MADDELYN ROSE
Homeward - Key West to Hawaii;
After checking the weather and doing some shopping for fresh veggie's all looked good for the next week with 10 to 15 knots of easterly wind all the way to Panama so we decided to depart, cleared Customs and Border Patrol ( CBP ) with no problems although we were expecting something weird to be thrown at us as we had had ridiculous issues with the authorities in other places in the USA.
We headed of at midday on the 10th Dec, cleared the entrance of Key West and headed due west to avoid thegulf stream that runs at 2 to 3 knots in an easterly direction, then after a day turned due south, this put us crossing the gulf stream at right angles, the weather was as forecast up till we rounded Cape Antonino
( western tip of Cuba ) once around the cape the wind picked up to 25 to 30 knots from the south east and the seas increased to about 15 feet, this put the seas on the port bow, it as a bit lumpy but ok and Maddelyn Rose was handling it.
The further south we went the stronger the wind got and the seas became bigger, by the third day we had 30 to 35 knots south easterly wind and seas at 20 to 30 feet that were steep and close together, very uncomfortable, had to keep a constance watch and alter course slightly every now and then to be safe as some seas were hitting us beam on and tossing us around quite badly, every now and then we would get a green ( wave ) land on the fore deck.
The conditions lasted for the next 4 days right up till about 10 nm of the entrance to Colon, Panama and even then it was still blowing 30 knots with 12 foot seas, the approach to Colon can be a bit tricky as there are many freighter anchored in and around the fairway, bit like playing pin ball, only after inside the break water did the seas calm down but not the wind.
We arrived at Colon early morning on the 17th, called the harbor master on VHF and got permission to enter the harbor and go to Shelter Bay marina, Colon harbor is a very busy port as it is the in and out from the Panama Canal and is controlled similar to and airport, we did hear on the VHF harbor control giving one boat a right rark up for entering without permission.
Finally tied up at Shelter Bay marina 0730 after 6 days 20 hours at sea, cleared into Panama with the port captain and immigration with little problems, their office took Bill quit a while to find as it was about 8 ft x 8 ft and looked like a grubby out house, once we settled in, had a little sleep.
The marina was ok but us being 60 foot it was a bit tight fitting into a 40 foot berth and the entrance was tricky as very narrow, managed to turn around with 3 feet space fore and aft and berth stern to, had a big tidy up, Rose wiped the inside with fresh water as there was damp salt water covering everything from the trip, moved the plastic drums onto aft end of fly bridge to make space on the aft deck.
As we were walking about Bill noticed immediately a yacht that was almost exactly the same Lassitude that he built back in 1992
We asked several people for a recommendation of an agent to transit us through the canal, Eric Galves name come every time so contacted him and he arrived onboard within 2 hours as he promised and we started the process of transiting the canal. We had been advised and all the info off the internet was to us an agent as the process of transiting can be frustrating if one tries to do it alone, the extra cost for the agent was offset by a bond we would have to put if not using an agent. Eric arranged everything from boat measurement, transit schedule, extra fenders, 125 feet lines needed for the locks, 4 local line handlers and port clearance from Colon on the Atlantic side to Balboa on the Pacific side. We arrived on the 17th and Eric had made all the arrangements to transit on the 20th, only 3 days to organize, we meet a couple of other boats doing the paper work themselves and after 10 days still had not got a transit date.
On Thursday the 19th the agent dropped off eight fenders and the four 150 foot ropes needed for the canal transit, Bill spaced the fenders alongside and then added our own fenders, Maddelyn Rose looked like a tug boat with all the fenders and ropes everywhere.
At midday on Friday the 20th the four line handlers arrived and we headed out of Shelter Bay
to an area called the flats ( meeting place and pilot boarding for small vessels transiting the canal ) about 2 mile from the canal entrance where we waited for the pilot for about 3 hours, finally at 1615 hours the pilot arrived and we started for the canal, every vessel whether small or large has to have a pilot when in canal area.
