Canal Transit

 Canal Transit

We are transiting the Panama Canal – on someone else’s boat. We join a Canadian sailboat, a roomy catamaran that belongs to Brent, who is sailing with family and friend to distant shores on the Pacific side. The Canal authority has strict rules on how to cross the Canal, and for small pleasure crafts that includes requiring four line-handlers. Eliza and I are two of them. You need to look at the pictures to find out what line- handlers do!

The Canal operates 24x7, so a scheduled transit can happen anytime. In our case, it happens to start in late afternoon, crossing three of the total six locks in the evening, and the remaining portion the next day. The Canal is 82 km long and the locks elevates transit ships up and then down by 26 meters. The Canal is truly an engineering marvel, and can be appreciated only by transiting through it. It is also a good practice for us – if and when we decide to cross to the Pacific on our own boat.

Life at Shelter Bay Marina

 Marina Life: Social BBQ party sunday nights, nature walks Tuesday mornings, Wednesday happy hours, Mexican Train gaming Sunday afternoon, gawking at fancy yachts...who has time to do any sailing around here?

Lots of excellent side dishes and desserts to share

A proper charcoal BBQ grill!

Great food, good compny

This is a serious sailboat! 150 ft long, she arrived in a late evening and the entire marina staff turned out to help mooring.

For tose who don't want to bother with sail handling: This one is for speed and comfort.

 

Jungle Walk   Mar 17

Shelter Bay here used to be part of a huge American Army base. The Americans left in 1999 and returned control of the Canal to the Panamanians, along with large tracts of land and facilities. Much of the original buildings are now abandoned and slowly being returned to the jungle, but the roads are still passible and have become good walking paths for exploring the jungle. Every week there is a nature walk organized by one of the cruisers. The tree canopy is about 25 to 30 meters high and provides shade cover and a diverse ecosystem with very interesting flora and fauna. It’s a birdwatchers’ paradise. There are also families of howling monkeys, who from high up take much interest in the human visitors and with fairly good aim throw down tree branches and other objects.

Sailors, Dreamers

    

We are here at Sheller Bay waiting for parts and (still) paperwork. Transport Canada is taking their sweet time to register our boat, so Quand Meme (the current name), is in limbo, like a refugee, while we undergo the Canadian registration and name changing process.  Meanwhile, in-between boat work, we are enjoying the amenities and social functions of this popular marina. There are twice daily shuttles to the nearby town of Colon, where there are large malls and markets as well as chandlers for boat parts. The cruiser community here is also very active with all kinds of events such as weekly barbecues, game nights, and nature walks. We’ve made a lot of friends who are from all corners of the globe.

Shelter Bay Marina has a large resturant, swimming pool, lounge, shops...there's almost no need to go elsewhere!

Evening entertainment

This marina is also a major hub for cruisers transiting the Panama Canal. The Canal transit itself is a major endeavor that takes a lot of planning and logistics. More importantly, after the transit most cruisers go on to major ocean crossings – either through the Southern Pacific Ocean towards the French Polynesian and onto Australia and New Zealand; or to Hawaii and then Alaska and Northern America. And March is a popular month for all these activities as this is the start of the season for fair winds. So while everyone is still partying and doing boat work, there’s an underlying tension, and excitment, in the air: The boat has to be ready, and there’s a tight schedule to be met, for a serious, demanding journey. A sailboat is a complex system that has lots of components, requiring constant attention on maintenance and repair, and for a long ocean passage the level of preparation needed is extraordinary. One such couple we met is Susan and Holger from Germany. They have a larger boat, a 45 ft Hallberg Rassy which was sailed from Europe to the Caribbeans earlier this year, and now, after frantic preparations, they are ready to cross the Canal and onto the big blue Pacific. Susan is a professor who studies society changes as a result of climate change, and as part of her global sailing she’s analyzing and reporting on the changes that she has witnessed. What a perfect combination of work and play!

Professional line handlers arriving to board the boats scheduled for Canal transit. Each boat must have

four crews to run the lines which will be operated from the shore.

 

Our friends on "Dreamer" heading off for the Canal, the boat on the next slip to follow. 

In a short time we’ve made a lot of sailing friends here, but very quickly they are moving on, and new boats arrive and take their places at the moorings. Such is the transient nature of sailing.

Our First Long Day-sail

 A cold front approaches this part of the Caribbean, bringing slightly cooler temperature and cloudy sky. We are scheduled to move our boat to Shelter Bay Marina, about 30 miles west, closer to city conveniences. The forecast calls for moderate wind and rain showers, pretty benign. A bit of rain? We can handle that. We go offshore a few miles to stay away from the larger waves that form as the land shoals.  Wind on the beam at 15 knots. We go with slightly reduced sails and are making good progress. Then the rain starts.

