This Ship’s Blog will be a little different. We’ll let the photos and captions tell the story…… After a new set of batteries and working out the final teething issues (we hope) – We’ll be off to the Las Perlas Islands of Panama on the 22nd of March. Shortly thereafter, off to the mysterious island of Malpelo and then the Galapagos!
Thanks to all of you who “live blogged” along with us and sent us screen captures (several of which are in this gallery).
Enjoy and KIT (keep in touch)!
Scott and Nikki
Pacific Puddle Jump – Class of 2016 from Shelter Bay, Colon – Panama. These are the owners and crews of vessels who would soon transit the canal for their journey’s across the Pacific. There was also a smaller group who were already through the canal who would have a party the next day. Other similar groups would be leaving from Mexico and California. Nikki ready to go from the Caribbean to the Pacific Mike and Beth Lonnes joined us and here Nikki an Beth are ready to go Our first “Advisor” Dalton and Mike as we ready to enter Gatun Locks for our trip from the Caribbean to Gatun Lake The last northbound vessel of the day is on the left and our “ship mate’ – Chembulk Minneapolis ready to enter the first lock at Gatun. s/v “Free Wheel” a 55 foot monohull would be our “raft tie” to starboard with Magnus at the helm. s/v “Kristiane” from Australia with Paddy at the helm would be our “raft tie” to port. Making the raft before we entered the first lock. Beach House would be in control as we were the “biggest” boat, though not the longest. I would be responsible for helm and propulsion throughout the transit of each lock. I can still here Dalton saying, “Follow that Ship”.
Note the car bridge is still down as an ambulance suddenly had priority over us. It was lifted to allow us to enter within 5 minutes.Many of the locks were double doors. This one was a single, closing behind us at the first step up. Each step up was 27 feet and there would be three levels into Gatun Lake. Doors closing – our first lock and the excitement was palpable. The “unlock” is supposed to be potentially the most difficult as we are not only getting a mix of salt and fresh water, but Chembulk Minneapolis is using her engine to move through each confined lock. Think Warring Blender! It was getting dark as we started, but completely dark as we finished. We spent the night in Gatun Lake. Chembulk Minneapolis continued on her transit which would take her a total of about 8 hours. For us, a two day affair as we cannot keep up with the big ships on the 40 mile transit to the next set of locks at Pedro Miguel. The sunrise was spectacular. Here we have “Free Wheel” and “Kristiane’ tied together with a rubberized mooring buoy between them. The next day, we were joined by our new advisor, Roy. He and professional line handler Eric were great. The big ships move fast in Gatun Lake for the 40 miles transit from Pedro Miguel to the Gatun Locks. We stopped to wait for our friends and our new ship mate who was 12 miles behind us. This is Gamboa and you can see an ungainly car carrying ship on the left with “Titan” on the right. The crane, Titan, was built by the Germans in WW2 and was then the largest in the world. They used it for making U Boats! Panama bought it in the late 1960’s and use if for canal maintenance right up through the present time. They bought if from the German government for 1 dollar! Club Fed – Panamanian Style. This is where the deposed dictator, Manuel Noriega is spending his last days. Right on the Panama Canal. It’s a former U.S. Military prison. After navigating the very narrow “Galliard (aka: Culebra) Cut”, we finally came to the Centennial Bridge. This opened in 2000 and was a huge traffic buster for the Panamanians. The cut is so narrow that ships cannot pass each other for the better part of 8 miles. As such, the canal traffic more or less moves one direction or the other about half the time each day. The Brain Trust: Getting ready to enter the locks at Pedro Miguel. These locks have two steps down and are about 1 mile before the final step down into the Pacific at Miraflores. Here you can see how it’s done. The small boats only go through in the first trip of the day and usually 4 or less at a time. The guys on the sides, throw monkeys fists at the end of small lines (for weight) and our guys tie off to then with a big loop. They pull them back and just set them on the big bollards (cleats). The crews on the boats adjust the lines, not the guys on the sides. Cowgirl on a boat! Nikki relaxes (rare on this transit) while the guys handle the lines. Nikki was working non stop most of the time. Pedro Miguel Locks. We got here so far ahead of our “ship” that we had time to sit in the canal lock for over an hour by ourselves. A unique view of Pedro Miguel Locks. Mike and I were brainstorming that the view from “on high” would look quite cool. So, in the bosun’s chair I went and Mike hauled me to the top of the mast. Roy cringed a bit….:-) And the view from the top was well worth the ride!
