Category Archives: Panama

Completing the Transit and the Scary Anchorage

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Continued from yesterday”¦ At 1345, when we pulled into the lock quay, we were told we were tying to a tug. We could see it up ahead, already tied up along the chamber wall in front of the gate. Its name is Atlas III and at the moment it was being used as a tourist tug that takes spectators up and down the Miraflores locks. Davidson told us that the tug is owned by the Canal Authority and is also used as an employee shuttle and to give orientation tours to the employees and their families.

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We didn’t get handed any lines. Instead, we pulled forward, lined ourselves up to the tug and tied up. The tie up was a little bit tricky. We had to readjust all our fenders to line up better with their fenders. We realized there was a vulnerable spot that couldn’t be properly fendered, so Eric had to move Kosmos a little bit so that our alignment against the tug changed in a way that the fenders would sit better. Here we all are frantically adjusting lines.

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After a little more minor fender adjusting, we finally felt comfortable that we were adequately protected and gave the all clear to Davidson. The tourists on board gawked at us as we Continue reading →

Panama Canal Transit – Day 2, Part 1

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Moises had told us the advisor would arrive between 0630 and 0700. Christi was up at 0500 with another round of severe tummy sickness. At 0600, everyone else got up. Interestingly, as soon as she was “on” again, her tummy sickness almost instantly went away. But, her allergies were unhappy today, too, so she was sneezy and sniffly all day.

As soon as everyone else was up, Christi made coffee, put out food for breakfast, and did dishes. Everyone helped with folding sheets and tidying up so Kosmos looked like a boat again instead of a dorm room. Outside, all was tranquil and placid in the early morning light. There were 11 big ships in the anchorage with us. The first shot is of our giant mooring and the second is of the surroundings.

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The advisor arrived close to 0800. Today’s advisor is named Davidson, and he is just as pleasant of a person as Moises.

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He got right to business with Continue reading →

The Panama Canal Transit – Day 1, Part 2

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Continued from yesterday”¦ Pacific finally got to the edge of the first lock at Gatun. It almost looks like a runway, with fingers of land on both sides of the waterway. The “runway” extends for quite a way before actually taking you into the chamber. We were going through the left set of locks. We waited a fair distance behind and watched while a little row boat with two guys in it rowed out from the finger. They were carrying the steel cables. They seemed to be helping to attach the cables to the front and back corners of the starboard side. Once the cables were attached, they repeated the process on the port side.

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Once all the cables were in place, the tug turned around, the rowboats rowed away, and the locomotives slowly started to move forward, going up the little hill to the higher lock wall, while Pacific moved forward at the identical speed. Pacific stopped in front of the lock gate. The bridge for car traffic is above this lock, so there were lots of cars zooming back and forth above Pacific while they were getting it situated. For some reason, it seemed almost surreal to see the cars over the canal. It was just as surreal as seeing the cruise ship sitting in the middle of the jungle.

At 1745, we moved forward to the edge of the finger, where Pacific had stopped to be prepared. Here is what the lock ahead looks like. Two guys stood on each side of us, each holding a line. The starboard forward threw first. Joel caught the hook and attached the line.

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Then aft starboard threw, and Tom caught and attached. The process was Continue reading →

The Panama Canal Transit – Day 1, Part 1

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Christi was up at 0500, feeling absolutely miserable with her stomach worse than ever. She was making even more frequent trips to the restroom and now had stomach pain. In the early hour before dawn, the Howler Monkeys were moaning and groaning like crazy. It is really an eerie sound to begin with, and even eerier to hear when you aren’t in the jungle. It made the new day feel almost ominous. They sounded so close. Were the monkeys in the marina or was the sound carrying from the jungle? When the sun came up, she saw the sky was overcast with big, dark, threatening clouds. There were intermittent short bursts of rain and it was really windy.

At 0800, everyone else was up and we got to work on getting the boat ready to go. Eric installed the new blower that Jeff had brought. It should have been a quick project, but unfortunately, the repair guy in Antigua had Continue reading →

Final Canal Preparations

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Today both of us woke up feeling sick. Eric had a sore throat and felt like a cold was coming on. Christi had a sick tummy causing frequent trips to the restroom, no doubt the consequence of the pink hamburger the day before. This is the first time on our entire journey that either of us has ever become sick from something we ate. And it figures that it happened to be from an American style restaurant that almost assuredly uses American beef.

Neither of us felt like doing anything, but we absolutely had to go to the grocery store and get food for all the houseguests we would be having for the transit. Victor only has one day off a week from driving the bus, and today happens to be the day. So, there was no bus to town. The nice marina staff hunted down a private car for us. It appears they have sweet talked their husbands, boyfriends and friends into shuttling cruisers around in their spare time because even professional drivers don’t want to get stuck at the locks forever. On our way out of the base we saw several huge, and we mean really huge, buzzards hanging out on a cleared field on the base grounds.

And we did have to wait a full hour on the way out. This time the ships were going the other way. Two very large ships went in a row before they opened the gate for car traffic. We didn’t have a very good view, but we could see the locomotives pull one ship in, then the ship rose up out of our line of sight. Then the locomotives brought another ship in, and it Continue reading →