Preparing for the Panama Canal

Sea Child has covered over 1400 miles in the last 6 months of sailing around the Caribbean. We have shared some of the highlights of these miles in the blog posts, below, and now find ourselves back in Panama after 3 months back home to prepare ourselves for the next big leg of our journey. During our last visit to Panama, we collided with a large tree stump that was floating offshore of Rio Chagres, as we were sailing west to Bocas del Toro. This collision was abrupt, causing us concern over our starboard rudder and the integrity of its seals. We decided that hauling Sea Child out at Shelter Bay Marina at the Panama Canal was the best way to ensure that there are no problems as we prepare for our transit through the canal.

Panama in August is hot, humid and still. A breath of breeze is a blessing, as the afternoon convection build-up threatens to open the skies at any given moment. On the hard at Shelter Bay, Sea Child is getting her wiring inspected, refrigeration recharged, and SSB calibrated. Drydock will be fast, however, since the yard shuts down for 10 days at the end of August. Once we dropped the starboard rudder, we found that Sea Child is built sound and true, that the damage was negligible, and minor glass work would be needed to shore up a small crack in the leading edge of the rudder. Two days work, and we will be back in the water by the end of the week.

Today it takes 3 days at most to prepare everything to transit the canal. This is a sharp contrast to just a year ago, when the transit process included waiting 4-6 weeks for a position, once all the paperwork was completed. We feel fortunate that things have eased up a bit. When we were here in May, you could count well over 40 large freighters sitting off the Caribbean side of the canal awaiting transit. When we entered the zone this trip, we counted only 16 ships. Maybe the world economy is affecting the demand of canal use. In any case, we expect to transit in 2 weeks time.

Posted from the Melia Hotel, Colon, Panama Canal. Sea Child sits on the hard at Shelter Bay.

9 degrees, 20 minutes N, 79 degrees, 54 minutes W