8.54N 79.31W  As I write this blog, Anahi is safely tucked up in Flamenco Marina on the Pacific side of the Canal.  They are very short of space here, so we all agreed that the Blue Water Rally yachts wanting to be in the marina would raft up to each other, four deep, from the floating pontoon! Another close encounter!  Others have either chosen a buoy outside the Bilboa Yacht Club or to rest up in the allocated anchorage.

 

As pre arranged, on the 26^th January, the first 15 yachts made their way to the ‘flats’ an anchorage just outside the canal at around 14.30 hrs, dropped anchor and waited for their transit advisors.  However, just before we left I walked into the cabin and found an unexpected stowaway who had to make a hasty departure:

 

 

 

And who’s been sleeping in my bed?

 

We had two extra line handlers on board by now – Peter from Moonshadow (English) and Annemarie from Lousill (Danish) – so once we had waved goodbye to our guest we spent the next four hours chatting, getting to know them better, consuming a chicken curry with rice and enjoying the stunning sunset. 

 

Eventually the tug arrived and began dropping off all the t/as - all bow of tug to port side - but with great expertise! – I don’t think the tug touched one yacht to cause any damage and the t/as monitored their moment to jump and landed on each foredeck.

 

 

Frank jumping on board from the tug

 

Our chap, Frank, was an absolute delight and like many of the other t/as, we discovered, was moonlighting from his regular job – in his case he is a shipping traffic controller having spent four years qualifying at maritime college.  With time at sea he rose to 2^nd mate but the time away from his family was too much for him so he changed careers.  He now lives in Panama with his wife and two children and we learnt that when we anchored up that night in the lake he would have a two hour journey home, one and a half hours sleep, and a two hour journey back to reach us at 4.30am for the next day’s transit! We insisted he stay with us overnight and made up a daybed for him – he was the envy of all the other 14 t/as!!

 

Setting off down the main shipping canal in the pitch dark at around 18.30 with a myriad of coloured lights, huge flashing buoys, ships’, yachts’ and shore lights all winking and converging was a very interesting experience!  The wind got up to 25 knots and we were all instructed to up anchor and follow one another (in the correct order of our nesting patterns) to the entrance of the first lock.  And then it rained – oh how it rained!!

 

 

Annemarie and I sheltering

 

 

And Paul at the wheel

 

 

And Frank who came prepared with is cape!

 

When we arrived we were told to ‘stop’ but Paul told Frank that he hadn’t had the engine on for half an hour (only in neutral) – we were being pushed by the wind and current at 3.5 knots!! To ‘stop’ we had to put Anahi in reverse – a bit like playing the clutch of a car as we couldn’t safely go backwards either!  And the wind blew and blew.  We had been told that to raft up into our nests of three it would be best to do so up wind – well! to manoeuvre up wind in the narrow one way channel would place us in the path of the huge merchant ships that were moving down the ‘fast’ lane on our port side.  Being in the last ‘nest’ meant that we had the questionable advantage of overhearing what was going on ahead of us, with limited vision of course.  Try to imagine five groups of three yachts, all being pushed by wind and current, all trying to turn up wind three at a time, each batch of three trying to catch each other up or slow down to make initial contact, but then having to quickly adjust speed to be doing exactly the same knots at the moment of nesting - all going the wrong way up the ‘fast lane’, all monitoring the speed of the next ship bearing down upon them!  Of course everyone was tense and full of anxiety so I will leave it to your imagination how in each ‘nest’ 3 captains, 3 transit advisors and 12 line handlers managed to work as one team!!  In fact there came a time when the only way we could ‘stop’ was to turn Anahi around the wrong way and wait our turn facing and dodging on coming ‘traffic’.  The centre boat of our nest was Blue Raven, a 53 foot Halberg Rassy, owned and skippered by Reinhart who is an extremely experienced yachtsman, pretty dictatorial too on this occasion, but always correct and commanding a lot of respect – so we all appreciated having one strong leader and we all followed his instructions.  We three yachts had a combined weight of around 70 tons so when Reinhart saw our 25 year old Panama warps he kindly offered to lend us his!!  Of course the lines fore and aft attaching the two outside yachts to the centre boat have to be just the right tension not to pull the boat out of  line and with ‘springs’ fore and aft too.  The masts and spreaders had to be staggered so they didn’t touch - this was another vital factor in the nesting process.  I have to say our team ran like clockwork and by the time we entered the first lock when the monkey fists came raining down, we were all feeling a lot more confident.  The locks at night look like a James Bond set – we went through three that night – all climbing upwards - before entering the lake.  The men holding the rope attached to the monkey fists (which once thrown down are attached to the Panama warps – our 125 foot long lines) first walk along the top of the locks keeping pace with their nest of yachts - all moving slowly together on their engines,  until all the nests are in position.

