We\u2019ve left Panama and on our way to Washington DC for race 11 and the finish of the penultimate leg. Not long till home now but this has been a really interesting stop over and the one place I was so interested to see because of the Panama Canal, its engineering and its impact on the world, a modern day wonder of the world. So, I\u2019d best start with that rather than the start of a race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a couple of days R&R in Panama, we were required to muster at the boat for departure on the 29th at 03.00, a day earlier than expected, with the footnote, don\u2019t be late. Lon, David, Kerry and I cut it a bit fine due to a Uber failure, but we arrived on time just to slip lines and head out from the marina, round the corner of the marina with Seattle and wait for our pilot. You must use a Panama Canal pilot to transit through the canal and they stay with you for the duration of the transit. You must obey their commands and direction. We had a little bit of excitement whilst waiting, as Seattle reported that their smoke alarm in their engine room had activated and of course, could we stand by. After a few minutes, it became clear that it was a false alarm and we could stand down. At 06.15 our pilots arrived, first onto Seattle and then onto us. We were to follow a tanker \u201cPIS POLARIS\u201d who were manovering into the port lock, with the help of two large tugs, pushing and bumping her into the lock. It was a snug fit with only a couple of feet either side of her, but eventually she was in. As the tugs stood down, her bow and stern lines where attached to special trains called \u201cmules\u201d either side of the lock. These mules pulled her gently into the end of the lock and would pull her through the 1st two sets of locks. Seattle and ourselves rafted up with Seattle on the Port side and CV25 LBS on the Starboard side. Yours truly, was put on the bow line along with David. As we followed the tanker in we had two lock men walk alongside us and threw a line to us, one to our bow and one to our stern. Seattle had the same. They then pulled our lines up to the lock bollards and secured them. So the \u201craft, Seattle and LBS, had four lines, two bow and two stern. Our job was to keep the raft in the centre of the lock by pulling in the slack as the water levels rose. With so much force on the lines, it was not as easy as I first thought. As we were secured in the port lock, a tall ship, that we\u2019d spotted earlier in the bay was making its way, accompanied by a couple of tugs, into the starboard lock. We then went up the first two locks simultaneously, with the lock keepers walking with us for the length of that journey. The tanker and the tall ship where pulled through via the mules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We passed through a small lake\/reservoir in between the second and third lock, but the process was the same for that lock. After leaving the 3rd lock we entered the biggest man made lake in the world. An unbelievable piece of engineering and a sight to behold. In essence we were in the middle of a tropical rain forest surrounded by water. Lots of wildlife about with toucans, buzzards, pelicans,\u00a0 eagles, deer and what looked like crocodiles! Maybe eyeing up the deer. Who knows what other wealth of wildlife was lurking under the trees. As we crossed the lake, extremely large container ships up to 350 metre long were amongst the many merchant ships passing in the other direction. Both of us keeping to our own channels, laid out by a series of triangulated sign posts and lights. All the larger vessels were accompanied and many connected to large tugs, mostly acting as brakes. Once at the end of the lake, PIS POLARIS, had already entered one of the older and smaller flights of locks on the Atlantic side. They had built larger locks since the canal had been opened. In fact, the Panama Canal is constantly being refurbished and rebuilt\/enlarged. As we entered the locks to go down, with PIS POLARIS already in the next lock, the tall ship was pulled into the lock behind us. What a spectacular sight that must have been for anybody watching on. We went down to the Atlantic ocean together. In the final lock, we nearly had a mishap, with both boats rafted, one of us, I\u2019ll not say which, got slightly ahead of themselves and spun the pair of us clockwise until we where broadside in the lock! A little bit embarrassing but luckily rescued by quickly throwing a stern line to the lock keepers, before any damage could be done to either the boats or the lock. I could see the headline, \u201cClipper boats block the Panama Canal!