Feb 27th, 28th

Glassy

Feb 27:  

We are definitely in the Doldrums. Light, shifty winds and increasingly oppressive heat and humidity. We are averaging about 110 miles a day with our motoring time included - about six hours a day.

Last night we went through some heavy rains and this morning dawned clearer and dryer, so we thought we were out of the Doldrums. We had some great sailing today. In the afternoon, the sky turned dark to our northeast through southwest-- straight ahead-- and there are large cumulus formations that are producing some lightning. 

Feb 28:

The storms converged on us last night and it rained very heavily again from 6pm till 6am. The night watches huddled under the dodger to stay somewhat dry but everywhere outside was drenched. Torrential downpours, but we were able to avoid the lightening all night with the help of the radar. The wind picked up a lot and was running opposite the 1.5kt current, creating very uncomfortable choppy waves.

BUT, the good thing was that the rain brought with it some good steady winds ranging 12-18kts which are continuing today. The bad news is that the "noserlies" (winds coming from our the direction of our destination) which loved us so much of the time aboard Mystique have found us here approaching the Galapagos!! So we began the slow process of tacking upwind on major wind shifts, requiring 110+ degrees through the tack. This is typical for a cruising boat but not the more efficient 90 degrees or less we were used to racing our C-15 for 30 years.

It's not all beer and skittles in the South Pacific

Here's a quick update from my desk in Cleveland:

Quester left Panama City early on Sunday morning, headed SSW and then SW toward the mouth of Panama Bay and the open ocean beyond. Currently in about 6N, 80W headed SSW at 0-4kt.

They've run in to some unhelpful winds...

Feb 26th-- Several Excitements!

DISTANCE TO GALAPAGOS: 577NM , 105NM made good noon to noon

CONDITIONS: Continued warm, humid and 0 to 3kt winds

PROPULSION: Mostly sailing <3kts and drifting, 6hrs motoring

MECHANICALS: None

CREW CONDITION: Everyone doing well

EXCITEMENT: Passing between two big squalls w/ cumulus clouds but not getting any wind from them. More dolphins. Big tree stump sticking out of water with birds on it. No fish.

COMMENTS: We've been trying to conserve fuel by motoring only when there's little to no wind. We can re-fuel in the Galapagos, so Mike calculated that we could motor for 12 hours / day for six days and still have 40 gallons of fuel left in reserve. That is a relief.

1400: I've decided to add to the Excitement listing above. One of the storms drifted over us and it turned out to be part of a weather front that gave us 10 KT WINDS!! and lots and lots of rain. We are still sailing two hours later on WNW winds on a very clean boat. Fantastic!

1500: More Excitement! Joe's fishing gear finally attracted some attention...

Feb 25th-- Light

1500 I'm again on watch. It is warm (not as hot) and sweltery. Again the wind blew overnight and this time we got up to 9kt with a steady 7 for much of the night. We covered 134 miles our first day at sea which is respectable considering the calms. Again, we put up the spinnaker at dawn and flew it until noon when the wind dropped below 4kt. So we're motoring again this afternoon and the water is glassy smooth except for the remnant swells.

Today's Improvements:
--Fixed the spark ignighters on two of the stove burners.
--Placed a big white awning (you can see it in our pics from Shelter Bay) over the dodger and bimini to shade the dark blue Sunbrella material from the sun - a MAJOR IMPROVEMENT because it minimizes the amount of radiant heat in the cockpit. I'm typing this there and it's very pleasant!

Today's Conversations:

Feb 24th-- Leaving Panama

Feb 24:
QUICK CHANGE IN PLANS - OUT TO SEA!
1030: At 6:30 this morning we arose to Mike telling us he'd changed his mind about stopping at Isla San Jose for tonight. He'd been able to download the Passage Weather forecast last night (he's often up for an hour or two in the middle of the night) and it showed NO WIND between here and the Galapagos for the next week. Since the wind had been blowing 10-12 all night and looked to continue, he said, "Let's go -- NOW!"

In five minutes we were headed south. In 15 we had the spinnaker up doing 7kts in steady north winds. So we're saying goodbye to Las Perlas drifting out of sight behind us - our last look at land for what we figure will be 7 days (with wind) to 9 days (with spotty winds). We need to take full advantage of any wind we get for 900 miles.

We have established our two-hour shift schedule:

Continuing to the Pacific

This is the continuation of the last post, in which Quester started her journey through the Atlantic locks.

Aboard Quester, off Isla Contadora, Pearl Islands, Panama

LINE HANDLING IN THE LOCKS
Before I continue the narrative, I thought I'd describe some of the mechanics of getting through the locks.

Thick blue lock-line
(with giant and fateful bowline!)

The procedure of lines handling through the locks is very interesting (OK, maybe only to some of the saltier readers. If not, jump to the next section!). Each boat is required to have four 50' one inch thick polypropylene "lock-lines" even though only four are needed for a raft of three boats. This is because not everything always goes as planned and each boat needs to be self-sufficient. If everything goes as planned, for an individual boat or a raft of three boats there are starboard and port lines for the bow and the stern. There is a requirement that the skipper be at the helm all the time, and that there be four line handlers in addition to the skipper. A number of the Oysters didn't have that many crew available for their crossing so they borrowed crew from other boats that were transiting on different days. Our hand, Joe, was one of those, so he had already been through the locks by the time we started - a big advantage as he could describe the whole process to us.

