{"id":6638,"date":"2016-04-15T21:26:29","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T01:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/?p=6638"},"modified":"2016-04-15T21:26:29","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T01:26:29","slug":"more-on-panama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/?p=6638","title":{"rendered":"More on Panama"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Panama<\/a>

Panama Canal Traffic Jam<\/p><\/div>\n

Although the trip from Portobelo to Colon was only about 20 miles, it brought with it some tension.\u00a0 Colon is the entrance and exit from the Panama Canal and all the boats waiting and moving make things quite congested.\u00a0 The photo on the right is an image from our navigation screen display.\u00a0 Each of the arrows represents one ship. Definitely a place to pay attention.<\/p>\n

We were booked in to Shelter Bay Marina for one week to allow us time to explore the area. It was also a great opportunity to clean the boat, do the laundry and enjoy air conditioning for once.<\/p>\n

One of our fellow rally boats had arrived just a bit before us and discovered a large snake hiding under the kayak they had tied on the foredeck. They successfully got it off their boat and soon heard commotion from a nearby as the snake made it\u2019s way up the swim platform of another boat. No one was sure where the snake had come from or where it had gotten on to Makani but I continually looked for snakes on Echo throughout our stay and fortunately, never saw one.<\/p>\n

Shelter Bay was an area with lots of monkeys and tropical birds. We often heard Holwler Monkeys and saw other types while walking around the area. There was a very eerie area that was formerly part of a US base, the ruins were overgrown by the jungle and reminded us of the TV series Lost.\u00a0 Spooky.<\/p>\n

\"Strange <\/a>
Strange Ruins near shelter Bay <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Monkey <\/a>
Monkey Tree <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
\"Part<\/a>

Part of the gang at Shelter Bay<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The marina was quite welcoming to our OCC Rally and held a wine and cheese event our first night there. Their restaurant was always a good meeting spot for us and although they seemed to be having difficulty keeping staff, provided reasonable meals most evenings. The marina is out on a peninsula, quite a ways from any other restaurants so we ate there most evenings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>

View of boat from bridge<\/p><\/div>\n

Land travel in the area is somewhat difficult since it requires passing over the canal. When boats are entering or exiting the canal at Colon all traffic has to wait as there no bridge and you have to drive over the lock gate while the lock is closed.\u00a0 Each time the lock opens for another ship, all road traffic waits for the ship to clear and the gates to close. There is a bridge under construction that will span high over the canal, but for the time being you just do a lot of sitting watching ships when traveling to or from the marina by car.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Suzanne had arranged a group trip to tour the canal and spend two nights in Panama City. We headed out midday with two busses and made our first stop nearby at Fort San Lorenzo located within the Natural Reserve Park. At the park entrance we were treated to seeing a few animals who were being relocated due to construction of the new lock. They are trying to take care of the wildlife but the construction has disturbed many animals so the effort is a full time one. We saw a sloth, boa constrictor and another guy (we forgot his name) being brought to the park. The animals along with touring the fort was interesting.<\/p>\n

\"Sloth\" <\/a>
Sloth <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Can't <\/a>
Can’t remember what it was? <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Boa <\/a>
Boa Constrictor relocation <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
\"Tour <\/a>
Tour of Fort San Lorenzo <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Fort <\/a>
Fort San Lorenzo <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Survey <\/a>
Survey Monument at Fort San Lorenzo <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

From there we moved on to the Gatun Locks viewing center where we could watch the activity from an elevated area. Our timing was good and we saw two ships locking to the Caribbean and one to the Pacific. It\u2019s an amazing place! The brochure we were given reports that since opening in 1914 more than a million ships have transited the canal and thereby saved each one thousands of sea miles.\u00a0 On both ends of the canal there are massive locks that lift the ships up so they can cross the isthmus up above sea level.\u00a0 Quite an engineering feat!<\/p>\n

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From the locks we moved on to the Panama Canal Railway where we boarded the train to take us to Panama City. We could have gone by road but the train is a scenic ride along the canal in old style railroad cars. Very nice experience.<\/p>\n

\"Waiting <\/a>
Waiting to board the train <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Railway <\/a>
Railway Sign <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Jeff <\/a>
Jeff and David Reading about the Canal <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Next stop Waldorf Astoria Panama City. The general manager of the hotel is a cousin of Christian on Blue and they arranged a special rate for the OCC members. It was a great place to stay while we explored the city, a little vacation from boat life.<\/p>\n

