Commodore
January 30, 2023

Monday 30 January – We are successfully through the canal and into the Pacific

We were up fairly early, after a good night’s sleep. What a surprise to pop upstairs and find ourselves next to the jungle with Howler monkeys calling. Our nest survived the night, Rowan got the drone out and took a couple of photos. Hector was meant to arrive at 8-8:30 and finally boarded around 9am. We all got off the buoy and started our individual procession to the next set of locks 5 hours away. We had to keep to the right and pass the passage marking buoys within a few meters as the container/cargo ships go faster than us, we have to let them pass us and they are going in both directions. We felt pretty small as they passed by. We had a cooked breakfast with Hector. Then for hours it felt as if we were a friendly armada! A long line of sailing boats in front and behind. The sun was relentless, we finally had to give Rowan an umbrella as the sun was taking its toll, it was full time concentration for him, in intense heat. Tim gave him a bit of a breather for a while.

Sunrise on our nest of 4 boats on Gatun lake, taken by Rowan’s drone

Our nest next to the jungle

Neighbouring nest

Beautiful rainforest nearby

We spotted a Howler!

Widge and I were in charge of feeding our crew, we make some poke bowl style left overs for a late lunch before we got the first glimpse of the locks to take us down to the Pacific! We had to re-nest with our two monohulls, a little trickier this time as there was a bit more wind, but we got tied up with no problems. Once again Rowan was in charge of driving our nest into the lock. Exactly the same procedure – line handlers on the lock wall threw small lines with weighted balls onto the monohulls which got tied on. The line handlers then walked us into position, the line handlers on the monohulls then thread their big ropes and those ropes go back to the lock wall where they are secured onto big bollards, so you don’t budge while the lock is emptied! The line handlers on the boats have to gently ease out the ropes as the water is emptying. The Scottish boat had not attended the line throwing briefing, warning us to never lock the rope on the cleat because they can get tight and difficult to get off. We had a few tense moments when they could not release their rope, apparently it just rips the whole cleat off the boat and you are left with a big hole! Through that lock we then had to move along about 1km to the next two locks, and repeat the procedure until we were safely into the Pacific. It really felt surreal to have crossed from one ocean to the next. We were glad to have made it through unscathed, luckily Hector gave Rowan constant instructions as there were times when the water was draining, the forces of the water were enormous on the nest. Hector would tell Rowan he wanted max power and he meant it, PolePole has never worked so hard! Our nest number 1 (we were 3) didn’t manage to do full throttle at one stage and hit the wall. They lost 3 stanchions (upright supports of the railing around the boat) with the force of the bash against their fenders. Plus a big scraping, poor things, they are in a lovely Oyster and have an ex RAF then Virgin Atlantic pilot captain. It must have been hard for him as he had no control, as you are at the mercy of the driver of the middle boat! It made us realise just quite how intense it was for Rowan.

Re-nesting with our two monohulls

A line of ARC boats

Hector constantly directing Rowan

So much boat action everywhere

Some gorgeous bits of wilderness, but we are not allowed to leave the marked route through the canal

Isobel and Chris were exploring some of this wilderness on land

Some HUGE container ships passing by

Making our way through the heavy traffic on Gatun Lake

Tim doing a splicing repair on one of our ropes

Widge and Edmund relaxing in the shade

Had to resort to my little umbrella, he even admitted it made a huge difference!

Our Amada!

Keeping close to the marker buoys

Insane all these huge boats passing each other and making us feel extremely small

Tim gives Rowan a break – Hector drank over 6 litres of water while on board!

Tim pointed out the various flags, the red on the left denotes Dangerous cargo and the yellow is to show they are still in quarantine

This part of the canal was dug through with dynamite back in 1906/7

Entering a narrower part

Widge with the Centennial bridge behind her

The centennial Bridge

A brief moment of delicious shade from the bridge!

Line handlers on the bank throwing the lines to the line handler on the monohull tied to us

Edmund keeping a beady eye on the line handler on the boat next door, he was absolutely hopeless!

Going in

The last nest following us in

The water drains out

The little alluminium trains go up and down the lock for the big cargo ships

Motoring as a nest to the last two locks

Leaving the first of the last two locks

Gates open and we move down into the Pacific

A very happy captain making it out the last lock unscathed!

We broke apart our nest and headed individually into the Pacific under the Bridge of America

Celebrating entering the Pacific!

It was great to be untethered from our nest and entered the Pacific independently, we crossed under the old Bridge of America and headed into the marina. It was good having Tim on board as we had to wait our turn to enter out in the anchorage. Loads of boats desperate to get in, the Scottish guy pulling a blinder saying he had to go in first because he didn’t have a windlass (not required at all for a marina as you are tied up and do not need an anchor!). Poor Rob the 22 year old ARC yellow shirt official had to coordinate it all with people getting impatient, he did well. We finally got in, always a little tense getting into tight spots, the end of a long day of concentration for Rowan.

Passing one of the busiest harbours in the world apparantly

The privately owned harbour

Widge and Edmund relaxing in the Pacific

The amazing skyline of Panama City, full of high rises

Nearly at the marina

We had a celebratory drink and headed off to the nearest string of restaurants for food, which was rather disappointing in a loud noisy touristy place. We returned to the boat tired, only to discover we had missed the ARC welcome drinks! We have not got used to listening to the 9am information call on the vhf! Our beds were very welcome, it has been a full on two days.

As we headed to the pontoon, we spotted these very brazen racoons, and then the night watchman asked us if we wanted to see the sloths. We saw 3, apparently they live here. Noah (Hannah’s boyfriend has informed us that sloths have over 30 species of moths living in their fur! They do look exceptionally hairy and with so little movement it is a safe haven for the moths.