We spent the first week in May preparing for our transit through the Panama Canal. We moored (anchored) at a place called Balboa Yatch Club. But the Club had burned down a couple years ago, it doesn't appear that anybody cares to rebuild it. But they still charge $25 a night for you to moor there, crazy. I guess the good old supply and demand principle applies even in Panama. The anchorage is very nicely located right in the middle of Panama City. So we were able to easily run around Panama City and stock up the boat and do all the paper work required to go through the canal. The only fun thing about the Balboa anchorage is that you are literally just outside of the shipping lane for the locks through the Panama Canal. So while we where at anchorage we could watch the parade of freighter and super tankers just a few feet away.
During that week of preparations we got a little first hand experience on what to expect in the canal transit by helping our friends Dee and Judy take their boat through the canal. We did his line handling. Four line handles are required to get though the locks, one on each side of the bow and stern. Vaughn and Sharon handled his stern lines; other friends handled the bowlines. The Captain (Dee) motors into the lock and stops. Once the boat is stopped it's up to the line handler to keep in centered and under control as the water fills or empties the lock. Panama Canal Workers throw a four small line to each of us. We then need to quickly tie our big boat line to it then feed it up to the Worker so he can hook it onto cleats on the top of the lock wall. With all four corners of the boat tied with keeping the proper tension on your line you can keep the boat in the center and under control. It sounds simple but when the water is boiling a churning in the lock and the boat is being pushed every which way it can be a little wild. We were all very nervous going into the first lock but everything went great. We had sore muscles by the end of the day. But we got them threw with out any problems and we got all kinds good experience on what to do and not to do for our own transit.
Our friend Regan from back home in California came down to help us through the canal. Vaughn was going to be the captain, Sharon and Regan would handle two of the lines. We need to find a couple of additional people to handle our lines. We had hoped to find other boaters but couldn't. So we ended up finding some kids (late 20's to early 30's...we are getting older) traveling from Europe around Central America to help us out. They wanted to experience the canal first hand as part of their adventure, so it worked out great for everybody. There were 2 guys from Holland, Miko and Ronald and Philmina a girl from Scotland. The "kids" were traveling on a budget for 6 month they were all very interesting people. Ronald was a Doctor an Optometrist. Miko an Industrial Engineer and Philmina was a teacher. They didn't have any experience on a boat but all had great attitudes and were fun people.
Panama City is quite a contrast to the rest of the country. It is big and modern. You can buy anything you could possible buy in the United States right there in Panama City. The rest of the county hardly has the basics, electricity or plumping. We enjoyed walking through the crowded streets of the shopping district. You could definitely see the influence of all the years of U.S.A involvement.
It's interesting we of course just handed back the Canal in January 2000 to the Panamanians. (Why the Peanut Man gave it back I will never know!!!) Anyway we weren't sure at first what the local Panamanians thought about the U.S.A. We were surprised to find the locals miss the U.S.A. The U.S. Military men gave them lots of business and created a lot of jobs. Now that the U.S. is gone the Panamanian government is happy but the local working folks are angry. They think their government was stupid. Everywhere we went the locals kept telling us how stupid their government was to kick us out. Tourism definitely is not been refined here in Panama. It is a surprising beautiful country but there are very, very few foreign tourists.
It started with the very first lock. We had Regan helping us...thank goodness...and the kids. In the first lock we got all tied up, the lock filled with water, it bubbles and churns wildly, and everything went perfect. Once the lock was full the 650ft ship we shared the lock with pulled out making a lot of turbulence we release all our lines and Vaughn went to drive the boat forward to the next lock...and the throttle lever broke and came off in his hand! So he had no control of the boat. We yelled at the Panama Lock Line Handlers to pull our lines back and resecure them. Which they finally did...but took their sweet time. We were just a foot from the wall when we were finally able to retention our lines and gain control of the boat. Vaughn quickly grabbed Visegrips made a jerryrig throttle lever and we made it to lock #2. We had another near miss of the wall in lock # 2 because the line handler didn't attach our lines quick enough, so we again got pushed around to within several feet of the wall. Lock # 3 thank goodness went smoothly. The 5-hour motor through the lake was beautiful and un- eventful. The lake is huge lots and lots of islands covered with dense jungle. Lock # 4 and # 5 went smoothly so we were thinking we were home free. But lock # 6 was another surprise. The pilot advisor we had on our boat wanted us to hurry and go before the lock gates had even opened so we released the lines and started to slowly go...as we passed through the gate the turbulence of the gate still opening and the turbulence of the salt water mixing with fresh water (which happens in the last lock) completely overpowered the boats steering so even know we were steering away from the wall we came within inches of hitting it...but as I said...we never hit, never put a scratch in the boat...but the adrenaline was sure pumping!
After completing our transit we sailed to Portobelo 20 miles east of the canal. It's a great little bay that has Forts from the years 1500 to 1700 surrounding it. There are forts on the hillside and on the ocean. The Forts are in very good shape and have lots of cannon still point at "Reality". I feel like we have stepped back in time. I can almost see the tall ships anchored in the bay. This place was found by Columbus and is the where Sir Francis Drake did his pirate work. Portobelo had so much gold in the 1500's that silver nuggets were just thrown on the streets! We hiked threw the forts enjoying the feeling of history. We said our good-byes to the kids in Portobelo they took a bus back to Panama City. Regan stayed with us for another week and the next day we headed to the San Blas Islands of Panama.
We spent the next week hopping around the San Blas Islands. We visited Snug Harbor, Ratone Cay, Green Island, Coco Cay and Lemon Cay. All were beautiful palm covered islands surrounds by gorgeous coral reefs. There are beautiful Tropical Fish but fishing for dinner has been a bit of a challenge. So since we have not been able to catch fish we are eating lobster almost every night. Tough isn't it!! (Believe it are not in the 3 weeks we have been in the Caribbean all we have caught is 2 barracudas, which we immediately threw back...the teeth on a barracuda are too scary to want to bring them on board the boat.)
With only days remaining in May we left the San Blas Islands and sailed back to Portobelo. From Portobelo we sailed to the Rio Charges. We spent our 6th Anniversary on the Rio Charges. We followed the river up 5 miles through thick jungle. We saw lots of parrots, monkeys and toucans. The jungle is dense and beautiful. It's really different been in a river verses the ocean. The sounds of the jungle are wild! We will spend several more days here. Then head to the Marina to get Reality prepared for the summer.