So, the World is a small place - With this blog you can follow the travels of the fantastic yacht Ocean Lady as she sails around the world.
It's extremely hot today onboard Ocean Lady, even at 8 am the sun was too
hot to sit in.
We hope to cross the equator at supper time tonight, then arrive in the
Galapagos islands around noon tomorrow.
Unfortunately the wind has not been strong enough to sail today, and the
forecast is not favorable for the next 24 hours, so we are powering along
thanks to Perkins (the engine) our honorary fifth member of the crew - and
by far the hardest working.
Speak soon,
Ocean Lady
its incredibly hot today, the sea water is over 30 deg C!! We have the
spinnaker up and are ghosting along at 5 knots.
The motion is comfortable and we are all enjoying ourselves.
We have been having a chat with an Aussie boat "Sea Falke" via the SSB radio
who are further north than Ocean Lady and plan to arrive on Saturday, by
coincidence their skipper Jeff shares a birthday today with Stu. Stu's been
spoilt today, thank you for the video messages and cards sent from home.
We also gained another follower yesterday when Stu's sister and partner Owen
had a baby girl, welcome to the world Evelyn Taylor.
Our noon position was 01 14N, 85 59W and we hope to cross the equator
tomorrow afternoon.
Hope everybody at home is well,
Love Ocean Lady
Life onboard is all good, We have had unexpectedly good winds, yesterday we
had 20-25 knots for most of the day and made great progress, today the winds
have been lighter (5-15knts) but with the spinnaker up we have made good
speeds in the right direction. Generally the winds die during the night and
we have to motor for a few hours rather than roll around going nowhere very
fast!
Last night we had a bird land on the top of the mast, he/she was obviously
very tired and saw Ocean Lady as a free ride. He/she wasn't even put off
when we put the tricolor mast head light on - although the bird did look
very funny with a red beak and green tail. This morning we saw a whale for
the first time, it briefly came close to Ocean Lady for a couple of
appearances then disappeared.
With this progress we expect to get to San Cristobal on Friday.
Our noon position yesterday was: 03 14N, 82 11W
and today was: 02 17N, 84 08W
We hope everyone at home is well,
Love Ocean Lady
After a slow windless night which involved a little bit of engine usage we
have now had the spinnaker up for the last 8 hours, pulling us along between
4-6 knots. The motion of the boat is very smooth with a slight sea running,
We even managed to catch a small tuna today which will be cooked for
tonight's supper!
Our noon position was 04 37N, 80 39W with 570 nautical miles left to go.
Hope everybody at home is well,
Love Ocean Lady
We were fortunate to be able to sail throughout the night with a poled out
Yankee and two reefs in the mainsail, with two knots of current and 5-7
knots of boat speed, we had good first days run.
This morning the wind reduced in strength and we hoisted the spinnaker for
the first time on the trip. Only for the wind to increase at lunchtime, so
the kite was dropped and we had our sandwiches!!! We are now sailing with
the poled out Yankee and full main making good progress.
Our noon position was 06 deg 10N, 79 deg 47W.
Happy Birthday Siani for today.
Love Ocean Lady
Since transiting the Panama canal we had to wait in Balboa for a few days to
do some more shopping and wait for a TNT parcel to catch us up. We gave the
sender the address from the pilot book only to arrive at Balboa Yacht Club
and find that it burnt down 10 years ago and now has a new address - highly
annoying.
The anchorage was dirty and smelly, so swimming wasn't an option, but the
skyline of all the skyscrapers in Panama City made up for it.
Once we had our parcel we set sail for the Las Perlas islands, a group of 13
islands 40 miles south-east of Balboa. The sail across was lovely, 20-25
knots of breeze beam reaching, our first anchorage was to the south of Isla
Pacheca, an uninhabited island full of frigate birds and pelicans. The sight
of so many birds soaring was magnificent, and a nice swim to cool off.
We then moved over to the main island, Isla Contadora. The swimming was
fairly murky and with a strong tide quite awkward!!
We are now on our way to the Galapagos, it is going to be a slow passage and
generally would be at any time of year. But so far we have had a lovely day
sailing making 4-4.5 knots - lets hope it lasts.
Hope everyone at home is well.
