We have been anchored in La Playita (the small beach) for 2 weeks now. It is very
rolly as located 200 yards off of the channel to the canal. It is not uncommom
to be waked up 3 times a night from the waves of passing ships. We are one of
possibly 50 boats in the anchorage stacked up like cord wood on top of one another.
One fellow dragged the first day we were here; he was in too shallow water by the
causeway, so he picked up his anchor and moved directly in front of us with his big
red steel boat and dropped anchor. Ha! If you check into this side of Panama they
charge you $3.00 a day to anchor; luckily our zarpe states we are going to the
Galapagos so we are excluded from the charge. We are charged however, the $30 per week for the dingy dock and garbage disposal. We all tie up to one giant bollard so you can imagine the horror if you are one of the first to tie up when you return and try and seek out your line at the bottom. Then you get to jump down off the dock which
gets very high with the 7' tide and pass through dingys 5 deep to get to yours; all
the while carrying your goods. Unbelievable! Photo of this disaster to follow!
We have had problems with our generator and had to have part fedex'd from States.
We received it yesterday and was installed and working again by 9pm last night. Yea!
There is a cruisers net on each morning at 8am and it has been very helpful in finding
places to provision on this side. The Blue Water Rally boats are still here and plan
to leave next Tuesday for Las Perlas. There is 29 of them so the anchorage will feel
empty but unfortunately we will follow them shortly after and have the same problem
of too many boats in one anchorage again. We have many friends in the anchorage.
Cruisers we have known from San Blas and Shelter Bay Marina. The causeway right off
of La Playita is filled with shops and restaurants which all have internet service.
Just purchase a beer and plug in! We have been provisioning for the past week and
the water line on the boat is slowly disappearing. It is a sight to see us as we
dingy out to the boat barely afloat from the weight of the beer, wine, and some food!
Everyone tells us we must provision for months ahead as everything is so expensive
in the French Islands yet if you have anything left over going into New Zealand they
make you throw it all away. One of my friends says she hopes they are behind us as
we leave for NZ so she can pick up all the discarded goods! I know she's right, it
will look like a firehouse sale as we depart from Tonga the last Island before arriving
to New Zealand. Chow!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Pedro Miguel and Mira Flores Locks Transit 2/06/10
Stuart's internal alarm goes off at 5am and he is up making coffee as the rest of the
crew awakens and dresses for the day. Today we transit Pedro Miguel and Mira Flores
locks. We have all had our coffee as we see the pilot boat approaching the mooring
field and without stopping Emiliano, our advisor, jumps down onto Imagine's deck.
After meeting everyone we hear yet again, "Let's go"! We untie the lines and begin
the 4 hour motor ride to Pedro Miguel lock. It is only one lock and will this
time lower us to Mira Flores depth then we will travel through 2 locks at Mira Flores
and will be lowered to the level of the Pacific Ocean. Again we are all soooooo
excited! The 4 hour long trip through Gatun Lake is breath taking. Beautiful Islands and even a croc sunning himself along the way. We are making phone calls to our family members and friends now that we know the cam is working at Mira Flores and
tell them to watch at 11:30am as Emiliano thinks this will be when we come through
the lock. I get Stephanie and Scott's recorders but do speak to Helen and she is
on it! We later find out that Vinnie also watched and even took a photo of us as
we past under The Bridge of the America's. Again, we are rafted up with Peter Pan
for the trip through the locks. It is again an amazing experience but seems easier
this time with the water emptying rather than swirling around us as he fills. Our
handlers did a great job and we all ate breakfast motoring to the first lock and
had our lunch while passing through the Mira Flores locks. Thanks to my friends
Jeannie and Betsy (fellow galley slaves) who did a great job helping supply food
and beverages to the crew. This time we were placed ahead of a large freighter.
I have photos which I will post of him looming over us in the locks. The pilot
on board wanted us out of his way and radioed us to tie up to the first buoy
after leaving Pedro Miguel so they could pass us. Our advisor ignored him as
he said we were to be in front of the freighter not behind it. We all laughed as
the freighter took much longer coming through the lock as he was so wide he only
had 5' on each side of the ship to the side of the lock so went very slowly. We
were in the Mira Flores lock a long time before he had even left the pedro lock.
Now, we thought, our friends can see us. So we all waved at the camera and found
out later some saw us but the cam was for the most part angled towards the boats
travelling east. We did hear the commentator at the Mira Flores Visitors Center
announce the 2 sailboats going west. Again, sooooooo exciting! The gates opened
and we motored out into the Pacific. The Placid Sea, Meagellan called it.
We motored through the Bridge of the Americas to Balboa Yacht Club where our crew
members disembarked and we were able to rid ourselves of the 125' lines and tires.
Fond farewells to our friends, Bob, Jeannie, Jim and Betsy we could not have done
this without you guys. Bob, Jim, and Jon worked so hard at securing the lines and
keeping them tight. Then Stuart, Jon, and I motored to La Playita anchorage and
anchored for the first time in the Pacific complete with its 7' tide. Jon left
us then to catch a bus to Costa Rica and after a call to our friends, Paul and
Moreen on Calypso, who had crossed the week before us, we had a bite to eat, sat
watching the ships pass us by in the channel of the canal, and went to bed very
early. Happy we had succeeded in our crossing! Photos to follow soon.
crew awakens and dresses for the day. Today we transit Pedro Miguel and Mira Flores
locks. We have all had our coffee as we see the pilot boat approaching the mooring
field and without stopping Emiliano, our advisor, jumps down onto Imagine's deck.