Once the raft entered into the lock the center boat's Advisor could control the direction of his raft by asking his skipper to steer one way or the other. The outside boats kept a "neutral", or straight helm. Or if more steerage was needed he would ask the outside boats to go forward or reverse, or each in opposite directions which could spin the raft on the spot.

On shore there were also four line handlers for each raft. They threw a small 3/8" line, called a messenger, with a ball, or "monkey's fist," at the end of it. There is quite an art to doing this accurately so multiple tries aren't needed. Ashore we saw practice areas with big circle targets and very high bars where the line throwers could practice. I'm sure they have contests with championships! The monkey's fist was small but heavy so you didn't want to get hit by one. The thrower would coil up the end of the line with the monkey's fist and circle it over his head once or twice and then heave. The monkey's fist ball would usually land between the two forestays just above our heads.

We would then tie the messenger line to a 2-foot diameter bowline loop in the long, thick lock line. When the boats were in the correct position in the lock, our lock lines would be pulled ashore (by the messenger) and looped around a large bollard. The line handlers on the boat would then be responsible for pulling the lines in as the boats were lifted higher in the lock or easing the lines out as the boats were lowered by the outflowing water.

Occasionally, this doesn't go as planned...

Through the locks

On board Quester, outside Panama City, Panama

The short story is that we're in the Pacific Ocean!  I'll send this off to Andy at 7:30 on Friday, so he can post something before we have to leave for Los Pearles - the Pearl Islands just 45 mi. SE of Panama City, where we've been for the past two nights.  I've got to type fast.  We're leaving at 8.  I'm using a Bluetooth keyboard and our iPad which is working great.

It was quite exciting dropping the lines and heading out under power toward the mustering area "F" where all the Oyster yachts dropped anchors to await the arrival of our Panama Canal Advisor.  About 25 huge ships littered the large bay/harbor formed by the huge man-made breakwater that runs between Shelter Bay and Colon.  There was no problem coming up with the rocks for the breakwater -- they came from all the digging that was forming the Canal.

In the Pacific Ocean

Quester has entered the Pacific Ocean for the first time!  Her home for the next 10,000 nautical miles, the South Pacific is home to the world's greatest adventure stories-- and our intrepid heros-- until crossing in to the Indian Ocean south of Java.

The crew transited the northern (Atlantic) locks on Tuesday afternoon and spent the night in Gatun Lake, part of the Panama Canal.  Yesterday, they transited the Miraflores locks in to the Pacific.  They'll rest and refit in Panama City for a few days.

I expect more information from them about the locks today or tomorrow, so stay tuned.  Below are some pictures of the before and after from one lock section.

To the Atlantic side of the canal

[Editor's Note:  The Yellowbrick Tracker website is working again; link "where are we now?" on the right.]
[Also, added two fantastic images of Oysters in the Gatun Locks at the bottom of the post, from Oyster]

Bridge over Gatun Locks

Here's a several-day update covering our trip to the Atlantic entrance of the canal, and some of our preparations for the canal transit.

You can just read on, and go through the whole thing or skip to your favorite parts!




Feb 14-- To Colon and Shelter Bay
Feb 15-- Shelter Bay Marina
Feb 16-- Elegant Pirate Party
Feb 17-- Provisioning
Feb 18-- What's next?

Panama City

MONDAY 2/11  My head is spinning with all the great things that we've experienced since landing in Panama City 24 hours ago.  After spending a delightful two nights with daughter Meg and family in Denver (including another bon voyage party) we had an smooth flight to Panama.  All of our four duffel bags arrived with us and we experienced an eye-popping :40min taxi ride through Panama City (PC) at night.  We'd heard that Panama has been thriving economically since the new president was elected 10 years ago, but to experience something close to the Miami waterfront down here was surprising.  

After a quick dinner we happened to walk in to the just-opened Royal Sonesta Hotel across the street from our inexpensive (but just refurbished and very nice) mid-town VRBO studio at Panama Studio Apartments.  We were treated like royalty at Sonesta and even escorted to the 27th floor where there is a large dining room overlooking the city.  Upstairs there will be a disco, partially outdoors on the deck.  What a spectacular view.

Tuesday and Wednesday below...

Upcoming Schedule

We're leaving Denver today for flight to Panama City, where we'll kick around for a few days before transiting (by land!) to the Atlantic side of the canal to meet up with Quester and the rest of the Oyster fleet.

All Packed and Loaded

(This is our last update before leaving town! Click here to see what this blog is all about.)

It's finally time! The last few days have been a whirlwind of preparation.  We've had to prepare the house, and ourselves, for this time away and make time for some skiing and farewell parties with friends!

Read on to hear how we prepared for a three-month sailing trip in the Pacific.

Canal Transit Plans from Oyster

Thought you might be interested in this update from Oyster's Logistics team.  It gives one a sense of the organizational detail, and the advantage of going with a well-staged rally vs. on your own.

Did you know that the Pacific side of the Canal is EAST of the Atlantic side?  Check it on Google Maps. 

Example email from the organizers follows...

And so it begins...

Jan and Deb with Quester in Sweden '07

Hello Friends, Family and anyone else who happens by.  We're delighted to have your company on our sail half way across the Pacific Ocean!

Our quest is to sail aboard Quester with our friends Mike and Deb (Boulder, CO) and helping hand Joe (New Jersey) from Panama to Tahiti.  We'll be joining the boat in Colon, Panama Feb 14 after a few days in Panama City being tourists.  After a week or two transiting the Canal and final provisioning in Panama City we'll head SW to the Galapagos Is., a distance of about 1,000 mi. expected to take about a week on the open ocean.

Read on to hear more about our trip!