PANAMA CITY- Sunday 25 to Wednesday 28 January

I was not sorry to leave Lima in the end. There are only so many churches to see and museums to visit. The old part of Lima is interesting and historical; the newer part, which is Miraflores, has everything one would expect in a modern western city - Macdonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, KFC ....I did have fun finding my way around on the buses which are fast, chaotic and cheap. OH&S would have a field day. Mostly they seem to be Toyota minibuses, in some cases severly dilapidated, and they run up and down all the main routes. Each has a driver who is skilled at nipping in and out of small spaces, and a conductor - they all have a sing-song cry which gradually becomes intelligible the longer you listen to the same conductor - which on the hour journey from the Miraflores coast to the centre of the old town is long enough to hear that Wilson is pronounce like Weesow.
The flight up to Panama took us over the Andes again - some covered in snow. There is no road link between Panama and Columbia - I do not know if this is political, financial or geographical. The flight was uneventful and the views from the window were impressive.
I took a smart, airconditioned shared minibus into the city - Tocumen International Airport in Panama is 35km out of the city. The hostel I had booked from Lima - Hospedaje Casco Viejo - was not good despite the Lonely Planet guide recommendation. I found Luna's Castle nearby - a funky backpackers run by americans which was excellent. So after one night with the bed bugs at the Hospedaje I moved. For the next two days I wandered around the old town called variously Casco Viejo, Casco Antiguo and San Felipe.
This area is a mixture of crumbling ruins, skeletal houses, beautifully restored buildings, museums, the Cathedral, National Theatre and the Presidential Palace. On arrival I thought I had wandered into a ruin .... well a lot of it is, but later realised that this is a UNESCO World Heritage Area (so restoration only can be done) and restoration is happening slowly. You'll find some photos here http://picasaweb.google.com/Stephen.Couling/PanamaCity#
Luna's Castle was an excellent place to stay - lots of backpackers to talk to. On the Tuesday I went out with a couple to Cerro Ancon - the hill behind Panama City flying the national flag. From here are excellent views across the city and up to Miraflores Locks in the Panama Canal.
On Wednesday I had breakfast with David Hetherington and his daughter Sarah. David owns the yacht NEREID on which I will be crossing the Pacific. Sarah had just arrived from Europe. Together we caught a bus from Panama to Colon which was 2 hours on a crowded airconditioned bus. Not much to see as the curtains were mostly pulled against the hot sun. A fairly ordinary thriller was showing on the bus TV dubbed in Spanish. Surprising how much can be understood ! It was not a good movie.
And then we arrived in Colon. Lonely Planet : "The mere mention of Colon sends shivers down the spines of hardened travellers and Panamanians alike ...." - not wrong. It is a hole, seriously, a filthy, run down, miserable place and so nad that we were told NOT to walk about by the LOCALS ! NEREID was moored at the Panama Yacht club which is a safe area. I have never been anywhere before where I could not walk safely outside in the daylight. Still the yacht club had simple but pleasant facilities - a bar and nice restaurant.
To go down the Panama Canal all boats and ships have to register and wait for a time to proceed. Small craft normally go in tandem with a large ship. After some delay we were given a slot for Saturday night - not so bad for Sarah and I who had just arrived (we had 3 days in Colon) - the others had been there since Sunday so were itching to get away from Colon. Fellow crew members who had come over from St Maartens were : Dirk Sweiringa (David's brother-in-law), Michael Johnston (school friend of Dirk) and Andrew Smith (friend of Dirk). So now we were six.
We slipped our mooring at 4.30pm on Saturday 31 January and motored out into the bay to anchor and wait for the pilot who arrived about 6.30. We then motored into the Canal channel to join the other two yachts who would be rafted up with us to go through the locks. ASPHALT VICTORY was our tanker and she steamed by ahead of us.
On the Atlantic/Carribean side of the Canal are the Gatun Locks, a set of 3 chambers which raise ships 26 metres into Gatun Lake. For information about the Canal try this site : (wikipedia). It took about 3 hours to go through all three chambers. They are huge, but fill up very quickly. Big ships are attached to on either side of the docks which keep the ships in the centre of the lock chambers. The ships power themselves through the locks.
We were on the starboard side of a 60ft american yacht PELICAN EXPRESS and on her port side was a french yacht MADRAGORE. We motored in behind ASPHALT VICTORy, the lock gates swung shut, water came swirling in beneath us and up we all went. These locks are huge .... the whole experience was really powerful and made more so happening at night.
Once through the three chambers we were released and motored round to a bouy on the east side of the Gatun Locks for the night. The morning revealed the vast expanse of Gatun Lake - created by damming the Rio Chagres to form a lake to carry vessels across the dividing range.
Our passage took us through the Banana Channel shortcut for small boats joining up with the Canal channel at Bohio Point. From then on it was straight motoring down to the Gaillard Cut. This is a piece of true canal which takes us from Gatun Lake to the Pedro Miguel Lock, going under the Puente Del Centenario, a wonderful new suspension bridge.
Pedro Miguel Lock is a single chamber that lowers vessels into Miraflores Lake. We did not have an accompanying tanker this time so rafted up just the three yachts and went through on our own. We continued into Miraflores Lake and across to the Miraflores Locks - two chambers which dropped us down into the Pacific side of the canal. On the east side of these locks is a Visitors Centre. I was quite glad not to have gone to this place whilst I was in Panama - going through the locks is more exciting that watching it from above. Just as impressive as a night crossing too.
So our passage through this extraordinary engineering feat took us nearly 24 hours with an overnight stop. It was a most wonderful experience and I am so glad to have done it. Pictures here http://picasaweb.google.com/Stephen.Couling/PanamaCanal#
From then on we were on our own again. We could not get into Balboa Yacht Club so spent a night at anchor off Isla Flamenco and went into the Marina the next day to say farewell to Dirk, Michael and Andrew. After a couple of days there to restock and arrange some repairs we left to sail down to the Islas Las Perlas, an archipelago of beautiful islands 35 miles south-west of Panama City. We are riding at anchor as I write this. The moon is nearly full, the night calm with a slight swell from the east. All day flights of pelicans glide past, frigate birds drift on the breeze and three vultures spiral on the updraft. It is very peaceful. The sun shines brightly (so I am turning dark brown rapidly), the water is clear and blue, the sand on the beaches is white ......
.... and the high tide mark littered with plastic rubbish.
All is not well in Paradise, but this will be the subject of another entry one day.
Life on NERIED is good. We had a fantastic sail yesterday in a NE 25-30knot wind on a course of 120 - perfect sailing, at times hitting 8.5knots - about hull speed. She sails well. I am looking forward to many more days at sea.