I’m not going to post the log but rather give a few highlights. First there was the Dilemma as to when to depart. I don’t think most other boats experience the same issues since they have big motors and plenty of fuel they can pretty accurately plan their arrival time in spite of the wind or lack of it. I usually try to plan my passages so that I can sail all or the majority of it when possible. Now from Isla Grande to Chichime San Blas is about 45 miles. Even motoring at 4.5 kts were talking 10 hours, so for example if I left at the earliest feasible time to allow for visual navigation say 7 AM I would be arriving at 5 PM, just a little too late to see the reefs on the way in to the islands, and no margin of safety. I usually try to plan the arrivals to new islands (especially when there are reefs and shoals to be negotiated) for 4 PM at the very latest. This brings up the option of leaving around 6 PM but that would mean I wouldn’t be able to arrive for at least 14 hours to make a daylight approach around 8 AM so I would have to average no more than around 3 kts and have to sail all night. SO, my solution, imperfect as it may be, was to leave around 3 AM, giving me plenty of time to arrive before dark in San Blas. Only down side was that I would have to leave Isla Grande in the dark which wasn’t too bad since it was more or less straight forward and I had already sailed in once so I had a track on the GPS.

So, I was finally underway to San Blas around 3:30 AM, Dinghy stowed away on deck, and motor sailing along at about 4 kts, I can do 5 kts, almost 6, but slower conserves a lot of fuel and I had plenty of time plus I didn’t want to have to buy fuel before Columbia almost a month away. By around 10 AM several of the big fast boats that left the same area were almost caught up with me, and inevitably arrived to their destinations in San Blas well before me, no big deal. I managed to sail only a very small part of this trip, and motor sail maybe half of it. The majority of the time is was just the diesel getting us there. No fish, nothing exciting, but a nice smooth motor-sail in very calm wind and seas. I think I arrived in Chichime around 2 PM or so with plenty of daylight to spare. I took a picture of the anchorage from the guide that should be on the web site, basically its just two small islands and a reef, with one very tiny little island near the entrance. Tiny as in one or two palm trees, maybe 20’ wide. While I was a little nervous during the approach (as usual) once again it turned out to be rather straight-forward, no problems.

Within about 30 seconds of having the anchor down the local Kuna Indians have there dug-out Canoes paddled out to your boat and are offering local hand-crafts, fish, lobster, crab, etc. If you don’t buy anything they start a little begging routing, asking if you have any magazines, chocolate, cooking oil, rice, onions, the list goes on! Funny, I don’t think any of them asked for money. Chichime probably isn’t the nicest anchorage in San Blas but it’s easy to navigate your way in, and there is plenty of decent snorkeling, and the local Kunas are friendly enough. The area is small enough that I didn’t even deploy the dinghy, rather I explored the two small islands and one tiny one simply by swimming from one to the next. There are about 6 families total on two of the islands in Chichime with maybe 5 to 7 in each family, living, it what looks like a little palapa hut. More or less primitive, with no lights, electricity, most of them don’t have motors on their boats. A few did have cell phones, and on sunny days would paddle out and ask if I had enough solar-power to charge their phones, which of course was no problem. Then the kids caught on that I had a first aid kit so I would get a daily canoe of the wounded after a few days, typically cuts scrapes etc. Finally just before I left I even started getting pitchers, coolers, etc, things that needed glued or epoxied for repair, but over all considering that your visiting their islands I would say they weren’t too demanding. After several days of swimming, snorkeling and just plain relaxing I was off to another Island group, the West Lemon Cays, only a few miles away.

I’m going to miss the monkeys on Isla Linton… I just re-read my last post, wow there were a lot of typos! So everyone will just have to overlook them and hopefully not assume that I’m an illiterate idiot. A lot of the time I’m writing these emails on a computer with a low battery, outside, in nearly 100 degree weather, while being attacked by insects. Ok that might be a worst case scenario but it’s often a combination of those factors. More often and importantly I just want to get my thoughts expressed and then get off the computer and back to experiencing everything. Plus times like this (sitting in my cockpit outside at night with full batteries in a cool breeze) that I tend to get too wordy perhaps but you’re still reading so what the heck :-).

So after a few days anchored off of Isla Linton, and one long (30 minute) dinghy ride to Isla Grande next door (allegedly the party island that you should stay away from). I decided it would be an interesting place to spend the weekend. Thursday was dead, there were probably over a dozen bars on the water, a lot for such a small strip of island, one you can walk from one end to the other in about Ten minutes or less. Oh let me back-track. I forgot to mention the Mike from Infini took me up on my offer to do a little offshore fishing / trolling in Salsa, he was so sure that we would catch fish, much more convinced that I was. There are some rocks about 2 miles offshore I think they farlonnes rocks??. The book “The Panama Guide” says that there is good fishing there so we took Salsa for a little sail with a nice breeze and after about One hour is was FISH ON! A nice uh Jack-something? Perfect size for Sushimi for Three and dinner for three later. After fishing a few hours instead of returning to Isla Linton where I was (and Mike and Sue on Infini still are) we anchored Salsa off Isla Grande and then Sue (who was keeping an eye on my Dinghy) towed it over and picked up Mike so we wouldn’t have to stow it or tow it during the fishing.