\u201d We left the locks into the Atlantic Ocean together and made our way to the marina in Col\u00f3n. It was 12 or so hours, I will never forget and one that many sailors will never get the chance to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back to the race. The crew of LBS had arrived in the marina via a large minibus and car from Panama old town, organised by the one and only Matt. A great job done, which got the race off to a good start. As normal, we slipped lines just as a hugh slap of thunder rattled the boat overhead. In military precision, the fleet left the marina with banners up, but no parade of sail this time, out into the bay and prepared to motor sail to the Le Mans start some 200 miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As always, Lucy has done a great job on victualling, and secured a number of monster pizzas for our dinner, which goes down a treat, as we leave the shores of Panama and motor sail into the night in some uncomfortable choppy seas & head winds. We had a very odd experience as we\u2019re motoring, the water is fairly choppy in the headwind, then suddenly the sea went flat, I mean mirror flat, nearly viscous, the engine noise changed slightly, we stuck our head torches on to try and see what was causing this very peculiar effect then as quick as we\u2019d spotted it, the sea state went back to normal, the wind speed and direction hadn\u2019t changed during what was about 5 minutes. David and I suspected it was an oil slick, but we\u2019ll never know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kerry and I are together again as mothers on day 2, it\u2019s still a bit lumpy and not really pleasant below for cooking. Kerry is seasick at breakfast, which doesn\u2019t bode well for mothering. A fairly simple menu for the fist few days breakfast is toast and cereal, although we couldn\u2019t put the generator on, so no toast. So cereal and fruit on the menu. We\u2019ve got chicken and noodle soup with the bread we were going to use for breakfast and dinner a beef chilli con carni with mash for dinner. All fairly simple and poor Kerry was sea sick for most of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve had to change our rendezvous point as the strong headwinds has slowed the fleet down. As it is, it looks like both Scotland and UNICEF, won\u2019t make the new rendezvous point before the proposed start time. We line up as normal, this is the first Le Mans we\u2019ve started with plenty of wind and we\u2019re off again. Warrent and Punta get a jump start on us. It\u2019s not the worst start we\u2019ve had, but not our best. I know I should have been grinding in the stay sail earlier, a bit of miscommunication on my part, but something to try and think about for our next start. We\u2019re middle of the fleet as we head towards our 1st way point off the coast of Jamaica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s been a very wet race, lots of raining squalls with probably more sail changes and reefs than the whole of the previous race and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to change much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been put back into Tony\u2019s watch for this race and he\u2019s asked me to be his assistant watch leader, although David would have been just as good a choice. We work well together, David and I, so I\u2019m sure it will be a great watch, with Tony, me, David, Petra, Mat, Michelle and Will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I get up for my first evening watch of the race and the guys coming off watch are soaked through, so I quickly throw on my foilley bottoms and head up on deck. Tony is on mother today, so I\u2019m now the watch leader and what a watch it was. Thunder and lightning storms all around us, torrential rain and changing winds, we had our head sail, the Yankee 1, up and down like a fiddlers elbow. Our wind instruments are turned off in case of a lightning strike, but we get through it, although I\u2019m knackered with all the work on the foredeck. Glad to get my head down. What seems like only a few minutes sleep, we get woken again for our 02.00 watch, it\u2019s still raining up on deck, the wind is all over the place. I\u2019m straight on the helm, I don\u2019t know why, but it seems it\u2019s the duty of the watch leader to take the first stint, no mater who is on deck first. It\u2019s really tricky conditions, we have our wind instruments back which helps and we\u2019re trying to stay as high as possible to make the mark. No sooner am I off the helm and a squall comes through, time to drop the Yankee 2. As I work myself up to the high side I reach out to grab the bottom of the helming cage to give me a firm grip, I\u2019ve only gone and grabbed a flagpole by mistake, it comes off in my hand and I tumble down the back of the boat, a mere passenger, rolling over the top of the nav station landing on my back head and elbow on the traveller winch handle. Ouch!\u00a0 After dusting myself down and checking everything was working, I\u2019ve picked myself up and crawled forward to help with dropping the Yankee. A close call, I could have really hurt myself. Sure enough, no sooner have we dropped the sail, the wind abates and we raise it again. It\u2019s a real cat and mouse thing with these squalls. We\u2019re about 10 miles from the mark and fleet is converging to the same point, nobody has yet made the mark without tacking. Qingdao and Tongyeong are both of our port beam heading towards us on a port tack. Qingdao have gone in front of us, but Tongyeong have strangely tacked below us. We have a bit of a tussle with Tongyeong and as the sun begins to rise, they start to fall back. They suddenly tack behind us and as we\u2019ve got closer to the