SV Gallant Fox

Notes from Underway - Cruising Panama

Left Shelter Bay Marina/Colon @ 0800 Fri., 2/25. No wind - motored 17mi. to Portobello (09deg.33.5'N/079deg.40'W), found by Columbus in 1502; later, the port from which the Spanish shipped much gold & silver from the New World. It is indeed a beautiful port. 40 boats here, most our size, most from Europe. Ruins of 500 y.o. forts ashore, pod of 12 dolphin in bay, howler monkeys roaring in jungle at sunset. We'll stay a while.
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The Panama Canal, it is transited

Long story short, it went fine - much more smoothly and incident-free than I ever expected. We had 2 professional line handlers who were terrific & helped out the rest of us (thanks, Mauricio and Ivan!), and one amateur line handler who was a real quick study (kudos to you, Anne!). GB  rounded out our line handling crew, keepin' The Fox safe at the stern, port position. The requisite Canal Authority advisors oversaw the helmsperson (me) and our 4 line handlers very well. Thus, for the 12 hours we were actually underway and locking through, things were fine indeed. Our only problem was the combined total of 21 hours of waiting for the Canal Authority to locate an advisor, that made our little 12-hour transit into a hot, sweaty, 2-day affair. The transit details and procedural particulars are below the fold for those who are interested. For the rest of you, here's a photo essay.

Day began auspiciously at the Balboa Yacht Club on the Pacific side, with a morning rainbow. (There were actually 2 rainbows but the second was too faint to capture.) After a few hours of waiting, we were assigned an advisor and we were off to the 2 sets of locks at Miraflores, where the observation decks are always full. We locked through here as a single vessel, which looks like this when the water's just beginning to fill the chamber.

Next up: the single lock at Pedro Miguel, where we tied up to  a tour boat, to the great amusement of its passengers. Here, the upper deck folks are admiring the timeless beauty of The Fox and crew.

Due to all the delays during the day, we were unable to reach the Gatun Locks on the far side of the Culebra Cut and Gatun Lake, before they closed to small vessel traffic. So,we grabbed a freighter-size peg buoy just off of Dock 45, where they're doing construction for the next set of super-size locks for the mega-freighters that can't fit in the Canal. The next day more delays in finding an advisor kept us stuck to the peg buoy until late afternoon. But we got to lock through tied up to a tugboat, which is the coolest way to transit the Canal. Although the freighter locking through close behind us made me nervous.

We successfully completed our transit and still had enough time to scoot across Limon Bay to Shelter Bay Marina right at sunset. Had a sloppy landing in 25 knots of crosswinds but the only damage was to my pride. Safely offloaded our 2 pro line handlers, and so to bed. Awesome.

How Panama Tourists Handle Bad Weather

Technically, January in Panama is well into Central America's "dry season" when the days are hot and sunny, and the nights near shore are usually cooled by light breezes. It doesn't rain often, or for very long; but when a rain squall does come: boy howdy.

Here's what a typical dry-season squall looks like, as it engulfs the downtown Panama City high rises, obscures the view, and rumbles toward the Casco Antiguo district. You can see by these salty sailors' expressions that they'd prefer running for cover instead of letting me take their picture:

Just a few minutes later the rain starts at the front line of the squall and the wind suddenly arrives - with force. Thunder and lightning may occur close by. Check out those palm trees blowing in the wind as our prudent tourists exit stage right.

In this situation it is advisable to let the squall pass by spending a couple hours in the shelter of the nearest wine bar, listening to each other's sea stories and fairy tales. By the time a round or two has been quaffed, the squall has moved on, the cruisers have dried off, and tourism may comfortably resume.

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Panama City Turismo - Casco Antiguo

Casco Antiguo is a seaside district in what is now Panama City, located near the Panama Canal area. It was developed in about 1673, two years after pirate (and spiced rum spokesmodel) Henry Morgan laid waste to what had been Panama City and the surviving population were forced to relocate. Casco Antiguo perches upon a low rocky bluff surrounded by reefs and long, shallow shoals - theoretically defending it from further piracy of the nautical kind. For the modern tourist, it is a UNESCO site of centuries-old mansions, churches and government buildings whose architecture shows the influence of the Spanish and French colonialists. At times it feels like you're walking through the French Quarter of New Orleans. Observe: 

 

 

Casco Antiguo also has lots of buildings that are essentially roofless shells with mildewed facades and jungle vines pushing through cracks. Some areas have so many gutted buildings, it feels like a war zone - and maybe it was, because in 1989 the US invaded Casco Antiguo to capture President Manuel Noriega. I understand shots were fired.