Back to Isla Grande… As I was saying Thursday was dead and Friday not much better. After dark there were about Four or Five open bars, most small tiki – type bars, very cool, but not much life, most only had a few people, surely families staying on the island. Saturday I ran into a large group of people from the Peace Corps in Panama that were taking a little weekend get-away on the Island. After about 10 beers, see another $10 of beer money to good use, and stories of monkeys and mangrove tunnels two girls decided to join me for a long dinghy ride (no pun intended honest) the next day. The Monkeys, all three this time, put on an awesome show, I didn’t have my camera but hopefully the girls will email them to me so they can make the website. One girl, Terry had TWO monkeys eating out of her hand at the same time while they were hanging from palm trees, made a great photo, and sure enough when she backed away with the food they grabbed her hair and held on! I’m watching this 10 feet away in the dinghy on the beach. Why was I in the dinghy rather than hobnobbing with the monkeys you might ask. Well a neighbor on a Catamaran said that he had heard several stories of the Monkeys attacking. There favorite maneuver being to jump into the dinghy so that you cant leave without fighting your way back into your boat. So I was defending the ship and securing our fast getaway. After the Monkeys made it clear that they didn’t want the girls leaving the island, at least not while they still had food we just threw some fruit and uh, frosted mini wheats (Monkeys like em) on the ground to occupy them while we paddled away. Next a quick ride through the mangrove should be pictures of those on the website now or soon, and then a race back for them to make their bus, which of course left early so they missed it. That turned out OK for them since the next one was only three hours away and I explored the little town on the coast opposite Isla Grande to discover, vegetables, gasoline and a very cheap restaurant, all things that I thought I Might not see again before Columbia. After doing basic exploring on Isla Grande with some hangover worthy partying I still needed to find the path up to the light house. Totally worth it! It’s a great view, after you climb up the actual tower to light itself. I’m only in Panama do they leave these things wide open to they general public. Then again maybe its not open to the general public since you need to hike up a hill through a jungle with a path that resembled a really small stream, I wont describe the view, you just have to see the pictures. But I will mention that climbing a light house is weird, definitely not for the claustrophobic! The thing is tall and really narrow, the only thing that fits inside besides the light at the top are stairs, a VERY narrow and windy series of steps. Then up top, there is of course the light, and a very cool ledge / overlook with a 360 degree view. Finished exploring, fueled up, and fairly well provisioned I was fully ready make the 40 mile hop to the San Blas Islands.

Location as of 8/17/08 apprx. 7:45 AM DST

Location as of 8/16/08 approx 8 AM DST

Location as of 8/-4/08 approx. 3 PM DST

9:30AM up anchor, 2800 rpm 4.8kts no wind.

1Pmish anchor down in Isla Linton Anchorage.

OK, not much of a log, so I feel in the gaps. After leaving Portobello there was very light winds at best, I was able to fill the Genoa only barely as I motored sailed half of the way, but basically I was motoring the whole way. About 2 miles outside of the anchorage as I began to make my approach I had a fish on the hand line! Turns out it was some kind of a mackerel, totally guessing it was about 3 ft’ long, and around 10lbs, just perfect! The fish book didn’t have an exact picture but it had a very similar fish labeled as the ‘tuna-mackerel’ family. I didn’t have time to deal with the fish as I was approaching a reef at the entrance of the harbor, so I just tied the gaff off to the side of the boat, squirted some alcohol into his mouth to calm him down quickly and then continued in to anchor. Almost as soon I had had the hook down Mike and Sue anchored next to me on Infini stopped by to say hi. I had seen them leaving Portobello shortly after I arrived but didn’t have a chance to chat with them. Mike mentioned that he wanted to try some fishing since there are fish schooling and jumping all over the anchorage. I told them I had enough for all of us and pulled up the gaff to show the fish, they actually got excited and offered to cook dinner after I filleted the fish. Mike came back while I was still busy cutting out four very nice fillets and we poured some soy sauce on the fish (as fresh as you can possibly get it) and enjoyed some VERY good sashimi! For dinner they grilled some, fried some, and rolled up some sushi, for a very satisfying dinner aboard Infini. Cuba Libres filled the rest of the evening and day two here consisted of snorkeling around the island with my dinghy tethered to me so I didn’t get run over by Jet skis that were flying back and forth through the anchorage, luckily that only goes on during the weekend. The snorkeling wasn’t bad with several tropical fish (small ones mostly) and some interesting coral. So far I’ve been here five days and the additional highlights were an inexpensive ($5) dinner at a small restaurant on the beach in the cove here. I also got to know the monkeys on Isla Linton while I was scavenging for coconuts. The guide book says that they appear friendly and will sit in your lap and eat out of your hand until you try to leave the island at which point they might become aggressive. I had one of the monkeys follow me to the dinghy dock, where I went in my bag, and just happened to have an apple that I left in the middle of the pier and sat near the dinghy so I could make a quick escape. The monkey followed me to pick up the apple and stared at my making strange monkey noised while she ate it slowly, skipping the seeds and some of the peel. Then she kept sliding towards me on the pier. Funny, she didn’t stand up and walk over, but sort of slid her butt over a foot or so at a time until she was within lunging distance of me. That’s when I moved into the dinghy and held onto the pier so I could make a quick getaway if I needed to. She just sat there right in my face staring at me only a few feet a way asking me for more food. Then her boyfriend showed up and walked out the pier on two feet like a human with his huge tail curled up even over his head. He hugged her (weird) and then ate the rest of the apple and then showed me his intimidating teeth so I shoved off the pier but just sat there watching them for another 15 minutes before heading back to the boat. If I see them again I’ll get some pictures but now I’m even more nervous since another cruiser here said that there had been several recent ‘attacks’ and that the monkeys even like to jump in your dinghy while your on the island presumably so you can’t leave. Apparently they have been fed enough to have a strong association between people and food / feeding! Two more adventures, one was a dinghy ride to Panamarina through a mangrove forest, in a channel only a few feet deep and too narrow to even row without your oars hitting the mangrove on the sides of the trail. The mangrove was so thick it even forms a canopy over the water so you completely surrounded, was kind of eerie as well hearing the howler monkeys in the jungle as I paddled through, I assume the monkeys on Isla linton I fed earlier were not howler monkeys but I really don’t know. After cutting through the mangrove you pop out at another cover where Panamarina has moorings for sailboats. They also have a very small office and restaurant where you can access the internet for $2.00 and hour (that’s where I sent this and the last update). The last little adventure here was the 30 minute dinghy ride to Isla Grande next door. A big tourist destination in Panama, but not much there really, at least a dozen beech bars but only a few had any appeal to me. The best part was that you can walk half way around the island on a path, and then you can continue if your willing to climb rocks witch I did until I got to a very steep rock wall that I figured I could save for another day. On the walk back I stopped at a tiki-bar restaurant on the beach (no shirt or shoes required here, its right on the sand 5 ft’ from the water) so I indulged in three $1.00 beers (I love that part of Panama) to re-hydrate myself before coming back to the boat last night. I think I’ll be here one or two more days and then maybe one day anchored off of Isla Grande to check out the nightlife, if not I’ll head off non-stop to the San Blas Islands. So if there are no more updates other than the spot-checks it just means that there is no internet! Hope everyone is doing well. –Kirk

