lock that raise you 85ft to the level of Gatun Lake, a
man-made lake caused by the damming of the Rio Chagras, which takes you the
majority of the way through Panama before descending to the
Pacific.
At Gatun Lock we
paired up with a 45ft yacht alongside and followed a big ship into the first of
the locks. The shore-side line handlers hurled their lines, complete with huge
monkeys-fist knots, with unerring accuracy to us in the middle of the lock and
we passed our lines to them. The gates closed and then we were on the way
up!
The first lock – Armato,
our advisor, Klaus and Lucy
Amarto – Lucy’s
heartthrob!
The double gates at Gatun
Lock
A panamax (maximum size for
the Canal) container ship going down Gatun Locks
Getting
dark
After the flight
of three locks at Gatun we were directed to a mooring buoy in Gatun Lake for the night. The advisor was taken
off and we spent a really pleasant night chatting away to Klaus and Marina, over
a few G&Ts and a couple of bottles of wine before sleeping peacefully to the
sounds of the jungle all around.
Gatun Lake – early morning
Next day our new
advisor, Frank, arrived at 6a.m. and we were off motoring across the vast Gatun
Lake and through the great cuts made through the hills before descending the
three locks and out into the Pacific!
Spot the two crocodiles
lying on the shore
Not much room to
pass
Gaillard Cut – Panama Canal
Pelican watching
proceedings at lock
Klaus and Marina, our
lovely line handlers
From our mooring at Balboa
Y.C. – ship leaving Canal, passing under the Bridge of the
Americas
We took a
mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club in Panama City,
just past the Bridge of the Americas. We were moored only 30
yards from the main shipping channel and it was fascinating watching the
shipping approaching and leaving the canal from such close quarters. Fortunately
the ships had slowed right down for their approach or departure from the Canal
so there was little wash. I wish the same could be said of the pilot vessel
which roared round at full speed creating a tremendous wash, day and
night.
The next few
days were spent getting the fridge working (very good man in Panama) and
provisioning for the trip to Galapagos and across the Pacific. We had read that
there were few provisions available in Galapagos so Lucy was buying food for
about 6 weeks.
On Friday
23rd April, we said goodbye to the noise and pollution of Panama City
and headed for the Perlas islands about 50 miles south, stopping that night at
Contradora, before moving on next day to a deserted anchorage between Isla de
Canas and Isla del Rey. Our intention was to spend a couple of days here before
heading of the Galapagos some 840 miles away, but that night we had a huge
thunderstorm and torrential rain which bought out every mosquito and bug out and
all aimed at us!
So next day,
rather than spend another night being eaten alive we set out for the Galapagos Islands. The wind was on the nose which is where
it stayed for the entire trip, and mostly light or non-existent, giving us a
1000 miles beat to windward, not mine or the boat’s favourite point of sailing.
The boat slams into the waves, life is generally uncomfortable and you only make
slow, slow progress toward your destination. We decided that the best tactic was
to sail south first along the Panamanian and Columbian coasts before heading
west. In all it took 6 days and we arrived at Wreck Bay,
Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, on the island of San
Christobal as darkness fell.
Departing Panama
City
Crossing the Equator –
17.35GMT, 30/4/10
Lucy, having been inducted into Lord Neptune’s
court – Equator
Red-footed booby hitching a
ride to Galapagos
Isla Leon Dormido (Kicker
Rock) Galapagos
Drama on the high
seas
We had one very
disturbing incident on route. About 180 miles off the coast of South America
(near the Columbian/Ecuador border) we were approached by
an open boat, about 18ft long with three men on board. They wanted to come
alongside but I wouldn’t let them, so running alongside us they asked if we had
any petrol. It transpired that they only had enough fuel for 50 miles, yet were
180 from the coast. We only carry on small amount for our dinghy which would
have been of little benefit to them, but we did give them food and water. They
asked if we could call the Ecuador Coastguard to inform them of this boat’s
position. Being well out of VHF range, we decided to call Falmouth Coastguards
in England (their number is programmed
into our sat-phone). We told them the circumstances and gave them the position
of the boat. The said they would inform Ecuador Coastguards. We waved goodbye to
the three men whilst they sat waiting to be rescued.
About 5 miles
further on we came across a very large fishing boat which turned very
deliberately towards us. I tried calling them on the VHF with no reply. We were
now quite worried about the situation and turned away from them and gunned the
engines. Again I called them asking what were their intentions. Eventually a man
who spoke some English came on the radio, and they slowed down. We informed them
of the open boat 5 miles behind, gave their position and they said they would go
and pick them up. The fishing boat did call back half an hour later to say that
they had picked up the men in the open boat. That was a great relief to us and
we passed the information on to Falmouth. A while later we received a text from
the Ecuador Coastguard asking us to verify the situation.
So all was
resolved, but we spent some time talking over why an open boat would be so far
from land with insufficient fuel. Even more strange was than one of the crew of
the open boat spoke passable English and had a satellite-phone, which
unfortunately had be dropped in the water and no longer worked. There was no
evidence of fishing gear. We decide that they were meant to rendezvous with
another vessel but as their phone had broken had missed the meet. In that part
of the world it does not take much imagination to suspect that drugs were
involved. We were relived to be well away from the situation, but even so I kept
a good radar watch that night to make sure we were not being followed.
