Panama

Fort San Lorenzo

Panama - The Caribbean Side 

On April 17, 2013 we cast off from the nice docks of Errol Flynn Marina, Port Antonio, Jamaica just after our new cruising friends in their large catamaran sailboat and headed southwest toward Panama. Our weather and sea forecast was not fabulous, but about as good as it gets for the season.  We had agreed that we would likely not make Panama in a straight shot; if seas were high or winds not favorable we would head east or west during the night to mitigate the effect of the rough seas on the boat, then correct that course during daylight when we could see what was coming.  The journey was anticipated to take about 100 hours straight.

The journey ended up being much more pleasant that we had anticipated, considering the forecast seas of up to 9 feet.  We seldom saw those types of swells, and as the winds were very favorable for our sailboat partners, they soon "left us in the dust (or spray, as it were)." Our speed with the swells and winds was around 7 knots, there's was well over 8. A bit after noon they were beyond sight and by evening they dropped off of my radar altogether.  We chugged along, watching the flying fish racing the boat, the frequent families of dolphin playing with our bow and dealing with the day to day chores of keeping things going as the boat rocked back and forth from the swells striking us slightly off our port bow most of the time.
The first night out, Alex had another "oops" with his foot on the power panel, turning everything but the engine off.  Recognizing quickly what had occurred, we quickly recovered but not before a threat to remove the offending foot and leg should it happen again. (Thankfully it has not ... to date, anyway).

Cruising along, all systems were working fine.  We seldom used the generator, as the engine kept the batteries nearly charged, but when we did, I noted an increase in our engine room bilge pump running.  A thorough search revealed a small leak somewhere on our generator's external heat exchanger used to cool the bow and stern thrusters' hydraulic fluid.  This was quickly resolved by closing the through-hull valve for the genset when it wasn't operating and we added this to the list for future projects while safely at anchor.
The last night at sea, April 18-19, as the seas increased in height, we altered course to a more comfortable westerly direction, which spared us all most of the rocking from sea swells striking us nearly broadside.  We had a very comfortable evening cruising and at first light altered course back toward Colon, Panama.  Unfortunately, our little detour meant arriving there after dark, so we soon altered course slightly to head a bit further east, to the closer point of the country known as Isla Linton, where there was a well defined anchorage area.

Isla Linton Anchorage in first light of a rainy morning.

Unfortunately for us, as a well defined anchorage, Isla Linton was chock full of sailboats when we finally did arrive just at dusk on the evening of April 20th.  We had just enough light to dodge the large fish farming operation stretched nearly across the entire entrance to the bay and find a spot nearby to drop anchor, without weaving our way through dozens of anchored sailboats (something that is not at all appreciated by those already settled in their safe spots).  We ended up setting anchor twice, as the first shot didn't quite stick, and I was very concerned about drifting into the fish farm or another boat.  But soon we were settled and enjoyed a nice dinner and good evening's rest after cruising for 603 miles non-stop.

At first light we headed out toward Colon and our destination there of the Shelter Bay Marina.  We then got a good look at what we'd come through the evening before in the failing light.  The fish farm took up all of the bay entrance but a small channel in the middle and on either side.  We'd gone around to one side on a high tide, but had we attempted that on a low tide would have run aground.  I heartily recommend that anyone planning on staying there only enter the area with very good light.

A beautiful Sunset looking toward Colon,
observed from our slip in Shelter Bay Marina

The journey to Colon was short, only 29 miles, but a bit of a challenge due to the heavy large ship traffic entering and leaving the harbor.  After radioing for clearance from the harbor control, we slipped in the "East Entrance," away from most of the larger ships, then wove ourselves to the west through many anchored ships of all sorts  inside the harbor. The marina is tucked in at the extreme northeastern end of the harbor.  Directions were a bit confusing here because we always thought of Panama being oriented north and south, however, in this section of the country, it actually runs west to east and the canal itself runs north to south (from the Caribbean side to the Pacific).  By 1 PM were safely tucked into a slip in the marina, just a few boats away from our friends on their Catamaran, who'd arrived the previous evening.

