Shelter Bay, Port of Cristobal, Panama
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 30 Jan 2008 22:06
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9:22.105N 79:57.048W
We arrived safely in Panama at about 8am this
morning after another nice and easy day and night downwind sail (a picture of
last night's sunset is attached - as we always say, you can't have too many
sunset pictures...). The freighter traffic as we approached the port of
Cristobal was a little bit of a challenge. It was early in the morning,
dark, and there were a lot more of them (freighters) than there were
of us (sailboats). Sunrise came just as we were on our final approach
toward the entrance to the port and the beginning of the canal. The timing
was good as it allowed us to pass between the breakwalls without having to
share the narrow space with one of the big ships.
About half of the fleet is here and the other half
should arrive over the next two days (shown in picture 2 is Harmonie
alongside the Irish BlueFlyer and the Italian One Life). We're not sure
how many boats arrived before us, but we think we were near or part of the top
ten. Not bad for two novice ocean sailors on a twelve year old boat.
A summary of our voyage will be the subject of another update to be sent in the
near future.
If you haven't had a chance to take a look at the
World ARC website, they have the full story on the fishing boat that sank.
The four fisherman on board had been drifting for 20 days due to engine trouble
on their small, open, fishing boat. They had seen other boats go by them,
but no one stopped because the fishing boat was so small and relatively
invisible on the open water. Tillymint happened to spot the
fishing boat after some of her crew heard cries for help. Because it took
time for Tillymint to slow down, bring in the sails, start the engine, turn
around and head back to the stranded fishing boat, the fisherman thought
Tillymint had passed them by and in a desperate attempt to attract attention,
started a signal fire on board their boat. The fire got out of control and
caused the boat to sink and that's how the four fishermen ended up in the
water. How incredibly sad. If only the fishermen had realized that
Tillymint was coming back for them, they wouldn't have started the fire and
three of them would not have drowned. A very sad story.
The rally coordinators are working hard to plan our
canal passage. We are hoping to go within the next few days. In the
meantime, all boats are cleaning up after the long passage and arranging for
additional crew for the canal transit. Four line handlers, a captain
and a pilot are all required on each boat. My brother Bill is joining us
tomorrow for the transit, and we will hire two additional line handlers and a
local pilot. We are a bit apprehensive about going through the canal and
will be glad when it is over.
The BlueFllyer champagne party has been postponed
until everyone has had a chance to clean up and catch a nap. Although the
sail was smooth, Don and I are relatively sleep deprived after both of us were
required to complete several sail configuration changes throughout the night and
day on Tuesday and navigate through the freighters early this
morning - neither one of us has had more than four hours of sleep for the
past two nights. I'm sure we'll be back in tip top shape by
tomorrow.
Greetings from Panama -
Anne
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