“Kristiane” on the left, “Beach House” in the middle and “Free Wheel” on the rightHere from the top of the mast, you can see the double door system on each side of the control room. That’s me at the top I’m so trendy – my first “selfie”. I might add, a fairly unique one. Cap Ines – a Panamax Vessel. This ship is a container ship and is the absolute maximum size of the current canal. 105 feet wide and 880 feet (more or less long). She’s a moving city. Our ship, “Berkay N”, finally arrived! She sure looks small next to Cap Ines. Note the “Mules” (Electric trains) and cables tied off to the ship. The Mules are only used to center a vessel and keep them off the walls. They are locked to their tracks and manned. They can hear the Pilots, but cannot speak back to avoid confusion. They communicate with lights and bells only back to the Pilot abroad the vessel. In case you want a high paying job btw, the Pilots can make up to $400,000 USD/per year! They are in negotiations for up to $500,000! Nice job, if you can get it. Down we go at Pedro Miguel. This lock was only two steps down and is about one mile from here to the final locks on the Pacific side at Pedro Miguel. Note the cutouts in the wall on the center left. These are outdated cleats originally built when the canal was new. They are no longer used. Nikki waiting for the doors to open. Note the double doors. Originally, these were powered by small electric motors but now are powered by hydraulic rams which can be seen outboard up high on each door. The doors are actually held closed by the water pressure. The doors fold back flush to the walls so the Panamax vessels don’t rip them off the walls! The canals are essentially gravity fed and yes, some freshwater from the lake is lost on every opening. However, the lake is constantly overflowing into the ocean over a spillway and a dam, so this water would be lost anyway. Currently however, there is a drought and the spillways are turned off. The spillways were built at an engineered level to support the lakes constant depth to idealize the locks usage. “Cap (Cape) Ines” is a true moving city with up to 2500 containers. Each container is charged at about 80.00 each. As such, it cost Cap Ines about $200,000.00 USD for this transit. The canal nets about 5 million USD/day. A cruise ship at 140.00/passenger could cost up to $500,000.00 per transit! “Cap (Cape) Ines” is a true moving city with up to 2500 containers. Each container is charged at about 80.00 each. As such, it cost Cap Ines about $200,000.00 USD for this transit. The canal nets about 5 million USD/day. A cruise ship at 140.00/passenger could cost up to $500,000.00 per transit! A reverse view from the Miraflores Camera. Many of you wonderful friends and family sent us screen shots. Thank you all!. Here you see us in the same place as the previous photo with Cap Ines on our left – photo right. “Bekay N” trailing in the distance. Entering Miraflores from the Web Cam ahead of “Berkay N”. Nice and tight shot of the three of us rafted. For our line handler it had been an easy trip. The next lock would change that! (3 steps to the Pacific and the middle one is a doozy). Miraflores Visitors center. You can see all the folks watching the ships (and sailboats) come and go. The Web Cam is on the pole in the upper right off the building. Our advisor called ahead to make sure the camera was aimed at us – cool! MULES! in waiting. We were in just ahead of our Panamax friend – Cap Ines. He had 8 mules connected and you wouldn’t want to put anything like a part of your body between Cap Ines and the sides of the canal. It’s that tight! “Cap Ines” is YUUGE (as it is now popularly written). Look at the perspective of this vessel next to the guys on the dock. We had some time while waiting for “Berkay N” so we hammed a bit for the WebCam while waiting. Mike and Beth. Beth took more photos than I did and Mike ran the GoPro which made a cool time lapse video of the entire trip. I hope to post it soon!!!! Chill time before the last two locks. As we entered the second step of three, Advisor Roy said