Ola,

Thirty minutes after the anchor went down – my head went down upon the pillow. An hour later, somewhat refreshed I went ashore to contact my Panama Canal agent. Going thro the Canal it definitely pays to hire an agent as they handle all of the reams of paperwork that is required plus your visa and boat clearance. Both Cristobel on the Atlantic side and Balboa on the Pacific are the crossroad of the sailing world. Here there are Australians, French, Swiss, New Zealanders, British, one American boat and of course quite a few Canadians. With the San Blass islands close by a number of yachts end up staying a number of years instead of days.

Colon the city on the Atlantic side is like walking into a Mad Max movie. The crime is extremely high and everybody drives as if they are in a Formula 1 race. You cannot leave the Yacht Club unless you go via cab. Luckily the cabs are very cheap - $1 a ride. All of the beautiful old buildings are in a total state of disrepair and there is obviously a lot of poverty. The good side of the coin was that food and beer was very cheap. At the Panama Yacht Club you could get an entrée and salad for $5 and with beers at a $1 you couldn’t afford to stay sober. You see quite a few Kuna Indians in Colon with their colourful clothing and their molas are works of art.

Four days after I arrived in Panama I, together with two paid line handlers and Peter, a New Zealander and his nephew, Howie motored out to the yellow mooring buoys where we picked up an Advisor and a Pilot from the Panama Canal Company. So with seven people on board little Omache it was certainly crowded. We left the anchorage at 1730 and were at the first locks not long after. The advisor explains what is going to happen and gives you instructions all along the way. So my part was to steer and control the boat under his direction. At the locks the plans changed as a large container ship was coming the other way so we had to wait an hour or so before we could enter the lock.

Two other New Zealanders I had befriended, Malcolm and Joan on Sarau, a 55 foot sailboat were going thro at the same time so we were rafted to them in the middle of the lock. By the time we were secure in the lock with all of the lines tied off it was already dark. It is hard to describe how big the locks are but when you look across from you at the next lock and see a huge container ship it all comes into perspective. To transit the Canal you need 4 100’ lines. There are four line handlers on the canal walls and they throw down feeder lines with a ‘monkey fist’ at the end for throwing. Inside the fist is an iron ball so you have to protect not only your solar panels but your noggin as well. You could get a serious headache if it landed on your head. Your lines are then attached to these feeder lines and pulled back by the canal handlers. They then walk with the lines into the lock whilst we motored the yachts slowly forward. When in position the lines are then secured at both ends. This is repeated 3 times for the three locks. All of them were ‘UP’ locks and very turbulent as the water rushes in at 1.5 million gallons a minute.

Once we were out of the Gatun Locks and into Gatun Lake we separated from Sarau and motored a couple of miles to a huge plastic mooring buoy where we were to spend the night. The advisor and pilot were picked up from the buoy by a canal launch and the remaining five of us enjoyed a long overdue meal. It was a beautiful evening with a slight breeze to keep the mosquitoes away and it was close to midnight before we got to bed. Peter, Howie and I inside and Fernando and Wolf (the handlers) sleeping in the cockpit. Wolf, the main handler was amazing. He organized and bought the food for the two days and did all of the food preparation as I couldn’t leave the helm (that was my excuse). You have to feed the advisor and pilot a decent meal or the agents get fined $400. You could eat off of gold plates for that price.

At 0500 after I had drifted off one hour before we were awaken by howling monkeys. Natures alarm clock. We watched the sun rise as we sipped our coffee. As the sun rose we were able to appreciate what beauty surrounded us.

Gatun Lake is a lake in the middle of a lush rain forest. Dotted with small islands and layers of hills in the distance it is incredibly beautiful. The new crew of advisors and pilots arrived at 0600 and we were on our way. They tell you that your boat has to be able to do 8 knots but we averaged 5.5 knots and made the next locks with time to spare. The five and a half hour trip across the lake was like very enjoyable but also very hot. It is a rain forest after all. I had stocked up with bottled water and cokes for the trip and they were greatly appreciated. We passed one of the few buildings to be seen and I was told that it housed the National Geographic research centre. As it was a nice day we were able to take a short cut through Banana Channel and Monkey cut. This took us in between the small islands whereas the large ships coming the other way had to go all the way around.

Half way across there were maintenance buildings and next to them was the largest crane in the world. named the ‘Adolph Hitler’ crane it was brought over from Germany after the war by the Americans. We were also able to see where they are widening the waterway to take the new super tankers and cargo boats being built.

Once we were at the locks we once again rafted with Sarau and this time being daylight we were able to get a much better appreciation of how amazing the locks are. The lock gates are massive each one weighing about 700 ton. For the large boats there are little train engines that run on tracks and pull the vessels into and out of the locks. This set of locks and the next are ‘Down’ locks so there was very little turbulence as you are lowered. As the last lock opens you are in the Pacific. What a great feeling.

It was now 1300hr so the transit was about 21 hours. A lot quicker than sailing round Cape Horn! I took a mooring at the Balboa Yacht club and will spend the next week getting Omache ready for the longest part of the journey, 4500 nautical miles to Hawaii. I am still trying to find a way to fix my water bladder system and find the source of the water getting into the bilge which is still a mystery. Balboa is almost the opposite of Colon. It is very clean and safe with wide tree lined boulevards. Even the stray cats here are well fed. So are we as there are hundreds of mango trees everywhere. I now have free mangoes for breakfast everyday. It doesn’t get much better.

Fifty miles from Balboa there are a number of islands called the Las Perles. I will spend two days there, one cleaning the bottom of the boat and the last one just plain relaxing before heading due west.
Till Hawaii…Elvin.