10:30 AM Diesel full (35 gallons) water full (60 Gallons) engine idle for 30 minute while pulling up anchor
11AM underway leaving Colon Panama motoring 5.5kts to breakwater.
12:00 Sailing Genoa only 4.5kts
14:00 becalmed, motoring 4kts at 2200 RPM
14:30 motor off, sailing again Genoa only 3.5kts.
15:00 2.5kts, making noodles, approaching Portobello
16:30 Anchor down Portobello.

I haven’t been doing a good job of keeping a log and have never posted it so I’ll give it a shot and try to stick with it for a while. Left Colon this morning fully provisioned food, water, and fuel. The water shouldn’t matter since it has been raining like crazy for the last month. I haven’t tried the water collection system that James and I installed yet but I have a feeling I will be in a day or two if I want to keep my solar-shower (bag of water with a nozzle that I hang on the mast to shower) going daily.

Was a rather nice and uneventful sail I think it was only about 15 or 20 miles total. First thing I noticed when I got in here is man this place is quiet compared to the industrial hum of colon where I was trapped (sorta) for about three and a half months. There is the occasional bus or car, a few roosters, and plenty of dogs, oh yeah, I even heard howler monkeys before going to bed. I’ll add some Portobello photos with this blog hopefully so you can see what I mean. I haven’t even put the dinghy back in the water and won’t go ashore till tomorrow since it is now 6:15, I’m showered, beered, and going to read a bit.

Portobello, word has it that some people rave about this very quaint little town only about 15 miles east of Colon others have reported it as a decent anchorage but a bore. Personally I don’t think it has much to offer beyond a day trip or an overnight stop. A friend of mine explored the town and said it’s a good HALF a day trip, that’s literally all it takes to see the entire town. You can basically walk every street in 30 minutes. According to my Panama Cruising Guide (Eric Bauhaus), The bay of Portobello was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502 during his fourth major trip. The city of “San Felipe de Portobello” was officially founded in 1597. Between 1574 and 1702 Forty-five fleets of Galleons were sent forth, none of which carried less than thirty million Pesos of riches from South and Central American to the Spanish empire. The ruins of the fortification are obvious and were worth the time to briefly explore. The funniest part of it is that the town is built right up to and probably ON the ruins themselves! Houses (nearly shacks) are back to back with the walls of the old Spanish forts, still containing the cannons as you can see in the pictures I took. In fact the local kids pretty much use the forts as their play ground and you can find soccer goals set up right next to 400 year old cannons right inside the old fortification, pretty cool.

I took a little stroll through the town, checked out the forts and the church, then bought a loaf of bread, a few cookies and a pastry for breakfast totaling $1.90. ( I try to by a beer at every port even if I don’t buy a meal) On the way back to the dinghy dock I stopped at a restaurant that was completely surrounded by ruins, cannons, etc, and to my surprise found the first American beer offered since I’ve been in Panama, not that I’ve really been looking the local brews are just fine. So I went for a Budweiser expecting to pay a premium for the “import” beer, and when I asked how much, they said Seventy-five cents. So I drank it and had one more :-). After rowing back to the boat I decided to keep rowing (didn’t feel like digging out the outboard engine and strapping it on in this tiney port). I found a little cove behind the port that led to a few small mangrove lined rivers, several locals in their dugout canoes were paddeling around, some trolling, some throw-netting, and some jigging lines over the side pulling out several small fish. I also checked out a sunken ship (from the surface) and the listing grounded aparantly abandoned sailboat in the pictures. By the time I got back to Salsa after an hour or two of rowing I was nearly tired, made dinner of fried potatoes, onions, garlic, and went to bed. The next morning I would sail to Isla Linton, only about another 15 miles east again, making my way to San Blas and eventually Cartagena at a very nice liesurly pace.