that due to the salt/fresh water mix in this part of the canal, we could expect a strong current from astern. This causes loss of steerageway and the micro excitement began! At first, I could handle it by literally backing the raft up. Paddy remained calm to port. (I wouldn’t have been!). Then a line handler not to be named, failed to tighten a stern line and we almost had a fiberglass sandwich with “Kristiane” threatening to be scraped off the wall. Believe me, you don’t want to touch that wall while moving in a piece of plastic. Our line handler Eric, quickly put a big fender between Kristiana and the wall averting disaster. And we were only 1000 feet from the end of the trip! Webcam from outside the locks caught us entering the Pacific. The first time Beach House has been here in four years. Our view: This is the last step down and much calmer than the one before it. Beach House returns to the Pacific Ocean. This lock is the highest at 50 feet. The reason is that there can be 28 foot tides on the Pacific side. These are the biggest tides we’ve seen anywhere in the world. In Australia, we had 18 foot tides in Mackay and Darwin. Passing the “Bridge of the America’s” into Balboa with Panama City off to our left. The traffic flows 24/7/365 at the Panama Canal. This dredge is non stop. It continuously makes sure that minimum depth is assured for the big ships. Free Wheel heads toward the anchorage. Beth documented the trip extremely well. Goodbye Roy! The pilot boats themselves are almost as big as we are. Here Roy gets to go home every night and await the next small boats. He told us a story that he actually went on a French 18 footer once. They ran out of gas in Lake Gatun as the “skipper” was told he only needed 5 gallons for the 55 mile trip!… Our agent, whose name was also Roy, came to collect our rented lines and fenders as well as Eric who he hires out as a line handler. Eric and Roy (our agent) were great and we’d use them again in a minute. Frank Gehry designed this “Bio Diversity” Museum that is on the Amador corridor adjacent to the canal in Balboa. The hill you see is called “Ancon” and is the highest point in Panama City. Great view and named for the first official vessel to transit the canal i 1914. A celebratory bottle of Verve Cliquot was shared for our successful transit and return to the Pacific Ocean. Sunrise at the anchorage at La Playita. This anchorage is not really as nice as the photo. The water is dirty,, the tides are extreme and the constant ship traffic causes more than a few crash and bangs. The boat in the photo is “Alcyane”, a fellow California Yacht Club member from Marina del Rey.
TIME: 2016/03/12 22:34
LATITUDE: 08-47.62N
LONGITUDE: 079-32.97W
COMMENT: Beach House – MOORED – Toboga Island – Panama…
A bit of breeze, clean water, but also a bit rollier than advertised.
We may need to replace all our house batteries. We\’ll have a load test done on Monday and see.
Good news is that new AGM batteries are available. The generator had a coolant leak caused by carelessness in Guatemala, however
that has too been resolved.
The anchorages adjacent to the canal entrance on the south (Pacific) side are less than desirable. Rolly, big ship wakes, the water is not clean and the tides are currently 20 FEET! Only Darwin and Mackay, Australia have even approached this kind of tide on our journey around the world.
Still a week away from getting off to the Las Perlas while we finish up the teething issues.
Stand by, I\’ll blog the canal transit soon…. We almost had a boo boo right after many of you saw us in the Miraflores locks.
Thanks for all the photos!
Scott and Nikki
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/03/08 23:33
LATITUDE: 08-54.60N
LONGITUDE: 079-31.66W
COURSE: 094T
SPEED: 1.0
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – La Playita, Flamenco Ilsland – Panama…Pacific Ocean!
Thanks to everyone who wrote saying they watched us go through the Miraflores Locks and got screen shots!
Please if you have them, send to: beachhouse51@gmail.com
This email WILL NOT take them as attachments.