We found Shelter Bay to be comfortable and well-run with a couple of notable exceptions.  Our first and only meal in the restaurant took several hours to deliver and then several of the meals were cold.  We did not patronize them again during our visit.  Those more experienced later pointed out that our meal was on a Sunday, a busy night for the restaurant because of the nearby military base and US soldiers who frequented the place, and because on Sunday's they have minimum staff working.  We suggested to restaurant staff and marina managers, who don't operate the establishment, that they should bump up their staffing on the weekends, but were told we were not the first to complain, and thus far no action had been taken to fix the problem.  Oddly enough, the place is undergoing a major expansion effort and will soon be twice the size it is now (which we seldom saw even half full of patrons).  Our second disappointment was in the marine supply store, or chandlery as it is known in this part of the world. It was poorly stocked unless you needed fishing gear, and staff was less than helpful in requests to order parts or basic supplies.  I even visited one of their other stores in Colon, and was unable to locate a basic plumbing fixture.  We ended up going to an auto supply in Colon to find what we needed.  We later visited their sister store at Flamingo Marina, on the Pacific side, and found nearly everything we had asked for at the 'north' end.  This was a real disappointment, as the Marina is quite a ways from town.

Ft. Sherman's active military base

We began preparations for our upcoming canal transit and I yanked out the offending heat exchanger from the genset hydraulic system.  Unfortunately, it was shot and not repairable.  As you can imagine, the marine supply was less than helpful.  After our experience shipping an exchanger to the Bahamas from Florida, we were not overly anxious to extend our stay for another such endeavor.  Some McGyver instinct took over and soon I was pulling off the brand new exchanger I'd just installed for the fin stabilizers  moving it to the genset hydraulic system, and reinstalling the freshly rebuilt stabilizer exchanger back in it's original location ... I only needed two bronze reducing bushings to complete the task, something that took two trips into Colon over two days and a good translator to locate.  That job, along with fresh fuel filters all around and an oil change had our systems freshly prepared for the journey ahead.

Local Capuchin Monkey

With our preparations completed, we elected to take a day and tour some of the sights.  We'd previously walked around the area, which was actually the old Ft. Sherman Army base turned over to the Panamanians when the US lease on the canal ended and we returned everything to Panama.  Part of the facility remains an active Panamanian military installation  complete with a significant contingent of US National Guard members here on humanitarian missions building clinics and schools in remote areas.  Their helicopter flights got us up early in the morning and kept on until mid evening most nights.

The sound of the helecopters was not quite as regular as the sound of the Howler Monkeys, that greeted us every morning and evening from just outside the marina in the surrounding jungle.  On one of our walks we were able to see some of the smaller and less reclusive Capuchin monkeys.

Our first stop was down a very well worn (and sorely in need of repair) road to Castillo (Fort) San Lorenzo (not to be confused by the large winery Castillo San Lorenzo).  From wikipedia: "Chagres, once the chief Atlantic port on the isthmus of Panama, is now an abandoned village at the historical site of Fort San Lorenzo. The fort's ruins and the village site are located about 8 miles (13 km) west of Colón, on a promontory overlooking the mouth of the Chagres River" [see photos below]. In 1502, during his fourth and final voyage, Christopher Columbus discovered the Chagres River.

The Chagres River runs north from the new lake that
supplies water for the Panama Canal

By 1534, the Monarchy of Spain had, following its conquest of Peru, established a rainy-season gold route over the isthmus of Panama—Las Cruces Trail—most of which consisted of the Chagres River. The trail connected the Pacific port of Panama City to the mouth of the Chagres, from whence Peru's plunder would sail to Spain's storehouses in the leading Atlantic ports of the isthmus: Nombre de Dios, at first; and, later, Portobelo. (The dry-season, overland route—the Camino Real—connected Panama City with those ports directly.)

Imagine this moat filled with water.  All the battlements
had narrow ports from which archers could pick off
hapless attackers

Attracted to the treasure, pirates began attacking Panama's coast around 1560. To protect the Atlantic terminus of Las Cruces Trail, Spain built Fort San Lorenzo at the Chagres River's mouth. From 1587 to 1599, the fortifications evolved into a sea-level battery.

The Moat for the primary fort

In 1670, buccaneer Henry Morgan ordered an attack that left Fort San Lorenzo in ruins. He invaded Panama City the following year, using San Lorenzo as his base of operations.

In the 1680s, the Spanish constructed a new fort 80 feet above the water. Set on a cliff overlooking the entrance to the harbor, the fort was protected on the landward side by a dry moat with a drawbridge. During this time, the town of Chagres was established under the protection of the fort.

Actually walking inside ruins of a fort constructed around 600 years earlier was very moving.  In spite of the heat and humidity, we explored every nook and cranny with one exception; we did not take the steep walk down to the beach to the north, as none of us was too excited about the return climb up the steep path.