We had asked for what is called center lock, that is we are in the middle of lock with one line from each corner of us to the bollards on the lock walls, we had been advised not to accept wall lock as one ties alongside the wall and slides up the rough concrete walls as the water rises, there was another small yacht about 33 feet transiting at the same time so the pilot wanted the yacht to raft alongside us which we did, this mean’t that the yacht just hung onto us like a leach ( they were French anyway, lazy buggers ) and did nothing, our line handlers had to do all the work and Bill had to control both vessels, not easy and had to use lots of horse power and bow thruster because the turbulence was swinging us about.
We entered the first Atlantic side lock at 1700 hours behind a freighter, the lines were attached, lock gates closed and the water became to rise, it only took 5 minutes to fill, raised us 30 feet and then lock gates opened and we all moved including freighter into the next lock and repeated the process, this we did three times and rose up some 85 feet above the Atlantic level, sometime during the up locking the GPS decided to stop working.
By the time we existed the final lock it was dark, no moon, pitch black and couldn’t see the bow, we let go the yacht from alongside the pilot told us we were to moor to a bouy 2 mile away and to go full speed while giving Bill course directions, scary at the best of times but even more so with no GPS or radar as we the radar was turned off, finally we sighted the bouy at about 20 feet, still doing 9 knots, did an emergency stop, moored to it, stress level by this time was way up there in the high nineties, the pilot then got picked up by a pilot boat and departed saying there would be another pilot arrive at 0630 next morning.
Bill spent about 4 hours trying to figure out what the problem was with GPS but to no avail, this only added to stress level that went up a notch or 2.
We had to feed and water the line handlers as they stayed with us , Rose did a great job for dinner which was rice based with a stir fry, we had a restless night and awoke 0500 Saturday 21st, new pilot arrived 0630 so we set of again for the Pacific side locks, no GPS but as the channel was extensively marked no problem, it is about 35 mile across the lake following a twisting channel,
because we were ahead of time we had to tie up to another mooring bouy for a couple of hours,
this one was easy as it was full daylight and we could see the dam thing, at 1500 we arrived at the first Pacific lock, there are three locks in total on the down side, one lock then 1 mile further there are two more locks, we were lucky on the down locking as we tied alongside a rusty listing passenger ferry full of tourists who took millions of photos of us and were constantly asking where we were from and where we were going, Bill was of course to busy and found other things to do ( really ) so delegated Rose to answer and had fun embroiling our journey.
We were at the head of the lock this time and had a rather large car carrier ship just behind us which had Rose worried as it come closer and closer and closer, ( the photo does not show how close )
As we were tied alongside the ferry and they were wall locked they slid down the wall and the ferry was a huge fender for us and we had a very easy time on down locking, at each lock we moved away from the ferry, the ferry moved forward and we come back alongside again, tricky each time as there was always swirly water that wanted to twist us about, having two engines and bow thruster was certainly a benefit.
After dropping down a total of 80 feet we finally cleared the lock system at 1630, passed under the Bridge of the America’s ( looked very similar to the Auckland harbor bridge ) that for years was the only way to drive from central America to south America until the Centenial bridge was built, the pilot was picked up by pilot boat, we dropped the line handlers, fenders and ropes at Balboa yacht club then anchored at flamenco bay 1800, finding the anchorage was a bit nerve racking as getting dark and still no GPS, only following directions the pilot gave us.
Bill had a couple of beers and Rose had a baileys to lower the stress level which worked a treat.
Some interesting facts about the Panama canal, it was started by the French in 1880 but gave up after a few years ( that’s usual for the French ) the Americans took over and completed the canal in 1914 and controlled it to 1999 when the canal was handed back to Panama, it is estimated that about 35,000 people died during the construction.
Balboa or Panama city as it is commonly know was a surprise to us, after Colon which looked dirty and uninviting we were expecting the same at Balboa but the skyline with the modern skyscrapers was a pleasant change, the weather was certainly different on the Pacific side, just about every morning we were treated to some spectacular sunrises, sunny hot days with some howlers in the afternoon.