What a marvelous experience and right at the end we almost had a boo boo. \”Kristiana\” was a fender ball away from possible disaster
as the very last lock had the current from hell as the fresh and salt water mixed. All\’s well that ends well and they did not suffer any damage.
We\’ll go quiet now for awhile. The email bliz will end.
Cheers,
Scott, Nikki, Mike and Beth
Dear Friends and Family,
We will be entering the Miraflores Locks at approximately 2:15 p.m. US EAST COAST TIME or 11:15 a.m. US WEST COAST TIME.
We are scheduled to exit 50 minutes after we enter. You should be able to see us on one of two cameras and they also have \”hi res cams\” for
those with fast internet. If you can get a photo of us and email it to: beachhouse51@gmail.com, we\’d love it!
We will be in a raft of three sailboats. We will be in the CENTER and the plan is to be IN FRONT of the Cargo Ship – \”Berkay N\”.
You can see us on the Miraflores Lock \”Live Web Cam\” at the following link:
March 7th, 2016 (-5 on UTC) We\’re on US East Coast time….
We\’ll be beginning our transit of the Panama Canal this evening around
7 pm US East Coast Time.
To possibly see us in \”real time\”, go to the following link:
http://www.kroooz-cams.com/portcams/so_america/gatun1.php
We\’ll try and send a last minute blog to refine the time as much as possible!
It will be dark, but the canal should be lit up. We will be raft tied to at least one other sailboat and we will be BEHIND any commercial vessels in the first lock. There is a Camera 1 and Camera 2 selection. I believe camera 1 shows us entering and camera 2 shows us exiting into Gatun Lake. Commercial traffic may block our entry view from the camera today on the the way in, but not the exit. Tomorrow, we go in AHEAD of the commercial traffic and should be easy to see. Stand by for that update.
We\’ll be anchored in the lake overnight and send an update when we\’ll go through on the morning of the 8th, that\’s Tuesday here in the Western Hemisphere.
Tomorrow:
The Miraflores Locks \”Live Webcam\” is at:
http://www.kroooz-cams.com/portcams/so_america/miraflores1.php
REMEMBER, we won\’t be going through the second and third set of locks till tomorrow, the 8th of March (Pedro Miguel and Miraflores) and we\’ll try to send a real time update as we get close to \”shooting through\” into the Pacific.
KIT!!!
Scott, Nikki, Mike and Beth
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We left Portobelo in the rain and squalls for the short journey to the north entrance of the Panama Canal. As we were only 17 miles away, we started seeing AIS targets on our chart plotter immediately – eventually counting up to 99 large commercial vessels – mostly at anchor.
For those who don\’t recall, AIS is our automatic identification system which shows up vessels who have it on our chart plotter. It\’s much like a transponder in an airplane. All commercial vessels over a certain size are required to have this device. Small boats like us can have it voluntarily.
Note all the LARGE RED ICONS on the left screen. They\’re all the \”Heavy Metal\” we had to watch out for. The Red graphics on the right are the numerous rain squalls that were upon us which we can see on our radar. The X is the entrance, the line to it\’s left is the East Breakwater.
Between the Rain and Fog and over 100 large Ships, entering the narrow entrance to the Panama Canal would be exciting! Note the narrow entrance of the breakwater on our bow as we approach. Shelter Bay is at the top on the end of the peninsula.
As we approached the fairly narrow entrance to the North side breakwater, we were in essentially rain/fog conditions. As such, I turned on our lights and sound signals for limited visibility. As soon as we entered the breakwater, we made a right turn and paralleled the wall till we came to Shelter Bay about 1/2 mile inside. There\’s a few reefs to avoid, but as you can imagine, the navigation aids here are in perfect shape. Shelter Bay was originally a U.S. Military base (Fort Sherman) during WW1 through the time the US turned the Canal Zone back over to the Panamanian Government in the late 1970\’s.
