Colon (Port Cristobal) Panama

PCYC Panama Canal Yacht Club:

Preparation for the Canal Transit

People say that it is usually better the second time around. That may be true with a lot of things in life, we'll see if that holds true about crossing a continent.

After the Antigua Sail Week back in early May 2004, I arrived here by way of a week in Aruba then a week in Cartegna with a beautiful, young red-head from Namibia, Carla Hildebrand. It can't get much better than that!

Carla is an experienced sailor and she was a big help for me on crossing the Caribbean, me being a complete novice at the time. Carla was to fly out of Panama City to meet up with her mother in Ecuador for a charter to the Galapagos.

This, my second trip to the canal zone, was a little different. I sailed alone from Jamaica, stopping at one of the San Blas islands on the way in. Otherwise, little has changed. The entrance is straight forward and well lit. I had to wait just outside the harbor breakwater for over an hour to let, first 2 large container ships pass me into the harbor and then 3 more coming out. And this was at 3 am.

The place is non-stop, 24/7 ship traffic. It is well organized and 2 dozen or more little but powerful 'pilot boats' are continually zipping around guiding ships in or out or picking or dropping off pilots or advisors off of the ships. Every boat through here must have either a Panamanian 'Pilot' at $2400 a day or an 'advisor' at $240 a day on board once in the canal zone.

The anchorage, called the "F -Flats", is just off the eastern edge of the marked channel into the first locks. There are the off-loading docks lined with huge cranes and the Port Captain's building framing a large triangle of marked water where any boat or small ship can temporarily anchor until getting clearance.

It is just off this anchorage, up a little river, where the 'Yacht Club' is situated . It is in the middle of the off-loading cranes and container storage and just around the corner from the main bus station. The anchorage is rolly with all the pilot boats moving at their full speed from ship to ship, and it smells of a large commercial port.

However, the small club area is very inviting to the cruising sailor. It is clean and well maintained compared to it's surroundings, and the people are nice and you feel welcome. There are some cruisers who spend months here waiting until the hurricane season passes and they can return to somewhere in the Caribbean. Or others have been here years and make it their permanent 'Club'. Most are just waiting to have their sailboat measured and then get a 'slot' for a canal transit. That is my case, as well as 2 dozen other sailors.

Three years ago, I was lucky and found a very nice and knowledgeable taxi driver, Joseph' who, for $10 an hour, would take me to all the various agencies and offices needed to get the paperwork completed for the ACP (Panama Canal Authority). Joseph had moved to the Pacific side with his family but there was a good replacement, Tito from the Yacht Club. Tito was a line handler and had made over 350 crossings. He now represents the small sailboat owners who want to try to do all the paperwork themselves and save the $450 cost of an agent.

Tito charges $50 for the complete paperwork procedure. The only difference between Tito and an agent is that the agent does all the paperwork and agency running around for you, with Tito, you have to do all the running around and signing yourself. Tito is only a 'guide'.

Tito took 3 sailboat owners around in his car to the different agencies, 5 in all, with each of us carrying 16 photocopies of our documents in hand. After 4 hours, we had all the stamps, passes and permits needed to stay and cruise in Panama for 3 months. $50 each for Tito and about $80 more for the permits.

Still to come was the admeasurer, who comes aboard and measures and inspects the boat, and, if he approves, you get an assigned 'slot' for the crossing.

Juan was very cordial, but exact. He measured with his own tape measure, the deck from nose to tail, 49' 9" not including the bow roller nor the dingy davits. He may have let me off on that one. If he measured just 4 inches more, the cost goes up from $600 to $850. He did not say a thing, but I heard from 2 other boat owners that they were measured tip to tail including all stainless overhangs. He checked my cleats, fenders, anchors and chain and even had me blow my portable air horn. I rented four 150' lines and 10 covered car tires as fenders from Tito for $80 and, if I don't find one or two people to cross with me, I will also have to rent 4 'line-handlers', one for each corner of my boat at $50 a piece. The 'Pilot', who is really just an 'advisor' or 'pilot-in-training' comes included in the $600 transit fee.

Tomorrow I will be notified of my scheduled transit date. I am hopeful that the delay won't be too long. I want to get moving out across the Pacific Ocean.

The WiFi Internet corner of the PCYC for cruisers.

The dingy dock, $2 a day if you are anchored in the free 'Flats' anchorage.

Emergency Steering

The tiller fits in a hole in the floor that is covered by a large screw off cap. It is in the same place on this boat as on my old 46, and serves the same function. On the H-46, the cap covered the rudder post. When my rudder broke, that was the first place I looked. When I turned the wheel, the rudder post turned. I knew then that the linkage was fine, but there was no rudder below the post.