 

 

Shore side line handler with our borrowed Panama warp

 

Only then do they drag up the ‘warps’ from each yacht and secure them around the huge bollards. The lock gates closed behind us.  It is then the job of the four main line handlers in the nests – two on each outside foredeck and two on each outside stern – to carefully pull in their ropes  (on the way up) to keep up the tension – but not too much (easily done when using a power winch) which would pull the ‘nest’ out of line.  In fact as an outside boat you are effectively a potential fender against the very unforgiving lock wall if the person on the opposite side were to drop their line or even let it gather too much slack through lack of attention.  The latter happened a few times on some of the other nests with alarming consequences.  A few nests veered towards the outer wall before being rescued by bow thrusters, engines and much pulling on ropes to correct the situation…. All eyes were on the land handler who had failed in their duties - although having said that, sometimes it was the t/a’s error of judgement.

Bennett and Peter were our main men and they were brilliant!

 

 

Bennett in between line duties!

 

When we were finally through the third lock of the night and in the lake we anchored for the night with far too much adrenalin going around us to go to sleep – so out came the red wine with cheese and biscuits so we could all chew the cud and chat over what had occurred so far!  Six am dawn came around far too soon and with it the raucous sounds of the nearby howler monkeys, an extraordinary growling noise echoing through the nearby jungle, and off we went again through the next three locks – this time going down which meant letting out the lines gently at just the right tension.

 

 

Hakuna Matata ahead of us in her nest in the lock

 

 

And motoring under the bridge of Americas

 

We took so many photos of other yachts, ships, the canal banks, dredgers, cranes, bridges and tourist boats but did not see one living animal We were assured that everything that had floated past was a potential crocodile but I am not convinced  - they all looked like logs to me but then…….we spotted him just as we reached the pacific!

 

 

Pacific crock!

 

 

 

Much of this side of the canal is being widened and dredged to accommodate the 5% of shipping which is now too large to transit and oh my goodness what a project this is….. it looks never ending but apparently is scheduled for completion in 2014.  Very tired and sunburnt we finally arrived at our destination –  Flamenco Marina - and milled around outside waiting for our turn to enter and raft up inside.  When BWR Richard phoned Anahi on the VHF and asked us to come in and take our place he also threw a squib in for good measure ‘come in backwards please as there is now no more room inside the marina for manoeuvre and berth alongside the floating pontoon in between Bacchus and Zipadedoda!’ To Paul’s credit we managed it perfectly but to then get all the other boats rafted up was a little bit like a yachting pass the parcel!  A couple of yachts got rammed – one receiving a ‘T Bone’ – lovely _expression_ requiring no explanation!  Weary but hungry we joined Hakuna Matata for a quick dinner, put our heads down, and woke early for our drive back to Shelter Bay to join Yacht Maryanne -  as their line handlers.  Eric and his wife Maryanne have lovingly built this 50 foot Hoek designed yacht over a period of 10 years and we were thrilled to be transiting on such a beauty!  We had another good transit and after four days on the go have enjoyed a good rest here in Flamenco……although with no shopping on the horizon for the next 4000 miles including our visit to the Galapagos we are all trying to stock up for the next two months sailing.  Apparently beers are 7.5 US Dollars each in Tonga so we have a challenge on the stowing front. 

 

Paul is going back to Colon tomorrow to collect our genoa; the outboard mechanic has been to collect and mend our Yamaha 6 and Mercury 4 for repairs; the laundry should be ready soon but we have arrived in the middle of a major Fiesta so who knows when; oil changes have been completed; we can refuel on the way out and water is plentiful so we are pretty optimistic and looking forward to the short sail across to the Las Perlas Islands either on the 5^th or 6^th.