OK, you may have to wait on the pictures, currently in a small restaraunt in the jungle with a sketchy satalite connection! (Near Isla linton, dinghy ride through mangroves to “panamarina”) but still staying on the boat in Isla Linton.

Current plans are to leave Colon Panama sometime this week and head towards the San Blas Islands. I’ve heard a lot of nice things about that area, blue water, lots of small islands, palm trees, your typical paradise. Then after maybe a few weeks there I will head to Cartagena Columbia for maybe a few months. Again, I’ve been hearing a lot of wonderful things about the town, sounds safe, not to expensive, and plenty to do. Next stop will be back to Colon Panama to transit the canal maybe around October or November unless I fall in love with Columbia and decide to spend the entire hurricane season there. Assuming I am back here and through the Canal into the Pacific still during hurricane / typhoon season with time to kill before heading off into the Pacific Ill head south to Ecuador for the remaining time, can you believe that they sell fuel there for only $1.05 a gallon !?!?! I’m told that there is low to no risk of serious storms from Ecuador to Galapagos and even to the Marquises which will allow me to get a nice jump on next years Pacific crossing season and maximize my time in the South Pacific islands as I head to most likely Australia. Getting fed up with the town here (Colon) and very ready for a change of scenery.

Currently I have one friend here in Panama that will join me for a day or two and jump off at a nearby port (Portobello) in Panama before I head to the San Blas Islands Solo, and presumably solo onto to Cartagena Columbia where I expect some friends to join me. Since I’ll likely be there for a few months if anyone else has some free time around August, September and maybe even November let me know since I’ll likely just be ‘hanging out’ I think airfare here is around $500 from the states. Some friends here gave me a spear gun so in addition to fishing I plan to try some free-diving spear-fishing that should at least prove interesting. Well that’s about it for now. I’ll be sending GPS-points / Google-Earth links to the website starting soon to keep everyone aware of my position once I leave here. Hope everyone is doing well and hope to update you from a new position soon!! -

Kirk

Monday June 16 th.
OK, I re-did the calculations, and since it is just too much of a pain to fix my motor I’m going to stay here in Colon Panama for a few years. Now don’t go criticizing me for making this decision, it has several merits. I figure that I’ll just stay here and then in three years I’ll come home and tell everyone that I sailed around the world. Here is the big bonus, I just did all the calculations. If I stay here in Colon, rather than sailing I should have enough money to stay drunk constantly, plus smoke all the pot I want and have an unlimited supply of cocaine (and most other illicit drugs), and now for the kicker, a new whore every night. Now what more could you ask for?? Now SERIOUSLY, here is what’s going on…

Let me recap for a moment and forgive me for the details but a few people have asked. I show up in Panama around April 2nd, and get sentenced to nearly a TWO-month delay to transit the canal. No big deal, I take it in stride, get some work done, meet a lot of nice locals and party with the cruisers plenty, well lets just say I wasn’t really getting bored. Not to mention FIVE times I have been through the canal on other boats as a line handler. Ok, so they say I don’t have to wait the two months, a spot comes open after only 6 weeks so I go for it. Then just a few days before the transit I’m sailing back from a river just a few miles from the canal here with Michael Lee, and the motor dies. There was no fixing it. Luckily I have amazing sailing skills and sailed back to anchorage here in Colon (now for the second time). With some help from some amazing friends (Peter and Kay from Milfuers Hobart) I probably spelled that wrong, anyway, Peter from Australia (Tasmania actually) by the way Tasmanians are all crazy… As I was saying. Peter helps me trouble shoot the motor down to the Fuel Injection Pump and then encourages me to pull it off of the motor myself. I did, it was easy, it had two (of three) broken springs. Apparently only a fuel injection specialist can fix this type of problem so I take the pump to Rivas E Picans in Panama city to get it fixed. At first they tell me $500 to get new springs sent in from the U.S. and that it will take a week or two. Well at that point my (first) transit date was only a few days away so I postponed it and the shop came up with this great solution. They had a few used springs around the shop and for the amazing price of only $85 they replace the two broken springs. The pump worked great, UNTIL it was time to transit. I had line handlers on the boat, the canal advisor on the boat, my Dad was here to go through, water and fuel topped off, lots of food and booze and then… THE MOTOR DOESN’T START, it was the fuel injector pump again!!!!