On the new boat, the cap also covers the rudder post directly. You unscrew the cap, get out the tiller and place it in the proper alignment with the rudder post and there you have it. Lewmar constructed a special connection with a pin holding the E-Tiller to the rudder shaft.

You move the tiller, and the rudder moves. A very positive and direct feel. Now, of course, the 2 steering wheels also turn, but you get a great sense of security seeing it all work together.

The emergency rudder is also a good feature to have, especially for one that has lost his rudder before!

On Rain Squalls

I have had six rain squalls dump their load on me already today.

I am the second day out from Jamaica headed to Panama. My course is 200 degrees, which is 20 degrees East of due South. Panama lies about 400 miles away. At my speed, 7.5 knots, that's another 3 overnights.

The pillow like tops of these clouds only hint at what their dark bases carry. A few miles to the East, they are lined up as if in a race, a race across the Atlantic, from Africa, where these "Trades" originate.

You can't outrun them, not at 7.5 knots. You have to prepare and wait until they hit then dump their load on you. This is proceeded by a strong increase in wind. From the constant 12 -15 knots coming out of the East, the winds before these squalls increase to 22 - 25 knots, and a change in direction depending on how far they are north or south of the line to the Easterly Trades.

If you are caught un-prepared, they can knock the sails down and you heel (the boat leans away from the wind pressure) excessively. I have developed my own way of preparing for the 'hit'.

I am sailing with the second reef in the main. That brings the main sail down to about where the smaller head sail, the 'stay sail', tops out. I also have the bigger head sail, the 'Jib', rolled all the way out. That gives the boat a good 'pull' from the constant trade winds.

When a squall is about to hit, I will quickly roll up the jib and turn the boat a little into the wind until the rains come, then turn back. Eventually everything returns to normal and I head back towards Panama and roll out the jib again.

Another squall is approaching, so I better tend to business.

Set & Drift

During my schooling for the USCG Captain's License, I breezed through all the 'hard' topics that the other students were having problems with. "Rules of the Road" with subjects like the different lights a variety of ships performing their duties must show at night. The differences of the three main light colors of Red, White and Green placed in a myriad of positions depending on type of vessel or duty.

Fishing, Trawling, Pilot, NUC (Not Under Command, RAM (Restricted Ability to maneuver), CBD (Constrained by Draft) and even Mine Sweeping all have their specific color and placement of the 3 lights or by daylight shapes of cones or other hanging markers.

There are dozens of sound signals all meaning something VERY important to moving, towing or even anchored ships. I had no problems with these elements of the schooling and I maxed this part of the tests. It was all logical, simply rules you had to learn. Where I had my problems was in the paper chart calculations, especially 'Set & Drift". This was also the only part of the 5 part tests that I did NOT get all the answers right.

Set & Drift is calculating how much the current is pushing you away from your destination and by how much. The 'Set' is the direction of the current, the 'Drift' is how fast it is moving. You have to know the exact distance from your boat to the destination, the exact compass direction, computing things like magnetic variances and wether to add or subtract from the readings depending on a chart code. This all gets placed in a formula and is compounded by a special term called DR or 'Dead Reckoning".

I got the three questions wrong but you are allowed 3 incorrect answers on the whole test so I just squeaked by and got my 'Captain's License". I even went on to my "Master Mariner" with no more problems. Of course the questions that the Coast Guard is still asking is, to my logical mind, antiquated. They have a dozen questions on the LORAN positioning system but do not even mention GPS!

Now that I am on my new boat with all the latest electronic gadgets, I feel confident that these will guide me around the world. I have three complete GPS systems, One built in with the RayMarine "Mariner Package", One separate and independently powered for the laptop computer and one internally powered handheld with downloadable charts.

To these GPS systems, I also have 3 complete charting systems. The Navionics Platinum on 2 Gig memory cards go in the RayMarine slot in the plotter, one for each of the 20 areas of the world. On the Laptop, I have the complete World Charts from Nobeltec on a CD and a handheld GPS plotter able to download the Navionics charts depending on which area of the world you are in.

The best thing about the RayMarine E series chart plotting system is that it calculates SET & DRIFT FOR YOU. An example is on the following photo from this morning. This is my 'NavPod' containing the 12 inch RayMarine E-120 plotter. It is connected to all the other RayMarine instruments like wind, depth, speed, engine readouts and to the main plotter, the E-80 down in the Nav station. That is where I place the 2 gig memory chip. This genius reads all the electronic data from the other RayMarine units and computes many important things, among others, 'Set & Drift'!

