Panama Canal
Arrived in Panama
Posted: under Caribbean through Panama.
We moored up safely in Panama last night in Shelter Bay Marina. The last day was very light winds so with plenty of fuel left we motored fast towards our destination. Paul caught his first fish (he’s lost several) a good sized Yellow fin Tuna.
The weather is very hot and sticky with humidity around 92-95% so life out side is quite uncomfortable. That didn’t stop us enjoying a few cold beers last night and a steak!.
Today has mostly been spent cleaning and checking equipment as well as the official canal measurement officer coming aboard and giving us permission to transit the canal. We are still looking at starting our transit tomorrow evening.
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May 28 2011
Day 5
Posted: under Caribbean through Panama.
Yesterday was pretty uneventful with not much wildlife sighted apart from the thousands of flying fish that jump to avoid our path. The wind came around a little to allow us to motor sail with the big headsail and save a little fuel whilst increasing speed. It was much the same this morning but around 1030 we lost all electrical power. No GPS, Hydraulics. Steering, lights, everything. We got the handheld gps out, a headsail was manually set and the emergency steering system put into place to allow Paul and Clare to hand steer whilst Helen tended the sails. Rich and I spent a slightly stressed 40mins trying to work out what the problem could be eventually finding that the main 24volt batteries were not supplying the main switch board for some reason. With that in mind we methodically followed every cable from the wiring diagram to check every connection. In the end it was a bad connection on a battery selector switch that had arced out and stopping any power leaving the battery bank. Two hours later, all repaired, big smiles all round and we’re back on our way!
We look to be arriving in Shelter Bay Marina around 1600 tomorrow evening (Friday) and transiting the canal on Sunday evening.
Looking forward to a cold beer tomorrow evening!
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May 26 2011
Day 4
Posted: under Caribbean through Panama.
Not much to report on board today, just chugging along….
Postion @ 1600 local time is: 13 degrees 31.5N 073 degrees 48.0W course 245 magnetic and making 9.8knots motorsailing.
We are booked to go through canal on Sunday, link to watch on webcams is:
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
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May 25 2011
3 days in
Posted: under Caribbean through Panama.
Day 3 on the trip from St Maarten to Panama and all is well on Concerto. We have motored/motor sailed almost 485nm in generally flat seas and 10knots of wind from behind, averaging around 8.7knots over the ground. The weather has been very very hot though with temperatures inside Concerto getting up to 38degrees Celsius
Wildlife has been fantastic with a couple of pilot whales passing within 6 feet of the yacht on the first day, Some Atlantic spotted dolphins playing at the bow, and a school of around 18 common dolphins swimming along side today.
Fishing: Disaster struck when we lost our best lure, the line snapped as two of us tried to reel in a very heavy fish. The same instant it snapped we saw a huge marlin type fish jump high out of the water. Quite glad we didn’t have to reel him in as not sure what we would have done with him if we managed to get him along side! As a consolation we caught a small yellow fin last night and a good sized Wahoo this morning. So sushi and tuna salad for lunch and grilled Wahoo for dinner, helps keep crew food costs down, and moral up!
Concerto is behaving quite well, with only a few minor problems. Although last night the exit pipe for the raw water pump blew off pumping the engine room full of water. First I heard was engine over heat alarm going off simultaneously with the engine room bilge alarm. It was a little scary until I found the problem. All seems fine now though.
ETA in Cristobel is looking like 20:00on Friday if all stays the same.
Crew all well and happy. (and well fed)
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May 24 2011