I get an $840 fee ICKKK from the canal, that’s right, they charge you more NOT to transit than for the actual transit!! But that’s all in the past. I bring the part back to the shop, continue to have a good time, and the part gets fixed. Turns out this time it was the fuel-throttle control and that the pump was stuck in a lower than idle setting. They fix it, another $85, no big deal, the engine runs GREAT again. Only sad part is that it delays me yet another two weeks to get through the canal, but once again I take it in stride. I’m doing the math, and it looks like I’ll need about 3 months of solid sailing to cross the pacific to Australia. I would have about 5 and a half months before cyclone season, so that leaves 2.5 months to see the entire South Pacific, I figure I’ll go for it. THEN, once again I have my line handlers on board, motor running, advisor is on his way, the motor dies. It was the third spring, the one that wasn’t replaced before. That brings us to now. Waiting for parts for the motor.

I finally found a reasonably priced fuel pump so I think I’ll buy it and make the old one a spare, plus all that cranking of the motor has got my starter sounding a bit uh… slow, so I’m ordering one of those as well. The extra parts and the second fee from the canal, has got me almost $3000 over budget, good thing James (atomvoyages.com) talked me out of the Mediterranean a long time ago. So what now, I’m pretty sure it’s too late to pass the entire Pacific so that leaves me with a few options. Haul ass to Australia and skip half of the South Pacific. OR fine some hurricane hole in the South Pacific islands and either wait there or fly home to work. Lastly, wait here in South America until the cyclone season is over and then head across and maximize my time in the islands. At this point I’m really not sure what I’m doing and I’m surely open for suggestions. I have gotten several emails asking me what’s going on so hopefully this answers most of the questions. I admit I have left out a lot of the juicy details of partying in Panama city after the transits, late nights on other boats in Colon, and blah blah blah, but that will just have to wait till later! Hope everyone is doing well and when I know what I’m up to, so will you ! –Kirk

Got here ok after my 11 day solo passage. Only have a minute to write and I couldn´t possibly tell all write now so I´ll write more very soon, including all of the crazy details from Storms, and calms, to a close call with a freighter, to catching sea monsters, almost loosing my finger, sleepless day and nights then days of rest and reading, approaching and Panama and anchoring engineless, customs telling me I had to go back to Bahamas for Zarpe and much more! i pretty much got it all!! But I´m here in Panama and OK And I´ll update very soon by email or check my website sailingsalsa.com.

Wanted to let everyone - anyone know that I am STUCK here for almsot 6 weeks and will likely not transit until May 18th or so. That leaves lots of time to explore Panama and cruise the islands and reefs on the coast. So if anyone has any serious interest email me asap and I´ll log on soon, would be nice to have some company, someone to fetch me my beers at least . Looks like RT from WAS to Panama is around $500, but I didnt look hard.

Love all! -Kirk

Here are the basics when it comes to Entering Panama and transiting the Canal. You should budget about $1000 to cover all the fees and expenses, plus of course your food, fuel, marina fees if you don’t want to anchor, etc. It seems that if you are willing to do all the running around and fill out all of the forms on your own, and put up a $800 or so refundable deposit you might get that $1000 down to about $700 or so. Best I can tell there are three options when it comes to preparing to transit the canal. The easiest, smoothest, most expensive way is to hire an agent for around $250 to $500 depending on what agent you get and if they will negotiate. The agent fee is in addition to the transit canal transit fees. Don’t quote me on these numbers but I seem to recall that the Canal fee itself is only $500, but then you have to spend another $100 fee to get ‘measured’ for the canal. The $500 goes up quite a bit if your boats actual length is more than 50 feet. Then there is this “buffer fee” or deposit that most agents can arrange to pay for you, or if you go it alone you have to pay with a credit card or cash that you can get back after the transit. It is to cover any fees you incur if you have problems (engine, crew, etc) during your transit. Then you have to have four lines, I think 150’ each and 3 / 4 inch thick, some people have a few lines on board that meet those specks but usually just rent them anyway for $15 each or $60 for the set of four. Then you have to have around 10 old tires unless you happen to have a zillion huge fenders on board. I think the tires are around $3 each, and then another dollar or two get rid of them on the other side if you can’t find someone who needs them. I ended up paying $600 for the canal fees, plus $350 to the agent, but that covered my lines and tires and a few other fees so I figure Stanley the agent profited about $250 or $300 from me.
The other option (and I think the best one) is to go into the Marina (Panama Canal Yacht Club) and tell them you need to transit the canal. They will probably put you in touch with Tito, he seems to work in the office and does ALMOST everything the agent does for you but for about a tenth of the price ($35-$50). The biggest difference is that you will have to go with him to fill out the forms but he assists you not being a licensed agent he cant exactly do it for you. You will also have to pay your $800 buffer yourself. Basically this will save you several hundred dollars and seems like the obvious way to go unless you are in a huge hurry, hate paperwork, or don’t want to spend half a day running around the deadly (not exaggerating) city of Colon filling out forms.
The last and cheapest option is to do it all on your own. When you check in with immigration at the Yacht Club you can get a vague list of procedures to transit the canal. Find all of the offices, fill out the forms on your own (you almost need to speak Spanish to do this) and deal with the various offices and port captain on your own. In my opinion you would be an idiot to go that route rather than paying Tito at the marina or a local experienced, knowledgeable English-speaking taxi driver to help you.