View looking north to the beautiful but tiny harbor & beach area

From the promentory where the fort was located we went down a very rough road to a small dock area at the river's mouth.  Until recently the road had been blocked by trees fallen from a recent rainy season mud slide.  From this view we were able to gain a whole different perspective on how effective those cannon must have been upon anyone trying to gain access up the river who was not in favor of those in command.

Fort San Lorenzo from the land side, behind us are the secondary battlements complete with rusting cannon

From the mouth of the Chagres River, the fort appears small

Following our trip to Fort San Lorenzo, we visited the visitor center for the new Gatun Locks construction site.  I'll do a separate Blog entry for that, as we have a number of photos and the construction description will take a bit of wordsmithing.  We wrapped up our trip with a final run into Colon for some last minute provisions, primarily case-lot drinks which the previous grocery stores or "super mercados" did not have readily available.  Then back to the Marina to finish stowing our provisions and making final preparations.

Panama - Through the Canal

We'd engaged the services of a Canal Agent (Pete Stephens, Delphino Company, who's not the least expensive, but definitely did us many favors and was well worth the cost)  to facilitate our paperwork and trip through the canal.  Although we exchanged a number of phone calls and some significant funds it was two days before a Canal 'Measurer' showed up onboard to measure the boat from bow sprint to swim deck and to inspect to boat to assure we could safely make the trip.  Unfortunately, we exceeded the cutoff for smaller boats by 2 feet, so ended up paying about $500 more for our transit than what our "advertised" LOA (Length Over All) was reported to be (48' 8").  Our line handlers were to show up about 90 minutes before our Saturday, 12:30 PM departure time for the Canal Pilot boarding area, near the Gatun Locks, where we had a 1:30 PM appointment for Pilot Boarding.  All we had to do was arrange locally for our fenders, which were reportedly plentiful in the marina.  Inquiries to that effect found that there were no such fenders currently available (actually these are used tires, wrapped in black plastic, with ropes attached).  Back to our favorite chandlery we went to order up a set of fenders for the trip, which they assured us they would have by Saturday morning in exchange for a fat deposit.  We left there not at all confident.

Approaching the Gatun Locks (Caribbean Side)

Saturday morning arrived and we'd delayed refueling (last fill-up was Jamaica) until our line handlers arrived, not really wanting to have to dock the boat again, afterward, while we waited their arrival.  The appointed time came and went, then the phone calls and voice messages started flying back and forth.  Our handlers had been delayed by a large ship entering the canal (the marina is north of Colon and the Canal).  Sweating bullets, we all but resigned ourselves to not making our time slot for the trip, when the crew roared up in an old beat-up truck, bailed off and raced to the boat.  We pulled off the docks with 30 minutes to make it across the harbor to the Pilotage area.  Needless to say, we made it in time, but did not refuel prior.

To the right, our new friends

Each and every vessel transiting the canal has onboard either a Pilot (ships over 60') or an Advisor (Jr. Pilot).  Our advisor arrived by launch shortly after we dropped anchor in the appointed area.  After instructions to head toward the locks without delay and a brief radio conversation between pilots, we were asked to serve as the center vessel of a three-boat raft to make our way through the Gatun Locks. These locks are the first of two sets of locks and our trip was to be relatively brief;  it  only raised us up to the level of Gatun Lake, where we would spend the night the proceed in the morning.

To the left, our other new friends

As we approached the entrance to the locks we were slowly joined by two sailboats.  After quite a bit of hollering in spanish, and some interesting rope tying we found ourselves looking down on either side to the tops of sailboats securely lashed to us.

The locks begin to close, the excitement is about to begin

I slowly motored my way into the first lock behind a smaller cargo ship, and soon the locks closed and water began boiling in around us.

The cargo ship, as are all larger vessels, was towed through the locks by means of cables attached to rail "locomotive" engines on either side.  Some of the biggest ships will use three of these on each side.  We were thankful for this as it was difficult enough maintaining control of our 'raft' without dealing with the prop-wash of a larger vessel ahead of us.  Trying to steer three boats at very slow speed was a challenge, but after the first lock, and a better understanding of how the boat handled rigged this way it became much easier.

Locomotives towing the larger vessel ahead us us through Gatun

Soon we found ourselves putting our way out of the final Gatun lock and out onto the massive Gatun Lake.  About 10 minutes later, following a brief separation ceremony with our new friends, we were told we could drop anchor and enjoy the evening near the construction site for the new larger canal.  Our Pilot Advisor would be back aboard at 7 AM to complete the trip.

