Panama Canal, January 2013

JANUARY 2012, PANAMA 

We made it, despite the feeling at times we wanted to get off the sleigh ride. Mind you, it was over Christmas, so Santa could have been a bit more gentle. We had to wait at Cape Verde for the mail that never came, and also for the trade winds which did. The dilemma is this: go when the trades are still to set in and put up with quite a bit of quiet wind and slow progress, or wait until they start and hope for a quicker run that is not too boisterous before they really establish themselves. We were forced to opt for the latter, but thought we were in before the trades really built up over the next couple of months. We looked at the weather daily and all looked OK. SO off we went. And after a few OK days we were hit with wind and waves more than hoped for. It turned out to be the windiest and bumpiest trip so far. And the most uncomfortable, especially in the Caribbean where the seas became high and confused.  Having finally tied up at the aptly names Shelter Bay we breathed a big sigh of relief. 

The blog editorial team did an excellent job with the material provided - so many days were too bumpy to stay glued to the seat to type. But we did have a respite of a couple of less boisterous days at Christmas which allowed us to have our special Christmas dinner.

There now follows a short lesson on weather!

We get the weather forecast over the SSB (single side band- High Frequency radio) which has a special modem attached to the computer. This modem allows for the exchange of text only e-mails and the reception of weather pictures called GRIBS. These gribs are a special binary format of weather data which are optimal for radio transmission. The pictures show the latitude and longitude you are interested in, the land if any, and the wind direction and strength by means of coloured arrows with different numbers of 'feathers'. Each ½ feather is 5 knots of wind, a whole feather 10. This is the mean wind speed and we find you can easily have gusts of 5-10 knots more. The colours become more violent the higher the wind, hence our comments to each other as to wanting to get in the yellow or blue instead of the red and purple. Most of the way in the Caribbean we were in the purple! The forecasts can be for up to a week, and spaced daily, 12 hrly, 6 hrly etc. So far on our journeys we have found them surprisingly accurate. So you now all know what we mean when we say "the gribs said"! I managed to get a transmission each day on the trip despite wishing I had Velcro on the seat, so we could keep up with family, notify the marina and our agent when we were arriving and get the weather. 

 A GRIB, Panama Canal

Try having a look at www.passageweather.com and playing with the site to see the weather anywhere in the world.

However - all was not that simple!!

We had a rather fraught time about 4 days out from Panama when the engine would not start. Now we needed to have the engine running once a day for battery charging, as we were using the heavy duty auto pilot due to the high sea state - Harriet the wind vane gave up on the job as the waves kept pushing the boat over and knocking her off course. This meant a big power consumption which was not compensated for entirely by the solar panels and wind generator. We had a family tragedy when Cyril the water generator had his turbine chomped off by some creature. If it was a shark, as has happened to others, he will have a tummy ache as the turbine is a largish heavy metal T that spins around in the water about 60ft behind the boat. Cyril proved to be a great asset, and the faster we went the more he produced and kept the volts up despite the fridge and the autopilot drain. A day of mourning was held when we noticed his rope was no longer turning.

So when the engine did not start it was very bad news. As would be the case it was the last thing at night as well! It was very dark and the conditions in the cockpit were horrendous, with the waves splashing over the seats and the area where the fault most probably was right at the back of the cockpit where it was wettest. Added to which the lurching and bouncing would not allow any work to be done anyway. Dave looked glum and despondent, and we had to leave things til morning and hope that we had enough battery capacity overnight. The morning was a bit better, not a lot, and still nothing could be done. So it was fridge off and hope the solar panel and wind generator would hold the fort. Later in the day there was a patch which allowed an inspection of the engine start panel, and after some cleaning and squirting with the magic WD-40 allowed a cough and a start of the engine. Relief - for a while. Dave then noted that the engine start battery was running down! So it was remember to isolate the engine battery after running. So we had a couple of OK engine runs til the night before we were due to arrive. Fail again! AAAArrrrghghghgh!!! So up at first light, thankfully the rolling waves were manageable and 2 hrs later we had an engine going. This is now high stress as we need the engine to enter the harbour and marina. So we left it running til we got in, waiting for it to stop at any minute. The parts we needed were waiting for us in Rachel's box of stuff she had sent for us - not a lot of help where we were though!

We arrived with a smile though, and the largest pile of wet and soggy clothes I have ever had after repeated cockpit drenching, and really wanting FOOD! 
First thing after tying up and doing the formalities was to go to the bar and have a looooonnnnngggggg drink of fizzy water and a big helping of wonderful French fries. Yummmmy! That was followed by nothing less than ice-cream and a big burp!

Then we found the laundry.

Then we found our bedding and looked forward to a lovely un-bumpy sleep.