Emma Jo transited the Panama Canal
from the Atlantic to the Pacific on Tuesday evening,
November 24, and Wednesday morning, November 25. For a
full report of our Canal Transit, including photos of us
in Miraflores Locks,
click here.
November 7, 2009
Shelter Bay Marina, Colon, Panama
I flew out of Panama City on
Wednesday, October 28, to be with my family. We had a
lovely memorial service for my Uncle Bob at his home,
and all of the cousins and their children were there for
a feed, a glass of wine, and a toast to a good man who
led a good life. He will be missed.
The rest of the time spent in
Bremerton involved the typical cruiser’s scavenger hunt
for stuff that you just can’t find easily here, so
relying on the kindness of my sister and her husband, I
was able to turn my one suitcase into three bags for the
return trip. I also spent some time with Dale and Linda
Bixler on their 49 DeFever RPH El Capitan, dining
on self-caught salmon, smoked and steaked, and drinking
way too much wine. I was also able to visit my friend
Judie in the hospital, something I was so glad to have
done. The last evening at my sister's involved a sweet
surprise – birthday cake and cards a week early; and on
Wednesday, November 4, I met up with friends Suzanne,
Fred and Randy at 13 Coins by the Seattle Airport for a
good catch-up.
When I got back to the boat, Ole
immediately began racking up the husband points by
carrying all of the bags (72 pouches of cat food,
wrenches, batteries, wine glasses, bronze wool, fuel
filters, paint brushes, and PassageMaker magazines) back
to the boat, then dancing around like a little kid at
Christmas while I unpacked. I must say, the boat looks
good!
November 16, 2009
Shelter Bay Marina, Colon, Panama
In spite of the fact that Dale and
Linda Bixler, of El Capitan in Brownsville, Washington,
arrived on the 12th of November, we're still here,
watching the notorious Panama rainy season in process.
It reminds me of the Ray Bradbury story about the
astronauts stranded on a planet where it rains all the
time - and they die, one by one, being smothered by
rapidly growing plants, while they're trying to find a
sun dome to dry out. We could sure use a sun dome
about now. It's 10:17 in the morning, and it's
been raining hard for two and a half hours.
The week I returned from Seattle,
Ole and I spent our time cleaning, arranging,
organizing, and getting ready to share the boat.
On the 11th, my birthday, we took the free marina bus to
downtown Colon to stock up on a few necessities,
including a "backup" birthday cake. The
traditional Ole-made Norwegian cream cake went horribly
wrong this year, but the whipped cream turned out great.
I love the effort he made, but the fact that the oven
was set at the wrong baking setting (partially my fault)
and that the cake pan was overfilled, meant that most of
the cake ended up all over the bottom of the oven, and
what was left in the pan lacked its usual fluffiness.
Add to that the fact that the bag of vacuum frozen
shrimp I bought to make scampi for my birthday dinner,
when opened, reeked of ammonia - well, I've had better
birthdays. But as fellow-boater Russ on Chicana
says, any day you get up and watch the grass COMING up
instead of GOING up is a good day. So in that
regard, it was a good day.
On November 12, Ole got a ride into
town with Stanley, a local free-lance agent, who was
able to drive Ole around to Abernathy's, Price Smart,
and several other necessary stops on the way to the
airport to pick up Dale and Linda. Meanwhile, here
on the boat, it rained all day like the end of the
world. I finished up the cleaning and organizing,
and put on a pot of dinner, so that when they got here
we could all just unwind. Also found on YouTube a
few videos about folding towel animals, so that they
could feel at home on this "cruise."
We all took the bus into Colon to
provision for four people for a couple of weeks on the
13th, deciding to get underway for the Chagres River on
Saturday. We cheerily paid our bill, cast off the
lines, waved goodbye to everyone, and motored jauntily
toward the Colon breakwater, where suddenly both engines
went dead. Great timing - only 20 or so ships
waiting to enter the breakwater, and us dead in the
water. We dropped anchor - and Ole and Dale went
below to figure out the problem. It was a bit of a
sphincter-tightener to be at anchor only 100 yards or so
from the main entrance channel to the Panama Canal - but
it could have been worse - we could have been IN the
channel. The problem turned out to be air in the
fuel system. The port engine started right away,
but the starboard engine was stubborn, so we opted to
return to our slip in Shelter Bay so the problem could
be solved calmly. Five hours later, the guys
determined that the best solution was to come back at it
in the morning - and jump start the brain cells with
some martinis and smoked salmon. Seemed to work -
the problem was solved by noon Sunday, with both engines
starting and growling happily. An afternoon walk
through Fort Sherman allowed us to see an agouti (think
about a large cross between a guinea pig and a possum),
millions of leafcutter ants, and a few Jesus Christ
lizards, and a late afternoon cocktail hour up at the
marina pool gave us a good view of a capuchin monkey
fight.
We may have to forego the Chagres
trip, as it's been raining so much the Corps of
Engineers is going to release water from the dam - so
maybe today, if sea conditions permit, we'll head east
along the coast a few hours to Linton or Portobello.