On the left is Nicaragua, to the right is Columbia. The red square with the cross in the middle is my destination, Colon Panama
The boat in the middle has 5 lines emanating from it. This is my current position at 09:08:11 this morning. My current boat speed SOG is 9.6 knots, my 'Course-Over-Ground' COG is 206 degrees. This heading has calculated my 'Set & Drift' for me and actually steers the boat for me with the Auto-Pilot down the black dotted line in the middle of the 3 thin lines going South from the boat.
The 5 lines around the boat are;
1) the thin red line (left) is the course the boat is steering to keep the boat headed in the direction of #2
2) the thin black line (middle) is the direct heading to the destination without any variances, or as sailors call it 'the Rhumb Line".
3) the thin green line (right) is the actual 'Course-Over-Ground' COG
4) the thick blue line is the direction the current is pushing me off course. The thicker the line, the more power it has. The red line shows how the boat has to steer to compensate for this 'Set & Drift'. the green line is the actual course. The red and green lines are always moving around and sometimes line up with the black line. That is what the course computer is doing, trying to get to the end of the black line at the red square with the cross in it.
5) the thick yellow line is the wind, also trying to blow me off course, the thicker the line, the more power in the wind. It is coming from ESE with the arrowhead touching the middle of my boat. The wind speed and direction are on the right column. Direction of the wind, apparent, (meaning the 'true' wind plus or minus the boat movement = what the boat feels - apparent wind)) is 85 degrees, wind speed is 13 knots.

Isn't modern technology amazing? I just put the curser on my destination, hit "Go To", then tell the auto-pilot to 'track' the heading, and finally go down below and make some tea.

On Steering Auto Pilots

"Buddy", that's what I call my auto pilot. A single-hander's best friend. I couldn't cross oceans alone without a good one.

On my last Hunter, the 46, I had an auto-pilot, but I really didn't know the fine points of using one when I started out. In fact I burned up a total of three (3) 12 volt rotary motors that drive the gears that steer the wheel. I would get the boat going on the heading I wanted and push "Auto". I thought the motor would handle the water pressures on the rudder without a problem. Until I was crossing the North Atlantic East from Cape Verde Islands to Antigua.

1100 miles out from the Caribbean chain of islands, the electric motor sounded like a coffee grinder. A few minutes later it froze up. Nothing left to do but put the auto pilot in 'standby' mode and hand steer - 1100 miles. Thankfully this time, I had 2 young boys with me I had picked up on the docks of Grand Canary Island for the trip West across the Atlantic. For the trip East from Florida to Lagos Portugal, I was alone. I'm thankful the motor didn't strike then.

The 3 of us hand-steered into English Harbor where RayMarine had a new motor waiting for me. Thank goodness for on board e-mail and the 5 year warranty. I asked RayMarine to repair the old motor and send it back as re-conditioned. I added quick connect ends to the wires of both motors for a possible change-out at sea and headed out to cross the Pacific.

The motors burned out twice more, once between Galapagos and the Marquesas and another 350 miles out from San Francisco after leaving Hawaii. The quick change went well.

I have now learned to hand steer for a few minutes every hour or after every change of watch and trim the sails so that the rudder indicator on the auto pilot is showing little effort. Since using that tell-tale, I haven't had a problem.

This NEW Hunter 49 has the newest Lewmar 'Mambo' heavy duty 'Off Shore' version of the twin wheel auto pilot. Two engineers from the Lewmar factory went out on my boat at the Miami Boat Show with Hunter's test pilot, Steve Pettengill, and proved that everything was working correctly. It has a heavy duty motor and stronger U-joints that first steer the rudder, then both wheels. It is satisfying to look into the aft hatches and watch this machine at work.

I have full confidence that 'Mambo' will bring me around the world.

San Blas Panama, Cayo Holandes

This is why I'm sailing the world, because of places like this. What more can I say? ....

Deck Safety

As for on deck safety, I always wear my inflatable safety harness with two tethers while in bad weather. One tether is 6 feet long, the other is coiled and is about 2 feet long until stretched to it's max of 6 feet.

I hook in at the helm in nasty weather only, but I always hook in when leaving the cockpit. If I have to go around a stay or other obstacle, I will first clip in the short tether before releasing the long one.

I have a safety jack line (webbing) from the bow back to the cockpit on each side of the boat that I can use when moving fore or aft from the cockpit. There is something I don't like about this standard system of running the safety jack lines.