We were anchored out so had to dinghy in which was an experience in itself, tie dinghy to rusty pontoon with holes in the deck, then get in very small leaky dinghy and pull one self across to slippery steps ( someone had set up a pulley system ) just getting in and out of dinghy was a act that would make any circus performer proud then dealing with the slippery steps was another experience, Rose had a little mishap and got a bit wet, say no more !!
The main language is Spanish which Rose understood about half with some but not all speaking english so communicating was not to bad, we were low on fresh food o got a taxi to a local mall where there was a supermarket, what a mad house being two days before xmas and most of the population out shopping, the supermarket didn't have much of a selection but we managed to get enough for a few days.
After a few days we found the locals in Panama not to be very friendly, getting ashore was an ordeal and dangerous at times so we decided move onto Golfito in Costa Rica, we needed to get fuel as we had not fueled up since Key West, ( had just enough fuel to get to Golfito but wanted safety margin ) so we picked up anchor on the 27th and went to Flameco Marina, when we got there we were told that they had no fuel and in no uncertain terms told to get out of the marina, we cleared immigration etc anyway later in the afternoon, on the way back from immigration we stopped into the Flameco Marina and spoke to the dock master and were told they expected fuel delivery in the evening and to come in next morning at 0730.
Early morning on the 28th we were back at the Flameco marina and again got same response as previous day, got kicked out again, however Rose used her charm and managed to talk to the dock master on VHF and finally we were allowed in to fuel up at 0930, Bill over the years has been to uncountable marinas but has never come across such a bad experience as the Flameco marina, the staff were the most surly, unhelpful and rudest he has ever come across.
After finally topping up with fuel we departed Panama for Golfito, had a calm 47 hour, 360 nm trip apart from about 6 hours when the wind got up with about 6 to 8 foot head on seas, ( bash crash again ) we had two birds ( the two legged types ) land on the fore deck which they stayed for a day until Rose chased them away for committing a cardinal sin ( crapping on the deck deck )
Arrived Golfito 0830 on the 30th and tied up at the Fish Hook marina which we had been told was the best and safest place to be, ( Costa Rica has a reputation for getting items stolen off of boats if anchored out ) the owner and his staff were there to meet us, help tie up and made us fell at home, the Fish Hook was a welcome change from the surly rude Flameco marina.
When we were in Colon, Panama we mentioned to the canal transit agent that we planned to drive Maddelyn Rose back to New Zealand, he suggested that we ship Maddelyn Rose as it would be cheaper and gave us the contact of a yacht transport company, ( Dock wise Yacht Transport ) we contacted Dock wise, did our homework on shipping costs, air fares verses fuel, port / mooring fees, ware and tear and related expenses to drive back to NZ, the outcome was it was cheaper to ship Maddelyn Rose so that is what we did.
Dock wise schedule was for their submersible ship the Super Servant 4 to unload and load vessels at Golfito ( that is why we went direct to Golfito from Balboa, although we had not decided 100% to ship and were not confirmed to load ) On the 4th Jan we loaded Maddelyn Rose, a very simple and easy procedure, submerge the Super Servant 4, drive Maddelyn Rose in, tie up, then refloat the Super Servant 4.
We arranged with the help of Michael from Fish Hook marina air fares back to NZ, so after spending the night of the 4th at the Fish Hook lodge we flew out of Golfito on a very small plane to San Jose
the Capital of Costa Rica, from San Jose to Phoenix to LA to Auckland and arrived Auckland early morning on the 8th Jan where Bills sister Jayne picked us up.
We know everyone was looking foreword to reading about our travels ( as we were having them ) but we decided in the end that the economics played a major part in shipping Maddelyn Rose to NZ, this is not the end of our travels as once Maddelyn Rose arrives in early February our new adventure is once we are settled to cruise NZ waters.
We would like to thank each and everyone we met on our travels for their friendship, we enjoyed your company as we hope you enjoyed ours, stay in touch.
This is not the end of our web site as we will continue to add to as we cruise.