November 23
Shelter Bay Marina, Colon, Panama
Monday morning, November 16, we elected to get the
heck off the dock for a few days and explore a bit
before leaving the Atlantic side of Panama. We
motored about three and a half hours west to a pretty
little place called
Panamarina, located inside the Portobelo National
Park, just west of Isla Linton. After zig-zagging
in through some pretty interesting turns around reefs,
we found ourselves the rose among the thorns - the only
power boat in a sea of sailboats, most of which seemed
to be stored. The owner, Jean-Paul, greeted us
Tuesday morning and helped us secure to the largest buoy
among the moorings, and we passed a pleasant few days,
although rainy. The most wonderful and improbable
highlight of this place is a
French
restaurant in the middle of nowhere, with real live
pate maison, reasonable wine, and wonderful
atmosphere including a resident tabby cat and two dogs
(just like in France). We toured in the dinghy,
took a nature walk through the jungle and spotted a hunk
of wildlife we described as a "wet sleeping furry thing"
we figured for a sloth in the crotch of a tree.
After a lovely and relaxing four nights, on Friday we
zig-zagged back out and headed back toward
Portobelo for some pirate history.
We heard rumors that Portobelo was less than secure,
so Ole, Dale and Linda went ashore to explore while Jan
relaxed and caught up on her PassageMaker magazine
reading. They toured the ruins of Fort San Lorenzo
on the town side, sampled a few cold ones in a little
cantina, visited the Church of the Black Christ, and had
a relatively dry afternoon. Just before cocktail
hour, we opted to move across the bay away from town for
the night, which proved quieter, calmer and left us
feeling more safe for the night. Rumors are
rumors. We anchored off the other fort, enjoyed a
calm, though rainy night's sleep, and woke up on
Saturday the 21st to Ole's birthday!
As Ole's birthday luck would have it, perhaps the
only cayuco-paddling lobster salesman in the entire
region picked our boat to deliver a fine catch to - so
it was martinis, Dale's home-smoked salmon, the Beatles'
White Album Birthday song, and the promise of a lovely
lobster dinner - until the rolling started. The
bay was glassy, but big ground swells started rolling
in, and over the next hour the boat swung 360 degrees
around on the Bruce, rolling upwards of 6 degrees a
side, digging our holding deeper. Though not much
wind followed, the next 12 hours contained the most
spectacular rainstorm(S) we've ever witnessed, with
sheet lightning and thunder that struck the bay more
than once. Made cooking the lobsters interesting,
doing the dishes out of the question, and sleeping
impossible!
After breakfast, we opted to head back here to
Shelter Bay to fuel up, provision up for the transit and
for Thanksgiving, and get ready for the transit.
It's now 10:22 p.m., and I'm almost to excited to go to
bed. We'll be joined tomorrow by three line
handlers and a pilot for a two-day canal transit that is
scheduled to start tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. I'll
update the site with information and pictures when next
we have a connection...
November 24/25
Transiting the Panama Canal
The full story of our Canal transit is
published separately, and first appeared as an article
for the DeFever Cruisers Winter 2010 magazine, and can
be found by
clicking this link.
Dale
and Linda published their account, and it can be found
here. And
John and Kim Pulkabrek published their account,
available here. Three blind men describing an
elephant, I’d say.
November 30
Well, we made it through the Panama
Canal without incident, stayed a few days at Balboa
Yacht Club, and made our way out to the Perlas Islands
southeast of Panama City to enjoy a couple of weeks
cruising and familiarizing Dale and Linda with the
systems aboard Emma Jo..
We passed Thanksgiving at Balboa Yacht
Club, and broke out the good French tablecloth and real
cloth napkins, as well as a magnum of champagne we’d
been saving since we departed Florida, to celebrate our
gratitude for a great adventure so far. With a turkey
roast, canned yams, cranberries, and green beans, as
well as a box of Stouffer’s stuffing found as a treasure
at the local supermercado, Thanksgiving dinner was about
as good as we could make it. While we ate, ship after
ship passed us on their way to and from Miraflores
Locks, often within a hundred yards, making for some
great rolls with dinner!
Ole and Dale made an excursion to
Abernathy’s, the Panamanian equivalent of West Marine,
for fishing tackle and boat parts, while Linda and I
explored the Allbrook Mall, fully as extensive as any to
be found in the US. Our list included stocking up on
clumping cat litter, a must with two cats, and somewhat
difficult to find in Central America. We were able to
locate 6 40-lb bags, which were stored in the engine
room and came with instructions to NOT PUNCTURE THE BAGS
at any cost! We also found all of the thyroid medicine
little Maggie might need for the next four months
On the 27th, we headed
toward Contadora and the Perlas Islands, and broke out
the fishing gear for the first time. Finally got the
decks bloody, hooking an albacore almost right away!
Dale educated us as to his “filet and release”
philosophy of fishing…
We anchored off Contadora for a
couple of nights, and went for a walk one morning. This
island used to be quite the place for the Central
American rich and famous to retreat to, and when the
Shah of Iran was ousted, he even had a place here. We
found the locals to be very friendly, and the anchorage
to be pleasant enough to cast the spinning rod one
morning. Learned about the “cut the line and release”
philosophy once I hooked a devil ray with 5-lb test!
We travelled one morning over to
another group of islands to finish out the month, and
finally got to try our hand (foot?) at snorkeling and
beachcombing on an island called Bayoneta, where we
educated Dale and Linda on the finer points of deck
showers, and took several dinghy rides for picnics and
snorkeling. All in all, not a bad way to spend
November!
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