That is, if you are not kept on board the boat by the safety jack line, but instead go overboard, you are hanging off the side of the boat and beating yourself, kept there by your own safety line hung up on a stay. There is no way to get yourself back aboard and, when single-handing, nobody to help or even slow the boat down.

For myself, I have added another safety webbing from the bow pulpit back to my stern arch outside the stanchions along the OUTSIDE edge of the boat.

I will also clip into this webbing when going up along the edge of the boat with my second tether. That way, if I fall overboard and I am caught half way back on the side of the boat beating myself to death, I can cut away the inside tether and slide back to the stern swim platform along the OUTSIDE safety webbing.

I tried this once while someone else was driving the boat at 4 knots and I was able to pull myself back aboard the stern swim step and into the cockpit. I have never seen this before and it was NOT mentioned in the 'Safety-at-Sea' course I took, but I feel much more confident using this method.

I hope this sheds some light on my personal choice of keeping myself safe while cruising Around-the-World.

Islas Holandes, San Blas, Panama

I just dropped anchor a little after sunset. I wanted to get a picture of this beautiful small island , but I had so much to do to take down the full set of sails in the calm behind land that it got too dark.

I didn't plan to stop anywhere before the Panama Canal after leaving Jamaica, but my good friend Pam Wall suggested this place. She would know. She is herself a circumnavigator and is West Marine's Offshore Outfitting specialist.

Pam has helped me get all the little things together that don't come with the boat. I met Pam while we were doing seminars at the Annapolis Boat Show 2 years ago and we have talked ever since.

Tomorrow morning I'll take a couple of photos and then circle this island before heading West again to the canal. It's only about 50 more miles.

Leaving Jamaica, Heading to Panama

The stormy weather has become quiet again with the SE winds backing to NNE. This will push me down the 550 miles to Panama in 4 -5 days. I will be alone and I don't like to push it while single-handing.

I invited my next door neighbor boat crew, 'Blue Rhapsody', over for dinner. After dinner and dessert, we watched "Pirates of the Caribbean II" on the 40 " big screen with the Bose 5.1 surround sound.

The Captain, Bob, has 5 crew aboard. Two local Trinidad sailor boys to help him with the sailing and 3 young girls he took on as 'shared-expense' crew.

The 2 young girls from Denmark had written him about doing an 'Open Ocean' passage, their first. The other 19 year old from Israel was back-backing and walking the docks looking for a ride. She has also never been on an open ocean voyage.

I was asked if I wouldn't mind taking one of the girls, but I think I would prefer to go it alone until they have proven themselves aboard Bob's 'Blue Rhapsody'.

We will meet up again in Panama where Bob will spend some more time than my intentions call for.

I would like to get to the Galapagos. I spent 2 months there 2 years ago in the Fort Amador - Flamenco Marina on the Pacific side of Panama City 2. That was enough for me.

However, I will stop at 3 of my very favorite islands in the Las Perlas group for a few days rest before continuing on to Galapagos.

Errol Flynn Marina - Port Antonio, Jamaica

Port Antonio, located on the North-East corner of the Caribbean Island of Jamaica, was made famous by Errol Flynn. He bought this private island, built his beautiful island hut and invited guests from his boat or seaplane parked in the harbor. He lost the island in one night of gambling.

Port Antonio, Jamaica

Port Antonio, located on the North-East corner of the Caribbean Island of Jamaica, was made famous by Errol Flynn. He bought this private island, built his beautiful island hut and invited guests from his boat or seaplane parked in the harbor. He lost the island in one night of gambling.

A local born here in Port Antonio , Mr. Michael Lee Chin, moved to Canada and made his fortune in banking. He now owns 5 hotel properties and the hill overlooking this government owned 'Navy Island'.

While I was out testing my third reefing lines, Mr. Chin arrived. His first private helicopter made 2 security passes then landed before the luxury private helicopter landed Mr. Chin and Co.


This was right out of a "James Bond" film except that our "Mr. Chin" is the really good guy. He has given back a lot of money to his country of birth and is making the roads and infrastructure of Port Antonio into acceptable conditions.

On Booms and Sails

From Port Antonio, Jamaica.

The main sail on my last Hunter 46 furled (rolled) into the boom. This was a perfect system for me then because as a novice, I didn't have to worry about different reefing points, all the reefing lines or adjusting a boom vang or outhaul for the various wind conditions. I only needed to release the one 'furling' line and either pull up the main halyard or let it down, stopping at any position I thought was safe but fast for sailing. The boom vang that holds the boom in a horizontal position was 'fixed' and I could do no wrong.

