After a year in the Caribbean, the decision was made to head for the Pacific, but as they passed the Central American Coast, Thomas woefully claimed that they should have spent more time exploring there. Too late. The plan had been made and would have recreated quite a bit of juggling to replan weather and timing wise.
Dagmar, Thomas’ older sister joined Qi for the passage to Panama from Jamaica. Having done several races in the South China Sea, Dagmar felt confident that her sea legs would reappear. Unfortunately, they did not, but she was a real trooper and maintained her dignity during night watches until miraculously feeling better at the sight of land. The crew had their first stopover on the Colombian island of Providencia.
With no cars on the island, the crew hired a golf buggy but found that a trip around the island only took a bit over an hour, so they went around again. This time, they picked up a hitchhiker, a beautiful Colombian DJ who was just out for a walk but couldn’t resist meeting some incredibly interesting looking cruisers. They all ended up at the beach bar where the young lady was employed for nightly entertainment and partook in the local beverages – freshly made Pina colada. The large barman came walking out with a machete looking quite fearsome, looking at the audience from the corner of his eye, whipped up a coconut and sliced the top off in one foul swoop. Local rum and pineapple juice was added and wallah!
After a few days and Dagmar deciding that she must have eaten something off in Jamaica before leaving, the crew set off towards Portobello, Panama. As soon as Qi was out of the sight of Land, Dagmar came to the realisation that it was all about the sight of land and her sea legs were wobbling again. In Dagmar’s defence, the rebound of the Atlantic swell off the Central American coast was unsettling. At one stage, with the captain on watch, and the course aligned to sail between two reefs, the swell was so reckless that Qi was nearly knocked down. Water came over the side of the high combing of the centre-cockpit and the captain was swamped. He’d just cozied himself up with a quilt and pillows for the long watch, but was now soaked. Below deck, Gaylyn and Dagmar had been thrown onto the side of their cabins. It happened twice in a matter of minutes and was quite unnerving.
It was a relief to arrive in Dagmar’s country of birth, Panama. After trying hard to find where to check in, Thomas found an office. He was briefly documented and then dismissed. It must have been siesta. After some socialising and exploring in the harbour, the crew moved off to the San Blas Islands. These were a tropical wonderland with small cays and sandy beaches. Home to the Kuna Indians, each island provided fresh fruit and coconuts.
After several weeks of exploring and swimming, Dagmar was due to fly home and Gaylyn was due to fly back to Australia for a visit. Thomas found a nice bay to hangout in while he waited to organise the passage through the Panama Canal.
It was in the bay where Thomas was hanging out, that the true version of bad monkeys was evident. An eccentric old person had previously had a zoo on one of the islands, that included some monkeys. Whether the monkeys in question were some original ones or descendants of the old ones, was not the issue. It was their behaviour that had made them quite infamous. Some of the stories included; a woman took some bananas over to them and passed them over on the paddle of her kayak. One monkey took the bananas and the paddle and proceeded to hit the woman over the head with the paddle causing injuries. Another story was that a family of photographers went there and had their very expensive camera stolen by them. One girl told Gaylyn that her brother had befriended them and would go skateboarding in the ruins of the old house over a period of three months. This relationship came to an abrupt end when cuddling one monkey as he rode around, another monkey, up above on the old rafters became jealous, came down and beat him up, breaking his arm. Gaylyn and Thomas braved the stories and ventured to the shoreline for a brief walk. It didn’t take long before one of the monkeys appeared in a tree above them. She looked awfully sweet and was lulling Thomas into a false sense of safety and he nearly reached out to greet her. Fortunately, he came to his senses and pulled back in time. They left the island unscathed and forever wary of bad monkeys. They are not cute creatures.
A journey to Colon, one of the highest crime areas of Panama, to pay the money for the crossing in cash to the correct authorities, had Thomas appreciating his height and statue. Once again, stories of crime and attacks were in the foreground of the crew ensuring to walk confidently and with intent.
Before the crossing, Gaylyn and Thomas joined the Panhandlers website to crew on a boat in order to gain some experience about what to expect. They ended up joining a boat coming from the Pacific side to the Atlantic side. The opposite direction for their journey. The skipper involved had done the crossing before and knew what to expect. It was surprisingly hard work throwing the lines up to the helpers at the top of the lochs. Four handlers were needed and the skipper remained with an official pilot who helped direct the procedure of tying up into a packet and going through. It was a good experience and gave the crew an insight of what to expect. Unfortunately, it didn’t help in avoiding a near disaster on their own crossing.
The time came for Qi to go through the canal. The first day of going through the first three lochs and then across the lake in the middle wasn’t entirely uneventful, but not too hairy. On the last loch, the pilot had got Qi and another yacht to separate. So, instead of going through in a packet, they went through individually. As the last loch has a very strong current due to the mix of salt and fresh water, it was important for the timing to be just right. Unfortunately, the other yacht was taking too much time to raft up next to a tourist boat and weren’t ready to take Qi’s lines. With the 7knot current, a 20knot tail wind and a huge car transporter coming up behind them, Qi was racing forward.
Applying reverse stopped working as the coupling broke and Qi was pushed into the tourist boat and then the side wall. Quick thinking of our panhandlers putting fenders in place and throwing lines up above avoided major damage. Perhaps the crew would have been expecting this current had they gone through the canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But the timing was wrong to wait for a boat. As fate had it, the crew were waiting another month for repairs to the coupling and a bit of glass work. Everyone was safe and wiser.