A spectacular sunset greeted us on Gatun Lake

We spent a very quiet and restful night on the lake, with no swell or tide to force us to get up and check our anchor.  Our line handlers (who had hardly worked a lick all day) enjoyed a fine dinner and then began watching our DVD collection before most of us collapsed into a good night's sleep.  I'm not sure any of the slept that night as when I got up before sunrise, several of them were still awake and texting away on their cell-phones.

A new Advisor joined us promptly at 7 AM and we soon found ourselves motoring along a placid lake in a very wide, well marked channel.

The lake was placid and calm.  The whole trip looked like this

Smithsonian Institution's permanent research site on the lake

  We greatly enjoyed this worry free portion of the trip and I was ever so glad that we agreed to spend the night on the lake and travel the waterways during the day.  We passed a permanent research site staffed by the Smithsonian that continues to launch digs and other archeological expeditions on and around the lake.  As evidenced  by Fort San Lorenzo there is a great deal of history yet to be discovered in the region.

We learned that the channel was constantly being dredged and improved.  Several times our advisor pointed to a little island my chartplotter's display and said, "that is no longer there, the channel now goes right through it.  The result was there were no sharp turns and although we had to dodge a few large boats, we were going "against the normal flow of commercial traffic."  There is a pattern to the canal, due to several narrow portions that do not allow to larger ships to pass one another.  So, since all of us were 'small' we were "bucking the pattern" travelling against the commercial traffic and set for a "special lockage" at the south end that would only consist of small boats.

A vertical drilling rig. This baby drilled vertical holes for blasting
then, "kablooie!" the canal gets wider.

This guy keeps the gunk out of the canal and pumps it or barges it
(as in this case) through pipes to form hills much like the one behind it.
This was only the 'business end' of the massive dredge

Our voyage continued throughout the day without incident.

We did pass an interesting vessel being towed through the canal.  It seems that some vessels cannot power themselves for whatever reason, but it was surprising to see a huge cargo ship being towed fore and aft by Panama Canal tugs.  It wasn't until she came alongside that we noted what appeared to be the big dipper painted on her superstructure, which generated a few comments about it being part of Alaska's Flag.  Then, as she passed, obviously destined from her appearance for the scrap yard, we saw her name emblazoned in faded paint on her stern: "Greatland, Anchorage, AK"  pretty darn sad, but ironic.  I've lived in and around Anchorage for 30 years and never seen nor heard of the "Greatland."  One can only wonder at the places she's been and the ports of call she's made and here she is passing another group of
Alaskans as she heads to her final resting place.

The 'Greatland,' Anchorage, AK.  Headed, from all appearances,
for the scrap yard.

The impressive 'new' Bridge of Americas over the canal

Two sets of locks remained for us to clear, after going under the 'new' American bridge that spans the canal near Panama City; the Mira Florez locks would take us from the Gatun Lake level down to the Pacific Ocean.

These locks have a huge visitor center overlooking them, and are a frequent stop for cruise ship passengers.

Mira Flores Locks visitor Center

Our Special Lockage afforded us a close up view of the
engines used to tow ships through the canal.

Although there were no large ships for our "special lockage" the electric locomotives used for them were busy moving back and forth, our guess was for the large number of tourists we could see on the balconies of the visitors centers.  It also gave us a unique opportunity to photograph these guys!

Panama - The Pacific

Needless to say, shortly after clearing the Mira Forez locks and separating ourselves from our little raft of friends (a different group from those at the Gatun locks; no, we did not motor the whole Gatun lake hooked together!) we said goodby to our Advisor and made our way to the Balboa 'Yacht Club' and a sturdy but loud and very rocky,  mooring ball that would serve as our new, unsteady, home for several days.We "anchored up" at 2:15 PM on April 28, 2013, disgorged our underworked and overpaid line handlers (they only had to tie up to other boats!) and made our way to the restaurant for a very needed hamburger and several cold beers.

It seems I've run out of time, energy, and internet connectivity, so will not only have to cover the Gatun lock expansion in my next entry, but will also have to catch you up on our visit to Panama City and 'escape from Panama' to Costa Rica, where we presently 'reside.'  

I appreciate everyone's patience and tolerance as you await updates on our progress, but, as I write this, we are scheduled for an early morning departure from Los Suenos (Herradura) Costa Rica, destined, in a few days, for Playa del Coco, where we will outprocess from Costa Rica and head north on our continued voyage.  In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away at this diary in hopes of eventually catching up with the long delay caused by lack of internet and energy.  I'm now only two weeks behind!

Best of luck and happy cruising to you all!