Back through the canal again.

C

Capt. Bill1

Active member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
RO Number
2017
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6,127
Down in Costa Rica getting ready to bring the boat I used to work on here back through the canal, do an owners trip in the San Blas Islands for a week and then head on to the Bahamas or Florida.

We will be going through the Panama canal around the 1st of next month. Anybody interested can follow our progress on our SPOT page at:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0TTRTWzKjYbQe5spYPriQLOomUy5BVA8R

There are web cams at the canal locks so you could watch us lock through.

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html

Looks like just as last trip I will be taking the 24' inflatable tender we tow through the canal by itself a day or two before the big boat. The canal port captain won't let us tow it. That makes for a fun trip.
They also make us put a porta potty on board for the canal guide who travels with us. Never ask if carried TP on board the tender though. :-)

I'll try to post some pics from time to time.
 
So far so good. made it into Panama City yesterday morning. Had a 20 hour run the first day after which we anchoured up in a pretty bay named Bahia Honda behind an island out of the swell. Then a 22 hour run into Panama City.

Now we hang out and what for the chef and stew to arrive tonight and then the owners in a couple of days. After that it's taking the 24' tender through the canal and then a day or two after that it's the big boat.

Below are some pictures of the trip so far.

First anchorage:

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Off Panama City:

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Canal control tower:

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Thanks for the great pics and taking us along on the trip!
 
Thanks. Once we start moving again I'll add some more. It looks like I will be taking the
24' tender through the canal tomorrow night starting around 5pm my time. I'll put the SPOT on board for the fun of it.

We take the big boat through on the 2nd during the day time. So like I mentioned before I'll have the SPOT running that day and anybody who's interested could check us out on the canal web cams.
 
Question. When you run the tender through, how do you get back to the big boat? Ferry?
 
No ferry. And while there is a train, it unfortunately only goes to Panama City in the evening. And since we will be transiting the canal at night and arriving on the Caribbean side some time around 1am or so, it will be a two hour or so cab ride back to Panama City and the marina where the big boat is docked.

But I highly recommend the train ride to any one who visits Panama. It goes through the jungle and follows along the canal as well. Great views and a nice bar car with ice cold beer.
 
The fees on the pancanal.com website are an interesting read. Definitely alacart service!
 
Here are some of the pictures I took (sorry about the out of focus ones)when we took the tender through the canal the other night. We picked up the canal advisers at 5pm and by the time we passed though the canal to the Caribbean side and returned by car to the big boat on the Pacific side it was 5am.

I have some more videos and when I get the time I'll post them or at least a link to them.

The big boat goes through starting tonight at 5pm. I'll have the SPOT on. If somebody feels like it I would be interested in know if you can see us on the canal web cams as we go through tonight.

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The video worked better at night of course because we were moving around to much for the still camera to hold focus. Here are a couple unedited videos.

http://tinyurl.com/a9eezyb

http://tinyurl.com/bgm8sl3
 
my o` my....you mean there isn`t anybody to arrest the parents of the kids in the overloaded boat with no pfd`s or safety equipment????
 
No, they take a rather liberal approach to child rearing here. :-)

Getting ready to leave the dock to meet the pilot. SPOT should be broadcasting.
 
A few pictures from the San Blas Islands.

Fresh seafood delivery service

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Our pick your own dinner live well

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Fuel dock

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Setting up for an owners day at the beach on "1 palm island"

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Views from/at the beach at "1 palm island"

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Some shots from the island of Provenir in San Blas. It's the "port of entry" and one of the only islands with an air strip on it.

Rental cabanas

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Museum for the Kuna Yala the indigenous people of the San Blas

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Air strip. Note how conveniently located the hotel is to the strip. Just a few short steps away. :-)

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The new air strip terminal building

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Photos of Panama City from the air

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Aerial view of the marina we stayed at on the Pacific side of the canal. We are on the end of the T dock in that picture.

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This last shot was taken at the marina we are in now on the Caribbean side of the canal. The dock in the picture is where the Panamanian Navy runs drug interdiction missions out of. And impounds drug running boats. Those sailboat you see in the pickers were caught with coke on board. From everything I can find out the boats are just left to rot and not put up for auction or anything. Sad, as there are some nice boats over there. That catamaran in the picture was just caught with 2000 lbs of coke on it. (Note, the two sailboats on the hard on the left side of the picture are not drug boats.)

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At this moment we are getting ready to head for Jamaica and then on up to Ft. Lauderdale. I'll fire up the SPOT again on Wed. or Thur. when we pull out for anybody interested in following along. Having a hard time finding Lithium batteries for it so not sure how much longer it will work.
 
The pictures are great! I'm really enjoying this thread. Please continue to keep us updated.
 
Fueling up the other day.

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Our neighbor.

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One thing about this job, you never know when or where you will run into friends. A husband and wife team that are friends of mine run this boat and they pulled in across the marina from us just the other day on their way to the Pacific side.

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Waiting for ships to enter the lock here on the Caribbean side before our cab can drive us across the lock and back to the marina.

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Photos from our run in the tender up the Rio Chagres just north of the canal breakwater here in Colon.

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Heading to Jamaica in a few hours. More pictures to come once we get there. Hopefully. :-)
 
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