Nikki on watch while we were dodging the rain squalls. For awhile, we had all Fog Signals and Lights on as we couldn\’t see the entrance to the Panama Canal.Finally, the rain and fog cleared and you can see what we had to watch out for. Thank goodness for modern electronics.
We wanted to make sure we were able to get a good slip at Shelter Bay Marina and to do so, we had to beat in the \”World ARC\”.
The World ARC is an 18 month, round the world rally which usually gets about 30-35 boats (to start) and invades anywhere they arrive.
This would be the third time I\’ll be lapped by the rally. The first time was in 2010, with Cindy in French Polynesia. Then Nikki and I met them in Cocos and Christmas Islands off the Northwest coast of Australia in the Indian Ocean in 2012. Here in 2016, would be the third time at Shelter Bay. To see more on the World ARC, click this link: World ARC Rally
Shelter from the Storm – Shelter Bay, Fort Sherman – Colon, Panama Canal on the North (Caribbean) side. Beach House – awnings up on the left of the photo.
We were lucky and got a slip right in the center of the action in front of the main facility and restaurant. The docks are in excellent shape, the electricity is good and we\’re able to run our air conditioning in the 90-95 degree heat! As many of you know who have been following us this season, Miss Piggy (aka: Beach House) has had quite a few things go awry. While here, we need to get both water makers up to speed (yet again), both engines will get new rings and bearings and too many little details to list. In fact, it got to be so much in terms of parts, that Nikki took a quick trip back to Florida for a week to pick up 140 pounds worth of boat parts and take care of lots of little things for us back in the US. Mike and Beth would still be bringing another entire suit case when they arrive in March.
We met with Greg Van Wyck, a Canadian ex-pat and retired Aircraft Mechanic/Engineer. Greg goes by \”The Engine Whisperer\” and it is a well deserved moniker. He has literally taken both our engines apart and is changing the rings and bearings. Apparently, I babied the engines a bit too much and used synthetic oil on them too soon. As such, the rings never \”broke in\” and we\’ve been getting unburned fuel and some oil burning (blow by). When Greg took the engines apart, he said they looked brand new and told me that for the next 500 hours I\’m to use standard 15W-40 diesel engine oil. Duly noted….:-)
We had leaky rings and low compression. Why? Because apparently I babied the engines too much when they were new. The insides looked new according to our brilliant mechanic Greg Van Wyck. Once rebuilt, they purred perfect and no more oil leaks!Engine \”Head\”. After a bit of clean up from the unburnt fuel (low compression), all was put back in order.Of course, Captain Boat Boy had to get into the action as well. Here I\’m fixing the smaller of our two water makers in the starboard forward locker.Speaking of water….Do you think we cut it a bit close on our arrival from the San Blas Islands? That\’s QUARTS by the way (actually liters), not Gallons!
Our generator was also \”dead\”. Turns out we had three separate issues, none to do with the engine itself. Two broken cables, a bad exhaust temperature probe and some capacitor issues which effected our voltage.
On my birthday, January 25th, Nikki took me to Panama City for a few days. We went via the Panama Canal Railway which more or less parallels the canal. The ride was a little over an hour from Colon, but it takes that long to get into town as most trips require us to wait for the ships to enter or exit the locks. We then drive over a lowered bridge. The wait is typically 20 minutes to an hour. The traffic is backed up for a mile as here, ships have the right of way! The canal operates 24/7/365 and takes in 5 million US Dollars per day. Nice if you can get the work.
We\’d up spending 7 very busy weeks on this side of the Canal and have made a \”recky\” into Panama City as well.
Ah, it rolls around again. This would be number 62 for me. Nikki made a great Cheesecake (my favorite). YUM!
As we write, it\’s now the 3rd week of February and we\’re awaiting friends Mike and Beth Lonnes who will be here within the next few weeks to transit the canal. If it all works out well, I\’ll be able to email everyone the approximate time and weblink to the Miraflores Locks and for those of you with an interest, can watch us in real time transit the canal sometime between on the 8th of March. We\’ll definitely update you for that event. In addition, if you\’ve a keen interest in the building of the Panama Canal and it\’s history, check out this book, \”Path Between the Seas\” by David McCullough – click Amazon link here: \”The Path Between the Seas\” by David McCullough
I leave you with some shots of the Panama Canal in action!