After meeting everyone we hear yet again, "Let's go"! We untie the lines and begin
the 4 hour motor ride to Pedro Miguel lock. It is only one lock and will this
time lower us to Mira Flores depth then we will travel through 2 locks at Mira Flores
and will be lowered to the level of the Pacific Ocean. Again we are all soooooo
excited! The 4 hour long trip through Gatun Lake is breath taking. Beautiful Islands and even a croc sunning himself along the way. We are making phone calls to our family members and friends now that we know the cam is working at Mira Flores and
tell them to watch at 11:30am as Emiliano thinks this will be when we come through
the lock. I get Stephanie and Scott's recorders but do speak to Helen and she is
on it! We later find out that Vinnie also watched and even took a photo of us as
we past under The Bridge of the America's. Again, we are rafted up with Peter Pan
for the trip through the locks. It is again an amazing experience but seems easier
this time with the water emptying rather than swirling around us as he fills. Our
handlers did a great job and we all ate breakfast motoring to the first lock and
had our lunch while passing through the Mira Flores locks. Thanks to my friends
Jeannie and Betsy (fellow galley slaves) who did a great job helping supply food
and beverages to the crew. This time we were placed ahead of a large freighter.
I have photos which I will post of him looming over us in the locks. The pilot
on board wanted us out of his way and radioed us to tie up to the first buoy
after leaving Pedro Miguel so they could pass us. Our advisor ignored him as
he said we were to be in front of the freighter not behind it. We all laughed as
the freighter took much longer coming through the lock as he was so wide he only
had 5' on each side of the ship to the side of the lock so went very slowly. We
were in the Mira Flores lock a long time before he had even left the pedro lock.
Now, we thought, our friends can see us. So we all waved at the camera and found
out later some saw us but the cam was for the most part angled towards the boats
travelling east. We did hear the commentator at the Mira Flores Visitors Center
announce the 2 sailboats going west. Again, sooooooo exciting! The gates opened
and we motored out into the Pacific. The Placid Sea, Meagellan called it.
We motored through the Bridge of the Americas to Balboa Yacht Club where our crew
members disembarked and we were able to rid ourselves of the 125' lines and tires.
Fond farewells to our friends, Bob, Jeannie, Jim and Betsy we could not have done
this without you guys. Bob, Jim, and Jon worked so hard at securing the lines and
keeping them tight. Then Stuart, Jon, and I motored to La Playita anchorage and
anchored for the first time in the Pacific complete with its 7' tide. Jon left
us then to catch a bus to Costa Rica and after a call to our friends, Paul and
Moreen on Calypso, who had crossed the week before us, we had a bite to eat, sat
watching the ships pass us by in the channel of the canal, and went to bed very
early. Happy we had succeeded in our crossing! Photos to follow soon.
S/V Imagines transit of the Panama Canal 2/05/10
Here we go again, Shelia has tried to post this 3 times. We will try once more!
We departe
d Shelter Bay at 3PM to arrive in the Flats by 4 PM so the advisor can come on board & take us thru the canal. We have 5 additional crew members on board, Bob and Jeannie from M/V Island Dreamin, Jim and Betsy Long M/V 2bySea and Jon a young spanish man, going around the world before he begins his profession as an attorney. 
The advisior arrived at 5PM and he was ready to go, we pulled the hook and off we went. We are to raft up to a HR 46, Peter Pan from Holland. He is in the Bluewater rally that goes around the world in 22 months. We rafted up at 3 Knots, never done that before. We entered the 1st lock at Gatun behind a large container ship. The massive gates began to close and the water began filling at a rate of 1' every 18 seconds. We went from 37' to 69' in 5 minutes. Bob, Jim, and Jon are acting as our line handlers which means they secure our 125' lines to a 'monkey fist' thrown to them by the Canal handlers from the top of the lock. A monkey fist is a ball of line about as large as a "monkey's fist" hence the name and is quite heavy so you learn quickly to stay out of its path. It is then secured to a bollard and we are centered in the middle of the canal. Peter Pan has a bow thruster which makes this very easy.
We are all
very excited as we approach each lock and congratulate ourselves on a good crossing. We feed the advisor a spaghetti meat sauce and penne dinner which he eats and asks for seconds. He is very thin and jokes that we are trying to fatten him up. These first locks let fresh water in to bring us up to the level of Gatun Lake which is a little over 90'. These locks were completed in 1914 by the United States and have worked 24/7 ever since. Quite a feat! We Americans on board are so proud! We have car tires on both sides of our boat to protect her against the steel edges of the lock just in case we get to close; but we don't, thanks to Peter Pan's bow thrusters which keeps us in the center of the canal. Each lock is 1000' long and 100' wide. They are building 2 new locks which are to be completed by the 100th year anniversary 2014 that will measure 1800' X 350'. Oh, no, even larger ships for us cruisers to navigate around. The canal is lit up like daylight and our advisor keeps us all busy as we secure and tighten lines through all 3 locks.
Finally the 3rd gate opens and we motor out into Gatun Lake where we will tie up to a mooring ball. These are huge balls that hold 6 boats at a time; since we are only 2 this evening we each take a separate ball. Stuart elects Jon (being the youngest crew member at 29 and the most agile) to jump onto the ball and secure our lines bow and stern. He does it beautifully and with a good sense of humor. While we are waiting for the pilot boat that will pick up Victor the rest of us finally eat. We are exhausted and hungry but still hyper from all the excitement of the Canal. It truly is an amazing experience. We wish all our friends could travel through it! The pilot boat appears after 1/2 hour and the rest of us get ready for bed. Another advisor will be here by 6am and we will transit Pedro Miguel and Mira Flores locks.
Goodnight and GOD BLESS AMERICA!
PHOTO GALLERY:
Jon on duty
Rafted up going through locks
Ship loading behind us
US Military ship in canal channel
Flying flags overhead
La Playita Anchorage
Panama City
Imagine Rafted up to Peter Pan
Opening to the Pacific
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