“Good thing the forecast doesn’t say there will be squalls”.

“I wonder what’s that big ugly patch of dark clouds with lots of white-caps underneath.”

“Wow, that looks like a squall!!”

Preceded by a sudden drop in air temperature, the squall hits with fierce wind and waves. The boat heels way over, the auto-pilot get overwhelmed and gives up, letting the boat to head into wind to reduce the wind pressure. Lots of scrambling to reduce sails. Whew, we get through our first squall!!

Eliza at the helm battling gusty winds and following seas. She does a good job...almost as good as the autopilot!

One rain squall after another. Tired of reefing and unreefing, we just left the genoa deeply reefed. Still making good progress at 6 knots.

A few hours later, we approach the Panama Canal entrance. The marina is situated just inside the massive breakwater of the canal entrance, and every ship intending to enter needs to get instruction from the canal controller to get lined up. Giant cargo ships all around us, mostly anchored to wait for their turn. We see a small warship making seemingly slow progress for the line up to enter. Quick, lets get ahead of her!! Actually, visual speed is deceiving from a distance. She’s a lot bigger and faster than it seem, not to mention probably armed to the teeth. We put our tail between our shrouds and prudently headed off to follow the warship.

This warship racing in front of us to line up for entrance to the Canal.

It's two-way traffic at the breakwater; a massive freighter goes by. Whew, this is a bit close!

The Canal breakwater is a massive, two miles long man-made barrier built to provide a huge sheltered harbor for ships lining up to transit the canal. The breakwater works well for us: Just after we enter the harbor, another massive squall hits. The sky darkens, great sheets of rain make it nearly impossible to see, and big waves crash over the breakwater from the open-ocean side. Inside the barrier, the water is flat.

A regatta of large catamarans is departing the marina for their scheduled canal transit, and we are made to wait 40 minutes before the marina is cleared for us to enter for our slip. Finally, after a fairly long day, we are safely tied down at our slip, at this massive modern marina.

 The wind abated slightly today, perfect for a morning excursion. The previous owners Michel and Michele join us for this outing. With their help and the dock-hands from the marina, we back out of our slip, the wind blowing on the bow and threatening to push our boat onto the neighboring boat. The bow thruster comes in handy and helps to make the tight turn. Maneuvering in a tight marina on a windy day is often more challenging than sailing!

Right outside the marina, through a narrow passage that the chart indicates as too shallow (incorrectly), is a large bay surrounded by tropical foliage. This anchorage is protected by Isla Linton, a large uninhabited island that has been turned into a nature reserve with beautiful beaches and abundant flora and fuana - including spider monkeys. This weekend is 'Four Day before Lent', a religious holiday, a carnival. Everyone is out for a good time, in all sizes of boats. Lots of boats are anchored here, some for months.

Beyond the calm of the sheltered bay, the ocean beacons: Rocky ledges, sand bars and reefs ring the inlet, breaking waves pounding the shoals.

Today's wind has slightly diminished from the strong winds of the last two weeks, but it's still the relentless tradewind: 15 knots from north-east. 6-8 feet sea. We sail with a slight reef, heading into wind, doing 4.5 knots at 35 degree true. Not too bad. It's a sailor thing - all this work and go at a speed not much faster than walking. But we are happy.

Where do Retired Sailors Go?

While we are staying at Linton Bay Marina putting things in order, the previous owners Michel and Michele take us under their wings and go out of their way to help us with the boat, assist us on logistics, and also introduce us to some of their friends. Meet Monique and Jean Claude, another French cruising couples who had sailed around much of the world and a few years ago ended their cruising journey here in Panama. They took up Panamanian residency and bought a rural property not far from the marina. The Linton Bay area is next to a National Park, dotted with unspoiled islands and beautiful beaches. A short distance inland the landscape is hilly in tropical green even in the dry season (now). Their property is on a hill, and over several years they turned it into an amazing terraced garden with profusion of trees, flowering plants, and fruits. Stone-paved paths carve the hilly slopes into attractive plots; great varieties of plants are painstaking nurtured in every corner. An open-air terrace overlooks distant hills and pastures, shade trees temper the sun’s rays, and a persistent breeze from the ocean keeps the house cool. It’s pleasant here, year-round. Monique treats us to an afternoon snack of cake and drinks – she made the delicious coconut cake served with meringue cream. French hospitality at its best! C’est le vie!