Panamax

I was pleased because I wanted to see a Panamax, a ship designed to the maximum dimensions of the Panama Canal. I was surprised because it was Massive!

Ship spotters lunch

Day off in Panama

Most of us wanted to go back up to the locks to watch a few ships pass through the canal and to have a few glasses of wine on our day off and we made a breif stop on the way at the shopping mall. You will see that the manaquins in Panama are designed by men. A 'friend' ran right into a woman shopper while being distracted by the said plastic models..

More views of the canal

The log entry from 16th Feb. 1100 Pass under the Bridge of the Americas. Welcome to the Pacific Ocean! Another journeys end and nearly time to sleep.

Panama Canal

There is something unique about transiting the Canal, on so many levels. The crew were all excited, the officers excited and a little nervous.

There are so many ways to explain the feelings on board. Nearly everyone had friends and family at home watching on the live cameras which was probably like watching paint dry but for us it was wonderful. A couple of the girls were in tears because they were able to wave at a distant camera where Dad or mum or a boyfriend was able to see exactly where they are and have a moments contact. It was so brief and we are all able to use messenger and Skype but somehow this was better. beeped and buzzed text messages " I can see you" seemed to be enough for everyone to be up lifted." My mate is watching" "Mum just text me to say she can see me"
The Canal it's self is brilliant too, with thousands of people giving their lives to build it, the area rich in history and the pure fact that you cross a continent instead of an ocean feels plain wierd. For us Europeans we now feel further from home. On the wrong side of the Americas, The philipines, Thai, New Zealand and Australians,all feel closer to home like they were next door.
It was an epic exercise in staying awake, we left the Atlantic at 1700 and tied up in Flamenco Marina after taking fuel at 1130 the next morning. I really enjoyed the transit because I was really involved and the pilot was interesting too.

Panama transit

We have sat bobbing about here for quite long enough now and have depleted the worlds paper supplies by nearly as much as we have fuel in that time. All the paperwork is finally in order and all the international diplomatic tactics that we have available to us have been employed, a few thousand of them anyways..

Our transit time starts at 1545 this afternoon 15th Feb. That is when our pilot joins us and thats all we know at this stage.

Panama Canal or PC

We arrived in Colon at first light this morning and have put our clocks forward, which means that a valuble hour of sleep has been lost and that we are now 5 hours ahead of UK for anyone who is interested in watching our transit.
We are sitting in a sess pool waiting for some dudes to come on board who like acronims. They want to have a look at our PCSOPEP, ISPS, our IOPP, IAPP, SOLAS, CSSE and our PIN amongst others I am sure.
Then we may or may not recieve a transit time. I will keep you posted

Jesus was found flirting with the hula girl, his Christian values were no where to be found once he was presented with a girl in a grass skirt and no knickers. Naughty Jesus!

Jesus appeared on the bridge

We are at sea again and a nodding Jesus has appeared on the bridge

The link

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

Bye Bye Mexico

Mexico to Mexico via Panama

The circus is on the road again, heading towards the Panama canal in rough seas. We are expecting to get into Colon early in the morning on the 14th Feb. ( very romantic! ) Colon, as the name suggests is a shit hole, good only because, most people pass it by on their way through the Canal. Unfortunately, we need to take on another 300 tons of fuel, so we are going to be forced to stop.
I am going straight to hell! Even though I recycle and ride a bicycle, my carbon foot print is ruined for ever, unless maybe I become the next Al Gore.

Here is a link to the live cameras on the canal. If you are a yacht anorak, you can watch us transit the canal in one minute intervals. I will be sure to wave at any cameras that we see.

Updates on our transit time and date are unclear. I think we will go through either the night of the 14th or the day of the 15th Feb.

In Mexico

After a breif stop at Lighthouse reef, an overnight stay in Belize and another overnight passage to Cozumel in Mexico we have relocated again, this time to an anchorage off the beach in Playa Del Carman. The magical mystery tour continues. The owners are on home turf now and movements are down to a strict need to know basis even more than usual.

The boss came back from a dinner ashore with his friends, last night at around 11pm and asked me if we could please move at 6 am accross to Playa, so that we could recieve guests on board, via helicopter for breakfast. 'Yes sir, of course we can'

I was thinking Oh no!! Another 5 am start!!So we were off again. The sunnies were on standby but the sun was only just coming up as I edged the boat off the dock. I am still quite inexperienced at docking and undocking the boat and the sunnies were not really necessary for the sun but only to hide the fear in my eyes and make me appear cool and calm and even slightly stylish as I took the controls of the boat. An offer for the boat, of 95 million euros was recently turned down by our boss who is enjoying the boat more and more these days. The weather and sea was calm and the dock not too tight but the resposibility of it is still massive.

Blue Hole

Blue Hole
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

A 3 am departure from the anchorage which felt far more rocky and exposed in the moonless night than in the light of day..A rough crossing From Honduras up to the Turneffe Islands which lay off of the coast of Belize.

The guests wanted to see the Blue hole that sits in the middle of Lighthouse Reef.

I know that I keep on about wanting to come home but these were the kinds of adventures that we signed up to. Far better than Nice, Cannes and Monaco. More challenging, remote and flying by the seat of your pants as far as navigation and planning.

You could ask me where we are off to next but I will go to bed again not knowing. Tomorrow, another surprise awaits.

Honduras Feb 08

A remote tropical anchorage

Prada sunnies come in handy

DSC05408
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

Today we find ourselves at a remote tropical anchorage on the main land of Honduras, we were just around the corner from a headland called, 'Punta Sal'

After the Beach BBQ and the guests exploration of the area by jet ski the boss suggested that he would like to move on to Belize, after dinner.

This is not such a big deal! Its only 100 miles to the place he wanted to go but we have 30 crew ,10 guests and two boats that need to be cleared out of through customs in Honduras before we can leave and we are 70 miles from the customs house on the Island of Roatan. Good job we have a chopper!

It is not often that we get to use the helicopter like this but when we do it really is awsome! Armed with ships papers, passports and a wad of cash just in case, Hans and I took off from the boat, heading up the coast . 40 minutes later we swooped in to the airport.
Hans did a very slick job of making a dramatic entrance, we slipped on our shades walked smartly accross the tarmac with briefcase in hand, shook hands with the agent who took care of our formalities. It felt like we were in some kind of movie. Glad that I remembered to bring my shades.

To the island of Utila

house-utila-honduras
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

I know its cold at home, sorry to say we have anchored in a paradise of small islands and cays off of the SW corner of a small Island called Utila.

The owner of the boat is once again on board so life is at an increased pace.
This picture was stolen from google earth which is a part of my navigation plan these days. There are few charts of this area and the ones we have are not at all acurate. On the way here today from Roatan we had to launch the tender to go ahead of us relaying depth information. This was after a couple of scares where the chart was telling us that we should have, 60 meters beneath us and on several ocasions it came up to 8 meters or less. This is still plenty of depth for us but the information was all together a bit random. It is however beautiful and we arrived in a good place to anchor without hitting any reefs, so well done us.
We are off soon to Guatamala, Belize and Mexico.