Plus you have to have four line handlers on your boat during the transit, in addition to the captain, and an advisor / pilot. So this means you will have six people on the boat total, that you will have to provide three meals and snacks and drinks for, plus you will have to sleep five for one night. Generally the advisor boards you boat around 6pm on the night of the transit, you go through the first three locks (Gatun Locks) on the Atlantic side, this gets you into lake Gatun around 11PM where the advisor disembarks and you spend the night. Then around 8am the next morning you motor about 21 miles through like Gatun to the next two sets of locks (three more total) that drop you back down to sea level and into the Pacific, usually around 2PM or so depending on your boat speed and lock availability. They normally send three yachts at a time that raft together while they transit the locks, this makes the line handling easier, the center (and largest) boat usually is the ‘motor’ and steering, while the two smaller boats on the side handle two of the lock-lines each. Basically just taking up slack as you rise up through the locks, and then on the opposite side paying out line as you descend through the locks. Its pretty simple, and most cruisers help each other get through the canal by line-handling for each other. It costs less than $10 for Bus and taxi fairs (about 2.5 hours total) to get from Colon to Panama city, and the transiting yacht covers the food and drinks for their line handlers. A few people who failed to find volunteers to handle the lines hire some Panamanian ‘pros’ for about $100 each. They generally know what they are doing and make the locking an even smoother process, but some people complained that they were a bit crude and disrespectful. Some people even took on back-packers as line handlers which went OK since you only really use two line handlers and you have to have four on board, just be sure you have at least two people that can work and ease a cleat hitch, tie a bowline, etc.
I could write a lot more about the Canal transit but I suppose that’s enough, feel free to email me if you have any questions or even call if its before June 12 th or so at which point I will no longer have a cell phone since I’ll be crossing the Pacific (hopefully).

I guess this is the first real update covering my stay here in Colon. My first impression of Panama was more or less dismal. Overall the 11 day passage here was OK, asides from a few minor mishaps I already covered. The last two days as I approached Colon Panama the freighter traffic really picked up putting a damper on the sleeping, but I’m sure I still had some reserve energy as I made the final approach to the harbor. The wind was still blowing nicely from the stern and I’m sure I didn’t need my motor running however considering how busy the harbor was I thought it might be nice to have a little extra maneuverability, so I started to fire up the diesel. It started ok, but after just about a minute the temperature / oil pressure alarm came on… sort of. The alarm just whined a bit like it was halfway on, plenty loud enough to make me nervous. I decided to tack back offshore through a maze of anchored freighters waiting to enter the harbor. This gave me time to check the oil, coolant, etc. I couldn’t find anything wrong but went I went to start it again the alarm was sort of on again, so I opted to leave the motor off and just sail into the anchorage rather than risk damaging something. That went smoothly, I found a nice wide open spot to drop the hook at the outside edge of the anchorage and luckily the anchor set on the first try. Then again the 35LB delta has pretty much always set on the first try in all condition. I love that anchor (its connected to Salsa with 150ft of 5/16″ High-Test chain then another 150’ of nylon rode) this allows me to get a 5:1 ratio / scope even in 50’ of water. In fact the anchor hasn’t even failed to set and hold with only a 3:1 scope and all chain rode.

Arriving in Puerto Cristobol / Colon Panama was a weird feeling. I remember noticing the industrial hum coming from the freighters and equipment on the piers. I also noticed an eerie smog and smell that just stifles the entire area. I did know at least one other boat in the anchorage from chatting on the SSB radio during the passage so I gave them a call and found out they were only a few boats over from where I was. I kind of wanted to get off of the boat and check out the marina and bar, have a beer, and just unwind however John suggested that I get a little rest first so for some reason I listened and laid down for a little bit to take a nap. About 18 hours later I woke up filling a little better but still in the same smelly, noisy, hazy anchorage. I launched the inflatable dinghy and went over to visit with John and Mat. After chatting with him briefly I realized that I needed to start working on immigration, and the procedure for transiting the canal. That’s when I ran into my first problem. I think I covered it earlier but basically when I left the Bahamas I failed to check out with customs. Panama (and most anywhere else I suspect) has serious problems with boats showing up without a clearance / zarpe from the last country. Then I made another stupid mistake, after being told that the only way I would be able to check into the country was with the assistance of an agent, I hired Stanley at a slightly negotiated rate.

I must have been in Georgetown just about a week before a weather window for the Windward Passage to Panama that I couldn’t refuse was forecasted. It was going to be an 1100 mile cruise to Panama, by far my longest non-stop solo passage, with virtually no possible stops or anchorages after the first 350 miles or four days. So the route was to leave via the southwestern cut out of Elizabeth harbor, it was a few extra miles but I had already ran the cut once and didn’t feel like stressing my self through a new one. The cut went smooth, in fact another vessel hailed me just to chat on the radio, they assumed I was heading north to Nassau like everyone else that day and thought we might buddy boat or something up the Exuma sound until I informed then I was heading in the opposite direction, however I also told them I would follow them out the cut since I didn’t have a chart plotter and they said fine. Then I watched them head off toward very shallow water (at least it wasn’t a reef) and I decided to follow the same course I took last time, luckily, as I watched them come to a halt as they bumped bottom. It was mostly just sand so it looked like they just powered through the shoal and carried on ok, I stayed way off in only slightly deeper water.

