Dolce Vita: Cruising through 2010

2010 will be one of those more memorable years. It started for me on January 3rd in Mazatlan, Mexico and ended with the transiting of the Panama Canal on Thanksgiving day. During those 11 months I have had a number of great experiences, a few unwanted adventures and have had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with a number of wonderful people who are also cruising. I have also met a number of wonderful and friendly people from Mexico,Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. I leave out Costa Rica from this list because unfortunately my experience there was not good. The people are not friendly, it seems like they don't like Americans and the country has turned into a land of thieves.

I stayed in El Salvador for 6 months waiting for weather to improve before heading for Panama. I set the first week of October for my departure, waiting for a good friend, Bob Scott, from the San Francisco area to join me at the end of September. The two of us prepared the boat for departure, stocked the boat with food and drinks a set off for our first adventure as we passes through a set of very large waves as we moved off shore. The largest of the waves was approximately 20 feet high. I gave the boat full throttle to ensure we could make it over the top as the bow of the boat pointed towards the sky at about 45 degrees. I throttled back on the back side of the wave as the boat was propelled down the wave picking up speed as we headed down towards the next wave. The remaining waves were less exciting and as we passed through the last one we gave each other a high five to congratulate ourselves on surviving. I then turned the boat towards our planned course as we began our journey towards the remaining Central American countries. Our objective; arrive in Panama City early enough to complete the necessary paper work to obtain a date when we are scheduled to pass through the Panama Canal. We arrived much earlier than we had to, wishing that we had spent more time at anchorages along the way. However, there is a saying among sailors. Set sail in areas where conditions can get bad when you have an open window in the weather. The weather can get bad if you wait too long and you might be tempted to sail in conditions that can get dangerous so you can stay on schedule.

Talk about moving on, it is time to get to the point of this blog.

The earlier blogs that I posted brought you up to date with my stay in El Salvador. Now it is time that I share with you our voyage from El Salvador to the Caribbean Ocean on the Atlantic side of Panama.

Our first leg took us about 18 hours before reaching the marina where we stayed a few days visiting friends and exploring the new area. This marina was in Nicaragua and is owned and operated by Americans. Bob had met one of the owners back in California at West Marine.

One might think that I spend all of my time anchored at remote islands living off of the sea without the normal advantages we all have become accustomed to while in towns and cities. Let me assure you that this is not always the case as these photos show.

We enjoyed our stay here but it was time to move on to our next stop.

I would be a rich man if I had a dollar for every beautiful sunset that I have witnessed since leaving San Francisco.

Imagine approaching these rocks during a moonless night. That is why I never go into a new anchorage during the dark of night.

What beauty one can witness every day from ashore or on the boat.

Friends boat sailing with us towards our next stop

Next stop is Quepos, Costa Rica. My son Steve and daughter Robin visited here long before me while they were in college.

Quepos is next to one of the largest Federal parks in Costa Rica. One of the good things about Costa Rica is its focus on protecting their natural resources. They have more parks than any of the other Central American countries.

Here you see pieces of leaves that have been cut off of trees by ants. These ants, which don't show up on this photo, are carrying their loads back to their nest. Who says that ants are lazy?

The park has many exotic animals of which you might not see unless you spend several days at the park. This is a luxury we didn't have but I did get some good photos of monkeys and a creature that looks like a raccoon but is not a raccoon. They are probably a lost cousin.

This is a photo of a small bay taken from shore in the park.

White faced monkeys

This is a photo of a sloth hanging by its fingers

Expand this photo and you should be able to see several ants carrying their packages to their cabin in the hills.

Off to our next stop at Golfito. Golfito is the last anchorage for us in Costa Rica.

The jungle begins to take back its place from a structure that was never finished.

The boat above was anchored beside us at one of the islands we were at in Panama. This was probably the best anchorage in Panama. There was a tropical storm off off the Atlantic coast near Panama. The seas on the other side of Panama were not kind to us as we headed towards Panama City

Here is Bob after I told him I found some cold beer. We thought we were out of beer.

A cemetery on an island were we were anchored. No not true. We were anchored nearby, not beside the cemetery.

This is a family we met. Kennedy came to our boat to sell us some fruit but we were in the middle of something at the time and had to tell him to come by later. We missed him when he returned so we rode the dingy over to the area where he and his family lived. He invited us in to meet his family. He later showed me a light fixture that didn't work and I took it back to the boat to fix. He and his wife were very grateful. More karma points! Speaking of karma points, we earned about 1,000 more points when we rescued a giant turtle from a fishing net that was wrapped around his body. We were at anchor when the turtle drifted by us as it tried to swim. I asked Bob if he wanted to save a turtle. With a yes, we put the dingy in the water, not enough time to put the motor on, and we rowed with everything we had to catch up and with a knife we cut the net loose. The turtle gave us a glance as to say thank you and swam off.

They do grow large papayas in Panama.

OK, now the point in the blog that you have all been waiting for.....The Panama Canal. The following photos were taken from a visitors center and museum at Merflores locks. It gave me my first view of what to expect.
The first photo is of my radar as we approached the top of the channel at the head of the Canal. My boat is the white spot in the middle. All of the other spots are of BIG ships at anchor waiting their turn to pass through the canal. The range set on the radar is 2 miles. I had we weave among the boat to the head of the Canal to motor down the channel towards the anchorage where I had planned to stay until my turn.

I went through the canal on someone elses boat so I could experience firsthand what happens and how to handle the boat and the lines. This also gave me an opportunity to take some photos and videos since I was not the captain.

Let me share some videos so you can experience as much as possible going through the Canal without being there.

Here is a close and personal shot of the ship behind us in a lock. Ships are ahead of small boats on the Pacific side. Here on the Atlantic side, the boats are behind small boats. Don't ask me why.

This was the last lock. We motored into the Caribbean Ocean after the gates ahead of us opened.

Now for the best photo of all. Here is a photo taken off of the internet of my boat as we went through the canal. Small aren't we. We look like a pimple on the butt of an elephant.

This was taken at the first set of locks that we went through.

Hopefully this gives you a good idea of how the Panama Canal works and how fun it can be taking your own boat through.

I put the boat into a Marina after passing through the Canal where it will remain while I visit family and friends over the holidays back in California. We all had a flight back to California on December 1st so we had some time to explore Panama City. Speaking of WE, I should introduce you to my crew that helped in going through the Canal. Bob, my first mate, Glen and Glena cruiser friends from Mazatlan, Joanne, my childrens mother and the woman who put up with me for many years, and Tracy who Joanne and I met on the Copper Canyon tour in Mexico.

Now for the fish lovers among you. We went to a fish market in Panama City. Fresh fish that you can pick out a buy and then take it up stairs to a cafe to have them prepare the fish as you wish and serve it and eat it there. It is the closest thing to eating fresh fish and not being on the boat where it was caught.