Route to Panama 13 February 2024
We are heading for Panama – so a little history for you first.
Panama
10 million years ago Panama was a vast archipelago of volcanic Islands. After considerable volcanic activity 3.3 million years ago the Isthmus of Panama was formed. Humans first appeared here 10,000 years ago and the first European came here in 1501 – Rodrigo de Bastidas. In September 1502 Columbus started exploring Panama on his fourth voyage and in 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first European to discover the Pacific Ocean and this Spaniard took possession of that ocean and all it borders. Over time Panama grew in commercial importance and attracted many privateers and pirates including Sir Francis Drake and Henry Morgan (one of the Caribbean’s most feared pirates.
In the 1840’s, as the goldrush started more and more people began to consider Panama as a way west leading to a Panama Railway which took 6 years instead of the planned 2 and 10,000 died in its construction. Once constructed it did very well and at its peak was the highest priced stock on the New York stock exchange.
A catholic priest in 1534 studied the feasibility of a canal through the Isthmus. In 1879 Columbia granted the Societe Civil the privilege for 99 years to construct a waterway. Columbia was to get a % of the receipts and then it would revert to Columbia. The canal was scheduled to be completed in 1892 at an estimated cost of 1,070,000,000 francs and about 3 times the cost of the sea level Suez canal. Work began in 1880 but diseases and the harsh geographic and climatic conditions and financial mismanagement brought the project to financial ruin in 1889. The cost to that point was 1,435,000,000 and 20,000 lives more than any other project except war. In 1894 a second French company took over to resume work and recommended work of a lock type canal because of the heavy Chagres River floods. This new company could not get funding so the canal equipment and rights were sold to the US government. President Roosevelt was determined to have the Panama Canal route.
In 1903 following Panama’s independence from Columbia, Panama and the US reached a treaty by which the US agreed to construct the canal. It took 10 years and 75,000 men and women and US400 million to complete the task. The builders encountered the same problems – geology, landslides, enormity of the locks and volume of sheer evacuation. The canal opened to traffic on August 15th, 1914.
The canal has 3 locks in each side and for some time were the world’s largest concrete structure. The Atlantic side locks are called the Gatun locks which are physically connected to each other. These raise vessels 26 metres (84 feet) in three sets of chambers. On the Pacific side there are 3 locks which are separated The first is called the Pedro Miguel lock (it lowers 9 metres or 29.5 feet) and the other two the Miraflores locks. In the middle of the canal is the Gatun Lake- being the largest man-made lake covering an area of 423 sq kilometres. From the Atlantic locks you travel 37.8 km (20.4 nm) across the Gatun lake to enter the Gaillard Cut which leads to the Pacific locks. The Gaillard Cut was carved through rock and shale. It is 13.7km (7.4nm) long and it is susceptible to landslides.
Today
Joyce and I had the 8.00pm to 11.00pm slot and the 5am -8.00am slot and on both watches had to watch out for and dodge cargo ships. On our first watch we could see the lights of a cargo ship in the distance even though it was about 8nm way. We did not know whether it had seen us as we were not on AIS although we would show up on radar. We were still on starboard tack and I thought we would gybe at first light when the wind was due to veer which would help us sail a more direct course. This shift passed quite quickly and I went to bed as we were up at 5.00am.
I got up about 4.15 am to have a shave and a shower and to check the weather. It was very dark and it just started to show some light at about 5.45am and we prepared to gybe. This meant putting away the running backstay, bringing in the boom and changing over the boom preventer. We then furled the genoa and gybed slowly by turning the rear of the boat through the wind. We then let out the boom and secured the boom preventer and then put out the genoa again on the other side. This proved to be a good decision as with the current and wind shift helping us we were on a course to the west of Aruba and sometimes between the Columbian coast and a waypoint which I had put out in the middle. On this shift we saw a tanker called Marguerita which passed within a mile of us. It was huge and we had been following it for a few hours before it passed in front of us.
I had an email from Mark Malitskie who had been following us and thought that if we stayed out we would mitigate the likely strong winds forecast for 16/17 February 2024. There were two options – keeping south and following the Colombian coast or staying out and then cutting down. For now our course was good and when I later checked again there did not seem to be a lot of difference in the two options. The issue with the southern option is that we move closer to the Venezuelan coast although I was not aware of attacks near the ABC Islands which are Dutch. We will monitor our course as we go and adapt with the weather. Thank you Mark for watching our backs and it is nice to have contact as you do wonder who is following the blog. So do not hesitate to say hello and make any comments and ask any questions.
It was a lovely day and we read, slept and chatted. Keith made some bacon sandwiches with the bread I made which went down well and in fact it fully disappeared over breakfast. We had a nice salad for lunch and decided to use up our leftovers for supper as we had some to eat up, namely more of the bolognaise and more of the butternut squash and chickpea curry.
It was a calm day and the wind was not strong enough and we were only making 5.5-6.5 kts. I thought of motoring which would only give us another knot and use a lot of fuel so we stayed sailing and maybe we get to Panama a day later. The sea state was calm and we were gliding along effortlessly albeit not as fast as I would like. We had two dolphins come and see us and flying fish on deck.
I made two more loaves of bread, one half white and wholemeal and the other wholemeal. Jonas prepared our left-over supper which reminded me of gruel that the former sailors used to eat although ours was very nice. The wind was due to strengthen overnight and I thought it best we remain in our course for now. The night shifts started and it was quite warm and muggy. Noon 24 hour run 152nm
The blog will continue as we head off to Panama and beyond.
If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com I can only upload one picture a day.