After the cut I was pleased to be able to sail close hauled, more or less a rum line for the north end of Long Island. Then next few hours were uneventful, the North swell they had been warning us about for the last several days was lingering but only a few feet and didn’t really slow me down or make the sail uncomfortable. Once I rounded Long Island? I was even happier to be heading more in the direction of Panama even though a wind shift forced me to make one or two short tacks off shore to keep my sea room, something I’m really learning to value especially if you want to get any rest. The next stop I was considering was the Acklins, one of the last few Bahamian Islands I would pass heading south. I opted to press on to the Windward Passage since I wasn’t quite completely exhausted yet and still had all of my fuel. Plus the two anchorages in the Acklins either involved a very tricky narrow cut between reefs or, an easy entrance but without 360′ protection. Since I was once again sailing in front of a front, I decided to press on, and glad I did since the radio indicated that that had winds well over 40kts North East of me. I was already at least one, maybe two days ahead of the front so even at 5kts I had a reasonable chance to say ahead and possibly avoid the worst of it if I didn’t stop. Things went more or less smooth until I rounded the North Eastern side of the Acklins. The wind got light and variable so I was constantly tacking, into what seemed like a knot or two of current and basically made lousy headway in addition to being tired. I remember looking at my tacks on the GPS thinking wow it looks like I’m just sailing back and fourth you would never guess I was trying to head south. Then for all my diligent sailing throughout the day I was rewarding at night with calms and squalls, not quite as dramatic as the ones I would encounter in the next few days but annoying none the less, It seemed that as each day went on I just got more and more tired not getting any decent rest, and I knew that this would persist till I was through the windward passage and in open ocean, free from hazards like reefs, islands, coastal traffic, etc.

It was somewhere North of the Windward passage when I had my closest call with another vessel that I can recall. I remember spotting this medium size freighter several miles off (still very big) and he appeared to be passing in front of me. About the same time a nice little storm popped up forcing me to reef the main, and continually adjust my course, plus the rain I discovered makes it nearly impossible to make out targets on the Radar. By the time I had my boat under control I realized that the freighter was on a collision course, no not one of those “he’s going to get really close” courses, I mean oh *!$# he’s heading right for me and very fast. I tried the radio over and over but no response, so I started the engine, I hadn’t even had the wind vane steering since I was just changing my course from the wind shifts in the storm, I wanted to run below and grab the spotlight (that from then on stayed in the cockpit at night easily at reach). So when one of the monster ships gets so close that you have to look UP at it, you better get the hell out of the way, I could reach the ignition while still steering by hand, so I fired the motor, tacked the boat, and I honestly think I had well under a minute to do it or I would have been little bits of pieces in his wake. In his defense I later realized that the radio wasn’t working so he couldn’t have heard me, and I should have (even though I shouldn’t have had to) altered my course earlier, only I was preoccupied with little storm that popped up. On the up side, you can be sure I kept a better watch, and stayed WAY clear of all traffic from then on.

I didn’t see a lot of traffic after that anyway until I was almost clear of the Windward Passage, near the South west tip of Haiti? Again, at night, and off course, again the wind had picked up from a near calm (this really seems to the routine until I got into the trade winds). So this small commercial looking vessel, maybe 100′ long, was actually following me. I see him on radar way off after the alarm alerted me, and basically just kept an eye on him as usual until I’m clear what his course is. Then I catch him in the Binoculars, both his red and green lights, meaning that he his heading right for me, plus I realized that the wind change had me on a course heading toward Haiti, not a problem since it was still 5 miles off but I realized that any military or coast guard might wonder where I was heading in the middle of the night just a few miles off of Haiti. Once again I alter my course, more than I had to, 180′ to get out of the way of this vessel still almost a mile off, and then I got nervous. He altered his course too! I turn and I see his red and green lights again! Again, I tired the broken radio with no luck (go figure). Plus it was really blowing, 25kts or more I had just put in the reef, finally when this guy got really close, within a quarter mile I started putting my spotlight on him, then on my sails, and after less than a minute of that, he just turned away. Funny thing was at this point he turned the same direction that I wanted to go, so now I was nervously following him, until he eventually disappeared into the night, he was going a lot faster than me. That was the end of the drama for several days. I had still had storms at night for the next day or two one even hit hard and fast, picked up some sizeable waves, and then went dead calm, I felt like I was in a washing machine. After two, not one but two big waves came over my stern and flooded the cockpit I decided to finally start the motor and get moving, I think that was the first time I ever sat in seas like that with absolutely no wind at all. Motoring on improved the motion of the boat, and it really wasn’t long before a steady breeze set back in. In fact I think that last storm was the front since the very steady NE winds that they were promising finally filled in and stayed steady for days. I actually read THREE books, caught up on all my sleep and with the exception of a strange injury to my finger that cost me the finger nail, it was a perfect sail.

Its funny how right now as I write, I vividly remember the close calls, the injury, the storms, etc, when there was a LOT more times where it was just smooooth sailing, stunning blue water, flying fish everywhere, just sitting back in the cockpit (when it was dry) sucking on a beer reading a book or napping, totally relaxed. I mention this because after I just reread the last few paragraphs it probably looks like the passage from hell, but in all honesty it just wasn’t. It had its share of excitement, and the fatigue from the first several days probably compounded everything, in reality there were no major issues with the boat or me, no navigation problems, etc, I don’t think I have any right to complain.