These days, some structures are being rehabilitated and fancy restaurants, wine bars, museums and musicians are moving in amongst the older residences. Some might call this urban gentrification, but historical architecture is being preserved and people continue to live here so it can't be all bad.

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Panama Canal, Miraflores Locks

While GB and I scramble to get our act together for a Canal transit, here are some pics of the EASY way to see the Canal: come to Panama City, and take a day trip by taxi to the Miraflores Locks. They're the first set of locks that vessels go through when leaving the Pacific for the Caribbean. Or the last set of locks if they're coming the other way. They've been fully functional since the day they were built almost a century ago. How's that garage door of yours holding up?

Moving On - in a New Direction

So, yeah. We've discussed various scenarios about where we sail next. "Plan A" was to cruise the anchorages in the Gulf of Panama, then return to Ecuador for another 6 months or so for more South American tourism, especially in Peru. "Plan A, v.1.0" involved direct travel from Panama to Ecuador. "Plan A, v.2.0" included a short cruise of Pacific Colombia on the way to Ecuador. "Plan B" involved a transit of the Panama Canal; various versions had us visiting Cartagena, Colombia; Panama's San Blas islands; and/or Roatan, Honduras; or a combination of one or more; or perhaps not. And so on.

We were very much inclined toward a "Plan A" return to Ecuador because it's a great country & we wanted to spend about a month just in Peru, touring all the antiquities there. Actually, the trip to Peru was our main reason for sailing back to South America, before returning again to Panama and going through the Canal in 2012. We were fine with that until one very recent day, while we were sailing around Panama's Las Perlas islands. We started discussing the expense of such a venture - both in money, and in time. As we crunched the numbers it grew clear that a month's trip to Peru, with the boat moored in Ecuador and us flying to Peru from there, plus the 6 months' worth of Ecuadorean tourist visas and moorage costs, would be far more expensive than, say, us having transited the Canal and flying directly to Peru out of Miami. Plus, during that 6 months after a Canal transit we'd hopefully be able to see some other cool places we'd had to bypass the first time through Central America and Mexico.

Thus, we have arrived at our all-new flabby plan for the year 2011: we're going through the Panama Canal to the Caribbean, baby. We're anchored off of Balboa/Panama City for what might be one last time. We visit the Admeasurer's Office tomorrow morning, 2/11, to complete the preliminary paperwork and get a transit date. Meanwhile we've been getting as many of the usual provisioning/repairs/cleaning chores done as possible, in anticipation of having to spend a lot of time during the final days scrambling madly to get all our transit ducks in a row. (Spare tires for fenders! 125-foot mooring lines! Line handlers!) We may even have a special guest aboard.

And I'm drivin'. Yikes!

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Life at Anchor in Panama City

Approaching Panama City from the water, you are first struck by the incredible number of freighters and cruise ships anchored for miles around the entrance to the Panama Canal, all waiting for their turn to either transit the Canal or proceed a short way into the Canal entrance to Panama City/Balboa's commercial docks. Everything you see is so large, you lose your ability to judge distance, proportion and speed. And your AIS shows so many targets, it goes into seizure.

On our first approach, we aimed for the Balboa Yacht Club where we stayed for 4 days. I'd recommend it - not so much for the amenities, as there aren't that many within walking distance - at least not when we were there at the end of December. But it's the experience of scooting up the entrance to the Panama Canal, taking your turn amongst the giant cargo ships coming and going, to grab a mooring buoy just  outside the channel that makes the Balboa Yacht Club a worthwhile destination. The Bridge of the Americas is almost overhead, and the views of all the world's commerce coming and going just a few yards from your boat, is part of the romance of cruising to distant ports. Here's a sunset view from our mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club looking back southwest out to sea, toward the freighters' commercial anchorage. They go to thehorizon and beyond.

And, here's a view of the Bridge of the Americas in the distance, taken from the (free) Las Brisas municipal anchorage on the other side of the causeway and a couple miles from the Balboa Yacht Club, looking west back toward the Balboa Yacht Club's location.

Looking north from the Las Brisas anchorage, here's a view of the Panama City skyline. It's even prettier at night. Right now, in February, the Balboa Yacht Club's 80 mooring buoys are mostly occupied, and there are about 60 boats anchored in Las Brisas. There are more in the smaller anchorage of La Playita across the causeway to the south. This area is truly an international gateway; there seem to be as many German and French sailboats here as there are Panamanian, American and Canadian. The distance-cruising season is ramping up and the early-bird boats have already started their journey to the Galapagos and eventually, the South Pacific.

Views like these - and the outfitting opportunities that a big city offers in a location like this - overcome the heat and humidity, the rain squalls and lightning, and make a cruiser think about spending some quality time here before moving on...

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