Panama city has a striking skyline with towering modern buildings and a beautiful area called \u201cPanama la Vieja\u201d or Old Panama. There are museums, restaurants, churches, markets and many shopping malls. Christine who had been crew on Rhumb Runner was our tour guide. She was staying there for a few weeks and had planned a walking tour along with giving us lots of information on restaurants and shopping. We had a great time exploring the fish market, produce market then wandering around Old Panama and stopping in various bars for refreshment.<\/p>\n

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One evening we joined Suzanne and David for dinner at a \u201cposh\u201d restaurant, The Cabana<\/a>. It was a wonderful meal in a beautiful setting overlooking the skyline of Panama City. On our way out we got off the elevator on the wrong floor and felt like we were in Wonderland. There were giant rocking horses, see saws and toy soldiers decorating the lobby. Suzanne and I took advantage and played for a bit – it didn\u2019t take too long for the security guard to find us and kindly show us out.<\/p>\n

\"David <\/a>
David and Suzanne – Panama City <\/div> <\/div>
\"Mary <\/a>
Mary on the Yellow Seat <\/div> <\/div>
\"Mary <\/a>
Mary on the rocking horse <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Mary <\/a>
Mary and the Toy Soldier <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Suzanne <\/a>
Suzanne on the Merry -Go-Round <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

After our visit to Panama City we all focused on our boats back at the marina. There were various projects underway all around the marina and radio calls back and forth asking for advice or parts. One project Jeff assisted with was a sail repair for Suzie Too. They had been unable to use their main sail for the past few weeks and had hoped to have it repaired in the loft at Shelter Bay. Unfortunately, the sewing machine was not working properly so Jeff pulled out his trusty Sailrite machine and worked with David and Suzanne to stitch on the patches. It is a very large sail and took some creative thinking on their parts in order to get the job done with such a small machine but they persisted and the sail is now back in use.<\/p>\n

\"Suzie <\/a>
Suzie Too Sail Repair <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sail <\/a>
Sail Repair <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Shelter Bay Marina is somewhat of a crossroad for cruising boats. When preparing to transit the canal there are many tasks to be accomplished. It is recommended that you use an agent to get you through the process. The boat must be measured and inspected, tolls and other fees paid, details of the transit scheduled and line handlers organized. Boats coming from the Pacific may stop there just to get organized before moving on in the Caribbean. It\u2019s a very busy place with many interesting people to meet and it was a good spot for all the rally boats to regroup and prepare for the next half of our trip. \u00a0Several of our group signed on as “line handlers” for pleasure boats going to the Pacific. \u00a0All that did were quite pleased with the experience!<\/p>\n

We left Shelter Bay at 4:00 AM in order to time arrival in our next destination. We were the furthest slip in the furthest dock inside the marina and had to be very careful exiting in the dark. Once out of the marina we then had the very busy harbor and breakwater to contend with and the two incoming cruise ships arriving in the dark. Harbor Control is very busy and very efficient there so although tense, it all went well. We did have an extra stressful few moments when our chart plotter went out\u2026luckily it came back up after powering it off and back on.<\/p>\n

Once underway we were bound for San Andres, one of the Colombian islands off the coast of Nicaragua. We had intended to buddy boat with Suzie Too but as they were preparing to leave the dock that morning a strap holding their dinghy up on the davits broke, the weight then caused one of the arms of the davit to bend. Luckily the folks at Shelter Bay did some quick repairs and they were underway later that day.<\/p>\n

The water we were transiting has had some reports of trouble and our boats had formed groups to travel together. Our course intersected with Blue and Mad Romance who left that morning from Portobelo. \u00a0We sailed together through the night and all went well. Fortunately all went well for all of our rally boats!<\/p>\n

~Jeff and Mary ~<\/p>\n

We Caught a Fish!<\/p>\n

\"King<\/a>

King Mackerel<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the trip from Portobelo to Colon was only about 20 miles, it brought with it some tension.\u00a0 Colon is the entrance and exit from the Panama Canal and all the boats waiting and moving make things quite congested.\u00a0 The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/svecho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/View-of-boat-from-bridge.jpg?fit=2448%2C2448","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2y1a7-1J4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6638"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6720,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6638\/revisions\/6720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}