So something like days 5 through 9 were perfect sailing. Wind aft of the beam, following seas, almost never touched the sails or the rudder, some nights with the radar alarm and gps alarm set I would get several hours of rest in one shot, I was feeling good. I’m not sure what happened to my finger. I’m pretty sure I slammed it in something like a locker door or something, at the time I was half asleep, and just went back to bed. By morning it was throbbing in a bad way, turning blue, and getting bigger. I was actually a few days closer to Jamaica than Panama so the thought of turning back did cross my mind for a second, but the wind and sailing was too good, so I just laid in my bunk with the hand elevated and kept ice on it. I remembered a similar injury that the doctor drained by putting a small hole through my fingernail, but I was afraid to put any holes in myself and risk infection being several days from land. Finally about 2 days out from Panama it wasn’t hurting so much and I only had to peel up a little dead skin to drain out the… stuff. That made it feel even better. Three days or so after arriving in Panama the entire nail came off (now that was a little messy) I took a picture so you can see how pretty it was.

Back to sailing, everything was going very smooth up until the last night or two. Really only two minor things kept it from being as perfect as before. First off the wind had backed and was right on my stern, so I was sailing wing on wing, with the main on one side and the jib poled out the other side. I wont get into all the details but this sail configuration requires about 6 different lines and sheets (down hauls, preventers, etc) all set up to keep the boom and pole from banging around as the boat really rolls around down the waves, it also doesn’t make the wind vane too happy so it kind weaves back and forth between about 30 degrees like a drunk helmsman, only lightly jibing a few times a day so I suppose it was acceptable. The other thing that changed close to Panama was a LOT of traffic, I started to see boats on the radar constantly. Almost all of them gave me plenty of room, but a few came within a 1/2 mile or so, its hard to imagine how close that is until you see them, but its a just a tad too close for comfort, especially after my close call only a week or so back off of Haiti. I think that just about covers the trip to Panama except for the part where my motor was acting up (and still is) forcing me to sail through the port into the anchorage. Ill try to write more soon about my adventures in Colon, Panama, and cruising a local river with Michael Lee.

Oh, one quick up to date update…  My transit date is now delayed as I wait for a fuel injection pump that should be here Monday or Tuesday so hopefully I should be able to transit next week, more on that later. PLUS a few updates and several photos have been added to sailingsalsa.com. Gotta run, helping more friends through the canal tonight.  -Kirk

Just wanted to let every one know that the date has changed to Next Thursday, May 8th for the transit! So Mike and I will transit today on another boat as line handlers, and then possibly do a little cruising around on the Carib side, then Mike flies out on the 7th and I transit on the 8th! Been hanging out a lot in Colon and checked out Panama city yesterday, otherwise nothing too exciting to report other than the recent website update, and more updates are being added very soon. Hope all is well with everybody, I´m off to get a $1 beer from the marina bar :-). -Kirk

Wednesday April 9th 2008. Cristobal Harbor, Colon Panama, Panama Yacht club.

Ok, well overdue for a real update, so I suppose I start where I left off in the Exuma sound on March 16th. Didn’t take long for a little breeze to set it, and I was back under sail at 4+ knots, I suppose that’s the advantage of a small boat, some of the cruisers on 45′ steal boats that are happy doing 7.5kts in 25kts of wind tell me that below 10kts of wind they are nearly stuck to the water with no way at all. So the breeze filled in, and was eventually steady enough for me to take a few 10 minute power naps, with only a few boats within sight to keep an eye on and land a few miles off there were not too many hazards. I arrived at the entrance to Elizabeth harbor (Georgetown Exumas Bahamas) a few hours before dawn, and the front had caught up to me so the wind was 15 to 20 kts and building. This left me a little troubled since the entrance to the harbor involves a narrow cut with reefs on two sides and it is highly recommended to enter with good visibility (to avoid the reef) and in settled weather (to avoid breaking waves near the reefs). Either way the sun was not up yet so I had to tack away to kill time and at the same time the wind was picking up creating a slight swell on the reef. This same wind eventually created huge 15ft swells in the atlantic and parts of the Caribbean but that was a few days after I was through the cut and safely anchored in Georgetown. So the cut through the reef seemed like it would be manageable around 9AMish and I made my approach, watching the handheld GPS very closely since I don’t have a proper chart plotter. I have to admit I was pretty intimidated considering the guide books kept going on about how boats had been lost here and how so many people dread this little cut from the Exuma Sound into Elizabeth harbour, not to mention by now the winds were strong enough to push me along at 4kts with no jib and a second reef in the main. I started the motor incase I needed help manuvering but turned out I Didn’t need it and never even put it into gear, everything went as smooth as it possibly could. Then I entered the field of Yachts, Well over 100, quite possibly 200+. I began trying to Spot Captain Kal on Serenity since I knew she would be there and ironically, I think she spotted me first! As I was halfway through the anchorage she was waving me down from her boat like she somehow knew I would be arriving even though I didn’t radio ahead since I wanted to surprise her. I squeezed between her and a few other boats and by the time I had the anchor down she was aboard and we cracked a few beers open as seems to be the tradtion after all my passages (that is assuming that I have beers left upon arrival :-).