Harmonica

Cartagena N 10 25 W 75 32 10 April 2001

Dear friends,

Harmonica's position reports are now being logged via email while under way, and you can track us at www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/plotter.asp with vessel code "HARMONIC". She just arrived in Colombia after a lumpy 2 day trip into the wind and current from Panama.

Transiting the Panama Canal was clearly the most exciting event since our last letter. As with all good traveling adventures, we arrived not knowing what to expect, but the unexepcted worked smoothly. 3 friends flew from Canada to help handling lines and we all met at the Balboa Yacht Club despite the skipper tuning Harmonica's VHF radio to 22A after arranging to communicate on channel 22. We read & reread leaflets & books describing the transit process. Agitation grew when the radio net told us of 2 yachts which were dismasted in Pedro Miguel lock when a tug they were tied to swung out under the counter stern of a big tanker. Stories included tales of enormous turbulence, and 3 ft high water spouts when the sluices are first opened, and some texts recommend that only strong men should be selected as the 4 required line-handlers. In the event, our BC representative, Frank, said it was no worse than Porlier pass if you miss slack water. Susan & Janet must have done a manly job because all the lines were handled perfectly.

The Check in with customs, immigration, port authorities, and PCC (the Panama Canal Commission) took 2 or 3 days, but it was relaxed and better organised than some countries we have past. Impatience is hard to avoid when it takes 2 hours in a bank to pay a $300 dollar deposit, and a further 45 min in another to buy $8 worth of stamps to pay harbourmaster, but impatience does no good. Tim & Susan helped by arranging for a beer and a wonderful supper to be waiting when we most needed it. Immigration was a fellow at the head of the dock in Balboa, who was on holiday in Costa Rica when we arrived, so our passports were stamped 4 days later. We were visited by an admeasurer who inspected and measured Harmonica, but chiefly told jokes for 2 hours and completed 3 forms. These included a declaration that our lines could take some impossible load ?100,000 lbs.? and if they failed it would be our fault! It was this or Cape Horn.

To get some practice, we handled lines for a power boat next to us in the anchorage. It was a marvelous day. We went through with a sister ship which had some friends from El Salvador as lines handlers. The 2 boats rafted before the locks and centre-tied with us handling port lines of the raft and them the starboard. Around sunset, we were ashore in Colon on the Caribbean side and shared a taxi back home. 2 Days later, we were out to meet our advisor at 5.00 am and Harmonica entered Miraflores Locks about 8.30. We side-tied to a PCC tug through the 3 up locks. We saw the 2 damaged yachts at Pedro Miguel Boat Club, which were later written off. We shared our lock with a relatively small cruise ship from Norway. Although we expected to anchor above Gatun Locks and descend the next day, the cruise ship was waiting at Gatun. They had left just enough space for little Harmonica to shoot under their bow with the cruisers' cameras trained on us. We down-locked side-tied to the lock wall, thus we used all 3 methods of tying and entered the Caribbean without a scratch. That changed when the old rusty pilot launch came to collect our advisor, but 2 Jugs of beer in the Yacht Club seemed to fix the slightly bent stanchion.

The advisors were good company, well educated. They made it quite clear that their job was to advise & communicate. They also chatted about their country, which seems to be an undiscovered tourist heaven. Whereas Panama City is cosmopolitan, Colon on the Caribbean side is sleepy & predominantly Jamaican dating from labourers from the canal construction around 1900.

Next morning we started a 20 hour sail to Chichimi Cays, the first Island in the long coral-fringed reef known as the San Blas. We all relaxed for a day. Tim taught us how to cook a perfect lobster. San Blas is an autonomous part of Panama inhabited by the colourful Kuna Indians, who descend from the Caribs. Later, in Holandes Cays, the head man of 4 families asked us tactfully for $5 to let us anchor for up to one month by his island. He introduced us to the other families and showed us their village of houses made of palm boughs. We also gave him a used tube of caulking to repair his dugout canoe & in return we were presented with 2 large avocados. We bought fish and embroidered "molas", and we traded some petrol for 3 fresh lobster. They visited frequently in their canoes, but were always tactful and fun to meet.

Tim & Susan had to leave so after Chichimi, we sailed back to the Spanish (now Jamaican) town of Portobelo where there was once so much Inca gold in the warehouses that silver from Potosi was stacked in the street. Harmonica anchored under the rows of Spanish canon pointing out of the jungle. We docked our dinghy at the small home of Pat & Dick, a retired American couple who have lived here for 20 years & are tastefully restoring an old building, where they hope to open a 6 room hotel. Pat has written a history. Each Sunday, the Portobelo church bell is rung by a fellow standing on the tower between the 3 bells holding a pair of enormous drum sticks and waving his entire body as he beats a syncopate rhythm. If no great philosophers come from that part of the world, it might be because of brain damage caused by the west-indian music played on all the busses at a volume near our pain threshold!

We had 2 major unexpected major shopping trips: reaplcement computer & outboard engine, but Panama is cheap for imported goods.

First impressions of Cartagena are that it is very comfortable, and cheap for us westerners. 2 women spent today on our boat cleaning from end to end and chattering the while in spanish dragging me into the conversation when they could. One teacher & one nurse, but they could not find work following social cuts! We may get a few repairs done here.

We are now on our way north again in a new ocean. We are looking at new weather patterns. We have been reading guides for Cuba in the evenings, and may stop briefly in Grand Cayman en route there.

Best wishes from

Dave, Jan, & Harmonica