Now go to New Zealand.
After checking the weather and doing some shopping for fresh veggie's all looked good for the next week with 10 to 15 knots of easterly wind all the way to Panama so we decided to depart, cleared Customs and Border Patrol ( CBP ) with no problems although we were expecting something weird to be thrown at us as we had had ridiculous issues with the authorities in other places in the USA.
We headed of at midday on the 10th Dec, cleared the entrance of Key West and headed due west to avoid thegulf stream that runs at 2 to 3 knots in an easterly direction, then after a day turned due south, this put us crossing the gulf stream at right angles, the weather was as forecast up till we rounded Cape Antonino
( western tip of Cuba ) once around the cape the wind picked up to 25 to 30 knots from the south east and the seas increased to about 15 feet, this put the seas on the port bow, it as a bit lumpy but ok and Maddelyn Rose was handling it.
The further south we went the stronger the wind got and the seas became bigger, by the third day we had 30 to 35 knots south easterly wind and seas at 20 to 30 feet that were steep and close together, very uncomfortable, had to keep a constance watch and alter course slightly every now and then to be safe as some seas were hitting us beam on and tossing us around quite badly, every now and then we would get a green ( wave ) land on the fore deck.
The conditions lasted for the next 4 days right up till about 10 nm of the entrance to Colon, Panama and even then it was still blowing 30 knots with 12 foot seas, the approach to Colon can be a bit tricky as there are many freighter anchored in and around the fairway, bit like playing pin ball, only after inside the break water did the seas calm down but not the wind.
We arrived at Colon early morning on the 17th, called the harbor master on VHF and got permission to enter the harbor and go to Shelter Bay marina, Colon harbor is a very busy port as it is the in and out from the Panama Canal and is controlled similar to and airport, we did hear on the VHF harbor control giving one boat a right rark up for entering without permission.
Finally tied up at Shelter Bay marina 0730 after 6 days 20 hours at sea, cleared into Panama with the port captain and immigration with little problems, their office took Bill quit a while to find as it was about 8 ft x 8 ft and looked like a grubby out house, once we settled in, had a little sleep.
The marina was ok but us being 60 foot it was a bit tight fitting into a 40 foot berth and the entrance was tricky as very narrow, managed to turn around with 3 feet space fore and aft and berth stern to, had a big tidy up, Rose wiped the inside with fresh water as there was damp salt water covering everything from the trip, moved the plastic drums onto aft end of fly bridge to make space on the aft deck.
As we were walking about Bill noticed immediately a yacht that was almost exactly the same Lassitude that he built back in 1992
We asked several people for a recommendation of an agent to transit us through the canal, Eric Galves name come every time so contacted him and he arrived onboard within 2 hours as he promised and we started the process of transiting the canal. We had been advised and all the info off the internet was to us an agent as the process of transiting can be frustrating if one tries to do it alone, the extra cost for the agent was offset by a bond we would have to put if not using an agent. Eric arranged everything from boat measurement, transit schedule, extra fenders, 125 feet lines needed for the locks, 4 local line handlers and port clearance from Colon on the Atlantic side to Balboa on the Pacific side. We arrived on the 17th and Eric had made all the arrangements to transit on the 20th, only 3 days to organize, we meet a couple of other boats doing the paper work themselves and after 10 days still had not got a transit date.
On Thursday the 19th the agent dropped off eight fenders and the four 150 foot ropes needed for the canal transit, Bill spaced the fenders alongside and then added our own fenders, Maddelyn Rose looked like a tug boat with all the fenders and ropes everywhere.
At midday on Friday the 20th the four line handlers arrived and we headed out of Shelter Bay
to an area called the flats ( meeting place and pilot boarding for small vessels transiting the canal ) about 2 mile from the canal entrance where we waited for the pilot for about 3 hours, finally at 1615 hours the pilot arrived and we started for the canal, every vessel whether small or large has to have a pilot when in canal area.