Love Ocean Lady
Dear all,
Where do we start, so much has happened in the last 6 days. After a trip into Colon to have a new high pressure hose made up we could see that the city was pretty run down and not the safest place to hang out. The marina complex is nice and safe with swimming pool, internet, bar and restaurant. Our “Admeasurer” arrived on Tuesday to measure up Ocean Lady for her transit, later in the afternoon our agent arrived to discuss a transit date which we opted for Friday or as soon as possible after. Wednesday saw the whole crew indulge in a massive shopping trip to fill Ocean Lady up with as much as possible to try and avoid the steep prices reported in French Polynesia.
On Thursday Alan has successfully repaired the windlass until the new part arrives in Balboa and the last of the jobs were being done. Thursday night our tyres and ropes were delivered by the agents’ crew, we then treated ourselves to a lovely meal in the restaurant where the steak and chips were superb. We were joined by Craig our volunteered Aussie line handler for a few beers. Laura was trying to describe to him the Aussie biscuit like a penguin biscuit (because she couldn’t remember the name) in the UK that you bite each end off and suck tea or coffee through – by the end of the night not having a clue what Laura was talking about Craig and Margaret were convinced these were chocolate shaped penguins (They are actually called Tim Tams!!)
Friday morning we exchanged details with a couple of other boats going out to the Galapagos Islands so we could keep an informal radio schedule with them, Odesseus a New Zealand vessel on a delivery trip due to be in Auckland in April and Sea Fawke an Aussie vessel similar in size to Ocean Lady. By midday our line handlers Craig and James were on board and we departed the marina to the anchorage in the harbour where our advisor would join us.
By 14.30 our advisor was on board and we started the journey into the canal system up through Gatun Lock to Gatun Lake. On the approach to the lock we could see two rather large crocodiles’ resting on the shore. We entered the first of the three chambers behind a bulk carrier and alongside a sports fishing vessel en-route to Ecuador. Through each chamber we gained over 10m of height before entering Gatun Lake where we anchored for the night, our neighbours in the sports fisher could go fast enough to do their transit in one day and were soon a dot on the horizon. A large spaghetti
Bolognese and a few beers before heading to bed. Gatun lake is now the second largest manmade lake in the world, formed when the Rio Charges was dammed to create the canal system almost a hundred years ago.
We were woken at 5.15 by our Aussie helper Craig saying to the pilot launch “G’day mate” apparently because of our boat speed he was told to turn up to work for 3am! We started the transit in the dark with a well buoyed channel. Most of the trip is undertaken through the lake and the channels dug into it, It was hard to believe that 100 years ago these were being dug out, without the use of mechanical diggers and large earth moving equipment – let alone health and safety! Some of the narrow channels have literally been carved through rock faces.
After a few hours steaming we arrived at the next lock Pedro Miguel lock where we transited on our own being held in the centre of the lock with four mooring lines. A heaving line with a monkeys fist to thrown on board to connect these, keep your eyes open because these could really cause a headache if they caught you!!
Going down in the locks is considerably less turbulent and the loads in the lines were not excessive if tended to regularly. Once through the Pedro Miguel lock we entered the Miraflores lake and then into the Miraflores lock, a two chambered lock overlooked by a webcam and visitors centre who gave a shout out to “Ocean Lady from the UK” and received a great cheer. Equally family and friends at home could see the webcam that kindly focused on Ocean Lady.
The last lock gate opened and we were in the Pacific – quite a weird sensation.
Once through and under the Bridge of the Americas we continued around to an anchorage and launched the dinghy to take the tyres, lines and line handlers ashore. Once anchored we were treated to a shoal of rays swimming along. Ashore, we met our agent who asked how the trip went “uneventful – just the way we like it”. In all the canal process was dealt with so efficiently by our agent (who we would thoroughly recommend – Erick Galvez from Centenario Consultant Agency)) we could focus on getting the boat ready. The cost for the canal transit was just over $950 which for what you get is great value, the canal operators definitely take yachts through at a loss. The canal system is amazing employing over 9.5k people plus subcontractors, the thought that the concept was dreamt about over 100 years ago without accurate cartography, computer software to model it and verify the concept, let alone the man power to create the canal system which would have been colossal.
Now we are having an early night and lie-in to compensate for a busy and stressful couple of days.
Lots of Love,
Ocean Lady
Ocean Lady in the Miraflores Lock
Good bye Atlantic
Passing traffic going through the canal
Centenario Bridge and the Galliard Cut
Pacific Ocean meet Ocean Lady, Ocean Lady meet the Pacific Ocean