Doors to Gatun Lake. This is the original canal built 102 years ago!. There are two sets of doors side by side.These are the \”New Canal\” Doors looking north toward the Caribbean Sea. The NEW canal will take SUPER TANKERS up to 125 feet in width. These doors slide in from the side and are much more efficient. Despite the statements about, \”We\’ll be open in a few more months\”. Think at least two more years. Gatun Lake is behind me in this photo and they haven\’t broken into the lake as yet.The NEW canal looking toward Gatun Lake. Despite the perspective, it\’s quite a bit wider than the original canal.New LOCK PONDS. These will fill and un-fill with water when the lock is opening and filling. These ponds are designed to be environmentally more friendly as it will keep more fresh water in the lake and let in less salt water. The actual canal is parallel and to the left in this photo.
For my birthday, Nikki took me on the train to Panama City for the weekend and we got a tasty tour of what was to come. The difference between the two sides of the canal is as different as the two seas! The Pacific side is much more metropolitan and looks like a mini Miami Beach.
Arriving in Panama City by the train. These tracks also bring containers back and forth to save money for the smaller vessels.
Get this! The average container ship is charged 150,000.00 to 350,000.00 US Dollars per transit!!!
Passenger Ships are charged up to 500.000.00 US Dollars per trip! YIKES! Our fees all up are $2,125.00. Glad we aren\’t that big.
I leave you with a photo of the modern Panama City and we\’ll tell you all about it in a future Ship\’s Blog.
Yep, that shiny building on the far right is where we stayed. The Trump Ocean Club. Make no assumptions. It\’s just a very nice hotel.
Our friends Mike and Beth Lonnes are \”in country\” and will be here on the 5th of March. We\’ll be doing the \”Pacific Puddle Jump Party\” on the 6th and transit the canal to the Pacific Ocean on the 7th of March into Gatun Lake through the Gatun Locks. We\’ll stay the night and finish our transit on the 8th of March going through in quick succession; the Pedro Miguel and finally Miraflores Locks. We hope to \”live blog\” while going through the canal and when we get to the final Miraflores Locks, let all who are interested link in to see us as we transit to the Pacific Ocean for the first time in 4 years on the LIVE WEBCAM….. We\’ll send a web post out trying to give you as solid a time as we can when we make the jump.
Stand by and KIT,
Scott and Nikki – Shelter Bay Marina, North(Caribbean)side of the Panama Canal.
I was very pleased to wake up the other day and receive an email that I have been awarded the \”Charles F. Hathaway Long Distance Cruising Trophy\” for 2015 from the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, California.
The Charles F Hathaway Long Distance Cruising Trophy may be awarded annually by the California Yacht Club to one of its members in recognition of the skill and courageous act that an individual or couple accomplished while deep water cruising. This award is in honor of late Honorary Commodore Charles F Hathaway who kept the vision of the Club on track while also crossing oceans, racing and cruising for many years. This trophy is not intended as a mileage award, but more for recognizing California Yacht Club owners/skippers for their adventuring spirit that personifies the California Yacht Club mission of excellence in boating activities.
This year, the award is to Dr. Scott Stolnitz, D.D.S.,(Staff Fleet Surgeon, CYC), member since 1975, cruising around the world on his Switch 51 Catamaran, \”Beach House\”.
The Trophy held by (r-l) Mrs. Charles F Hathaway (Patty), Steve and Stephanie Hathaway.
Congratulations on an amazing voyage. Best wishes for a successful conclusion.
Regards – Commodore Richard F. Hamlin – California Yacht Club
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Ah, it rolls around again. This would be number 62 for me. Nikki made a great Cheesecake (my favorite). YUM!