We had asked for what is called center lock, that is we are in the middle of lock with one line from each corner of us to the bollards on the lock walls, we had been advised not to accept wall lock as one ties alongside the wall and slides up the rough concrete walls as the water rises, there was another small yacht about 33 feet transiting at the same time so the pilot wanted the yacht to raft alongside us which we did, this mean’t that the yacht just hung onto us like a leach ( they were French anyway, lazy buggers ) and did nothing, our line handlers had to do all the work and Bill had to control both vessels, not easy and had to use lots of horse power and bow thruster because the turbulence was swinging us about.
We entered the first Atlantic side lock at 1700 hours behind a freighter, the lines were attached, lock gates closed and the water became to rise, it only took 5 minutes to fill, raised us 30 feet and then lock gates opened and we all moved including freighter into the next lock and repeated the process, this we did three times and rose up some 85 feet above the Atlantic level, sometime during the up locking the GPS decided to stop working.
By the time we existed the final lock it was dark, no moon, pitch black and couldn’t see the bow, we let go the yacht from alongside the pilot told us we were to moor to a bouy 2 mile away and to go full speed while giving Bill course directions, scary at the best of times but even more so with no GPS or radar as we the radar was turned off, finally we sighted the bouy at about 20 feet, still doing 9 knots, did an emergency stop, moored to it, stress level by this time was way up there in the high nineties, the pilot then got picked up by a pilot boat and departed saying there would be another pilot arrive at 0630 next morning.
Bill spent about 4 hours trying to figure out what the problem was with GPS but to no avail, this only added to stress level that went up a notch or 2.
We had to feed and water the line handlers as they stayed with us , Rose did a great job for dinner which was rice based with a stir fry, we had a restless night and awoke 0500 Saturday 21st, new pilot arrived 0630 so we set of again for the Pacific side locks, no GPS but as the channel was extensively marked no problem, it is about 35 mile across the lake following a twisting channel,
because we were ahead of time we had to tie up to another mooring bouy for a couple of hours,
this one was easy as it was full daylight and we could see the dam thing, at 1500 we arrived at the first Pacific lock, there are three locks in total on the down side, one lock then 1 mile further there are two more locks, we were lucky on the down locking as we tied alongside a rusty listing passenger ferry full of tourists who took millions of photos of us and were constantly asking where we were from and where we were going, Bill was of course to busy and found other things to do ( really ) so delegated Rose to answer and had fun embroiling our journey.
We were at the head of the lock this time and had a rather large car carrier ship just behind us which had Rose worried as it come closer and closer and closer, ( the photo does not show how close )
As we were tied alongside the ferry and they were wall locked they slid down the wall and the ferry was a huge fender for us and we had a very easy time on down locking, at each lock we moved away from the ferry, the ferry moved forward and we come back alongside again, tricky each time as there was always swirly water that wanted to twist us about, having two engines and bow thruster was certainly a benefit.
After dropping down a total of 80 feet we finally cleared the lock system at 1630, passed under the Bridge of the America’s ( looked very similar to the Auckland harbor bridge ) that for years was the only way to drive from central America to south America until the Centenial bridge was built, the pilot was picked up by pilot boat, we dropped the line handlers, fenders and ropes at Balboa yacht club then anchored at flamenco bay 1800, finding the anchorage was a bit nerve racking as getting dark and still no GPS, only following directions the pilot gave us.
Bill had a couple of beers and Rose had a baileys to lower the stress level which worked a treat.
Some interesting facts about the Panama canal, it was started by the French in 1880 but gave up after a few years ( that’s usual for the French ) the Americans took over and completed the canal in 1914 and controlled it to 1999 when the canal was handed back to Panama, it is estimated that about 35,000 people died during the construction.
Balboa or Panama city as it is commonly know was a surprise to us, after Colon which looked dirty and uninviting we were expecting the same at Balboa but the skyline with the modern skyscrapers was a pleasant change, the weather was certainly different on the Pacific side, just about every morning we were treated to some spectacular sunrises, sunny hot days with some howlers in the afternoon.