mark, neither of us are going to make it so we\u2019ve tacked as well. Quingdao come across our bow and we follow in behind them to hopefully hit the mark. I\u2019ve gone to bed with a few bumps and bruises but after some pancakes for breakfast it should make for a good few hours sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t sleep well this morning, lots of commotion on deck, lots of sail changes with squalls etc. so no real difference for us. A long 6 hours and the last race schedule puts us in 7th with the only good news being Scotland was behind us, but as we\u2019re navigating through Cuba and Haiti, we\u2019ve arrived in, you\u2019ve guessed it, a bloody big wind hole and the fleet has compressed fairly dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s been a night of squalls and wind holes. We\u2019ve decided to take a higher route as some of the fleet have gone lower and parked up. It\u2019s a bit of a lottery, but time will tell who\u2019s got the wind 1st. Transpires we never get a break and we\u2019ve parked up, in fact we\u2019ve gone backwards with the current and subsequently dropped down the fleet to 9th. To say the crew is pissed is an understatement, but all we can do is continue to crew the boat as best we can. Im knackered, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve had such a physical leg and for some reason I\u2019m not getting much sleep, I don\u2019t feel rested and the body is telling me we\u2019ve been working hard with various aches and pains showing themselves. Hopefully I\u2019ll get some sleep before our 6 hour stint at 06.00<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seems my wish came true, feels like I\u2019ve rested well as I\u2019m awoken by Kieke yelling down the bunks, \u201ctime for breakfast\u201d, but I could do with a few more hours in bed. Just get through our 6 hour slot without any drama please. It all starts so well, a little bit of wind as we move through the channel between Cuba & Haiti, there is a worrying, very dark bank of clouds on our starboard side with a bit of thunder and lightning.\u00a0 It looks very angry and it looks like we\u2019re skirting it, however how wrong was I, from nowhere, we\u2019re in it. Torrential rain, which hurts your face with the ferocity, the sea is boiling and wind rapidly increasing. Gavin is on deck immediately, don\u2019t know how he does it! With the lack of sleep, he must be suffering. It doesn\u2019t stop raining for an hour and every time we see a little bit of sunlight, the storm, as if it\u2019s teasing us, closes the door and we\u2019re surrounded again by squally winds and rain. It reminds me of the film, \u201cThe Perfect Storm\u201d. We\u2019re soaked to the skin, but eventually the storm relents and daylight reappears and we\u2019re amongst a number of clipper boats who have probably been caught in the same storm. The wind direction, gives us an opportunity to fly a kite, so up goes the code 3 just before lunch without too much fuss, both watches are on deck which makes it easier, but my thoughts immediately turn to getting into my bunk for some much needed rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After lunch, I get my head down, for the first time in this race, we\u2019re on a port tack\/gybe so I\u2019ve had to adjust my bunk to try and get it flat, but I can\u2019t sleep, it\u2019s so hot, the battery in my fan is flat and I\u2019m broiling in my own sweat. The boat is continuously lurching from side to side as the spinnaker collapses then refills and you\u2019re waiting for something to go wrong. Sure enough, the boat stops healing for a considerable time, so you know something is up. I get out of the bunk to go and have a look, I can\u2019t sleep anyway and the spinnaker is down and being wooled. Nothing sinister, just the wrong wind angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday sundown again and it\u2019s Lon\u2019s birthday, so a big happy birthday to him, michelle made him a card, which we all signed and Petra baked him a cake. Once all the frivolities where out of the way, time to continue racing and we\u2019re up to 6th spot heading for the next compulsory gate, I thought the lightening storms we\u2019d seen in the previous race where big, but these are frightening. The sky lights up every few seconds with both sheet and very intimidating bolt lightening with the odd grumble of thunder, certainly one hell of a light show. Just before watch change over, a quick head sail change, with the Yankee 2 down and the Yankee 1 up. With the next watch up on deck, the sail is flaked, bagged and back in the sail locker. I\u2019m down the stairs like a rabbit into its warren, heading for my bed. Fingers crossed I get some sleep. Here\u2019s hoping for some proper sleep next week and a quick passage into Washington DC<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We\u2019ve left Panama and on our way to Washington DC for race 11 and the finish of the penultimate leg. Not long till home now but this has been a really interesting stop over and the one place I was so interested to see because of the Panama Canal, its engineering and its impact on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\n