I now have a 'standard' full sail that shortens (reefs) by taking down some sail from the topped out position. You do this by pulling on one of the 3 'reefing' lines and fixing the chosen 1, 2, or third reefing point and fixing that line before tightening up the main sail again.

This needs to be fixed at 2 positions, at the end of the sail on the boom and at the bottom of the sail at the 'gooseneck on the mast/boom connection. That's 6 different points on the main sail plus adjusting the angle of the boom to the mast with the vang.

I never had to deal with this before and it needs some learning time for me to handle all this alone.

That is what I am doing in the following photos in front of Errol Flynn Island in Port Antonio.

Bahamas Sail to Inagua - Winward Passage

After spending some really fun time in George Town Bahamas, Rob and I said goodbye to our guests and set sail for the last, most southern island in the Bahaman chain, Inagua.

This whole island of Inagua and the only town on it, Matthew Town, are there for only one purpose, the Morton Salt Company has their 99.8% Pure Sea Salt Farm there. It is the only possible stop on the 'Old Bahaman Channel' along Cuba's north coast. I stopped here on my way from Puerto Rico back to the Miami Boat Show in 2003. I just wanted to sleep one night through in a peaceful place, not knowing it was such a small harbor with only a 35 foot wide entrance.

Because I had already been here once before, this time I could make a night entrance, not knowing there was the Royal Bahamian Defense Force flagship "Yellow Elder" in there already. Being only 120 feet square, the harbor was mostly taken up by this one ship. But there was just enough space on one wall to tie up and spend the night.

The next morning the 'Harbor Master' came to collect her $6 fee and show us their new shower facility, very clean with hot water.

We left shortly thereafter for the 'Windward Passage' between Haiti and Cuba with, as the weather service called them, 'boisterous seas'. We had 30 knots of wind and 12 to 15 foot seas.

It was a bumpy ride!

Mike Harker
s/v WanderLust 3

Wanderlust 3 Heads to Jamaica

It feels great to get back on the water again. I enjoy the power and natural forces of the wind and waves. To be able to control a sailboat and get it from one exotic local to another using only the forces of nature is an exhilarating experience. I missed that while waiting the year and a half for the new Hunter 49 to finally be ready.

She is a beautiful boat! Hunter listens to their customers and dealers and in designing this boat even I had a few suggestions and input that made it on this 'Blue Water' version. There were a few things on the old 46 that I thought needed improving and a few things I wanted to add to the new boat for my own safety and comfort while single- or short-handing out in heavy seas.

I carry an emergency rudder that stows away until I need it then fastens to the stern with already fitted pad-eyes, a Viking 6 person SOLAS liferaft, 2 EPIRBS (one is the small personal version) and 2 complete charting and plotting systems. The Navionics Platinum charts for the world in the RayMarine E120 and Nobeltec world charts in the laptop powered by a separate 12 volt isolated battery pack. This gives me options that I hope I never need.

This version has the 7 foot taller mast (68') and the deep, long keel. I went with the standard full cut and roach main with 3 single-line reefs, a self-tacking stay-sail and a full 120% genoa. I have the 8 gph watermaker so I changed one of the three 80 gallon water tanks into an aluminum reserve fuel tank with transfer pump into the 120 gal main tank. This is filtered through the 'FilterBoss' twin filter cleansing system.

I have the twin propeller bow thruster for backing into tight dock spaces, the flex-o-fold three blade folding propeller and the Fischer-Panda 12 KW genset mounted on the centerline below the sole.

I had Hunter stainless department built the similar arch/bimini/davit system I had on my old boat and added three 75 watt solar panels above. The dingy lowers to water level at the swim platform, I step in, un-clip and drive away. Coming back I'll clip in and raise the dingy into its custom davit that keeps the dingy tight against the formed steel, no rocking or swaying.

The goal is to get down to Panama from Jamaica. Rob Lawnsby, a former Hunter dealer and commissioner of many boats and Hunter's 'fix-it' guy is aboard until Jamaica then it's single-handing to Panama.

I will have my 'www.sail-wanderlust.com' website and blog up and running when I leave Panama to cross the South Pacific then the Indian Ocean and finally the South Atlantic before returning to the Miami Boat Show next Feb.

If everything goes planned, I should cross my own track in the Island I am headed for now, Inagua and Matthew Town, the most southern Bahamian Island just before the 'windward passage'.

I've included some 'non-bikini' photos of my crew member Kimberly. She left early this morning back for work. She will join me for another week later down in the South Pacific.

Atlantis Resort - Bahamas

WanderLust 3 in Atlantis Marina - Bahamas with my good friend SUSI from Garmisch Germany.