We were anchored out so had to dinghy in which was an experience in itself, tie dinghy to rusty pontoon with holes in the deck, then get in very small leaky dinghy and pull one self across to slippery steps ( someone had set up a pulley system ) just getting in and out of dinghy was a act that would make any circus performer proud then dealing with the slippery steps was another experience, Rose had a little mishap and got a bit wet, say no more !!
The main language is Spanish which Rose understood about half with some but not all speaking english so communicating was not to bad, we were low on fresh food o got a taxi to a local mall where there was a supermarket, what a mad house being two days before xmas and most of the population out shopping, the supermarket didn't have much of a selection but we managed to get enough for a few days.
After a few days we found the locals in Panama not to be very friendly, getting ashore was an ordeal and dangerous at times so we decided move onto Golfito in Costa Rica, we needed to get fuel as we had not fueled up since Key West, ( had just enough fuel to get to Golfito but wanted safety margin ) so we picked up anchor on the 27th and went to Flameco Marina, when we got there we were told that they had no fuel and in no uncertain terms told to get out of the marina, we cleared immigration etc anyway later in the afternoon, on the way back from immigration we stopped into the Flameco Marina and spoke to the dock master and were told they expected fuel delivery in the evening and to come in next morning at 0730.
Early morning on the 28th we were back at the Flameco marina and again got same response as previous day, got kicked out again, however Rose used her charm and managed to talk to the dock master on VHF and finally we were allowed in to fuel up at 0930, Bill over the years has been to uncountable marinas but has never come across such a bad experience as the Flameco marina, the staff were the most surly, unhelpful and rudest he has ever come across.
After finally topping up with fuel we departed Panama for Golfito, had a calm 47 hour, 360 nm trip apart from about 6 hours when the wind got up with about 6 to 8 foot head on seas, ( bash crash again ) we had two birds ( the two legged types ) land on the fore deck which they stayed for a day until Rose chased them away for committing a cardinal sin ( crapping on the deck deck )
Arrived Golfito 0830 on the 30th and tied up at the Fish Hook marina which we had been told was the best and safest place to be, ( Costa Rica has a reputation for getting items stolen off of boats if anchored out ) the owner and his staff were there to meet us, help tie up and made us fell at home, the Fish Hook was a welcome change from the surly rude Flameco marina.
When we were in Colon, Panama we mentioned to the canal transit agent that we planned to drive Maddelyn Rose back to New Zealand, he suggested that we ship Maddelyn Rose as it would be cheaper and gave us the contact of a yacht transport company, ( Dock wise Yacht Transport ) we contacted Dock wise, did our homework on shipping costs, air fares verses fuel, port / mooring fees, ware and tear and related expenses to drive back to NZ, the outcome was it was cheaper to ship Maddelyn Rose so that is what we did.
Dock wise schedule was for their submersible ship the Super Servant 4 to unload and load vessels at Golfito ( that is why we went direct to Golfito from Balboa, although we had not decided 100% to ship and were not confirmed to load ) On the 4th Jan we loaded Maddelyn Rose, a very simple and easy procedure, submerge the Super Servant 4, drive Maddelyn Rose in, tie up, then refloat the Super Servant 4.
We arranged with the help of Michael from Fish Hook marina air fares back to NZ, so after spending the night of the 4th at the Fish Hook lodge we flew out of Golfito on a very small plane to San Jose
the Capital of Costa Rica, from San Jose to Phoenix to LA to Auckland and arrived Auckland early morning on the 8th Jan where Bills sister Jayne picked us up.
We know everyone was looking foreword to reading about our travels ( as we were having them ) but we decided in the end that the economics played a major part in shipping Maddelyn Rose to NZ, this is not the end of our travels as once Maddelyn Rose arrives in early February our new adventure is once we are settled to cruise NZ waters.
We would like to thank each and everyone we met on our travels for their friendship, we enjoyed your company as we hope you enjoyed ours, stay in touch.
This is not the end of our web site as we will continue to add to as we cruise.
Now go to New Zealand.
