Finally, finally we have Harvey and Tracker back. It has been a long, arduous, stressful and extremely expensive undertaking. I said to Uli that we would now have to stay in South America for at least 5 years so that the cost/benefit of ferrying the vehicles here would look better!! Not such a bad prospect at all. We came up with the idea to spend 2 years exploring South America because people kept asking us. We thought that 2 years seemed like a good period of time - long enough to see a lot of places but short enough so that our families and friends dont write us off altogether. We shall enjoy each day and take as long as we wish - who's counting?
Would I recommend fellow RV travellers to ship their vehicles from Panama to Colombia via the ferry? Today whilst it is all fresh in my mind, I would say 'No Way-Jose!' But, I think when we get going and exploring and enjoying this continent, I suspect that the stress and horrors of shipping the 2 vehicles will be a distant and vague memory. So ask me again in a few months.
For us the experience of shipping of vehicles was much much better than most other folks. We did not have damage or theft and the vehicles actually made it on the ship.
Other RVers were not so fortunate; a number had items stolen valuing 100's of $US dollars, vehicles were ransacked and movable items taken, especially tools. Oddly, even people's dirty laundry were stolen.
One vehicle that went on a LOLO (Load On Load Off) ship had major damage to the drive shaft under the vehicle so had to have it replaced in Cartagena. this would occur if a vehicle was dropped from a height onto the drive shaft rather than onto the wheels.
A German couple found out that their RV was not put on the ship. They ended up waiting 10 more days for the RV to come, meanwhile they had a dog with them and had to book into a b@b that would accept dogs. 10 days in b@b's soon adds up and food and drink costs will accumulate because you cannot prepare your own meals in your own kitchen(ette).
Also the agency managing their transit refused to accept any blame or responsibility and even started black mailing them saying they would not give the Bill of Laden unless the couple paid more money. The Bill of Laden is a critical piece of paper, without which you cannot get your vehicle out of the receiving port.
We were told by a Swiss German couple not to even attempt to try to get our vehicle out by ourselves because it was too complex a task and they had tried for days with no luck. They then resorted to using an agent. They had a lot of tools stolen.
So, we decided to be kind to ourselves and use an agent in Cartagena to help us get the vehicles out of the port.
Then another German couple who had shipped over a land rover did manage to get their car out with out the use of an agent and it only took them 2 days.
So we felt a bit annoyed with ourselves that we had used the agent when we may have been able to do it ourselves and save the money. We do pride ourselves on travelling independently and being self sufficient so we felt a bit like a couple of whimps after this news.
We felt terrible for the other RVers. We could only sympathise with their plights.
The process to ship vehicles from Central to South America is actually straight forward. What makes it difficult and stressful is the incompetence of the people. In my opinion it is a sham and is designed to confuse and frighten the customer in order to extract as much cash out of them as possible.
However, if you accept this as how it is and you cant change it and you still are motivated to do the voyage then forwarned is forearmed. You have to manage your mind set and accept the risk and the cost. If you can talk your self into believing that you may have stuff damaged and stolen and it will be stressful, time consuming and much more espensive than even the price that they give you when you book the passage, then if you get away with no theft or damage it will feel like a bonus prize. I guess it is reverse psychology; prepare for the absolute worse scenario and if that doesn't happen then you feel lucky, lucky. lucky!!!!
Very few RV's make this trip each year - its about 50! So don't feel bad if you decide to turn your RV around and head home after you have explored Panama City! However, that number is starting to increase slightly, and if enough of us make the trip, then we have more influence over costs and processes and we can make it a better experience for the RV's following us down in the future. I will be writing a blistering email to the agent we used and i will be copying in her superiors. She is incompetent, unprofessional, poorly motivated, seems unable to think stategically, does not respond to emails,does not provide information in a timely manner, is a liar and should be relieved of her responsibility as soon as possible. Her name is Evelyn Batista and she works for Wilhelmsen/ Barwell agency You have been warned.
Friday, April 29, 2011
We are flying to Cartagena from Panama City
I am in the dog house. Again. I told Uli I was fearful of sailing on open water against the trade winds. I suggested he did the trip on his own - with the captain and crew - and i would fly and meet him in Cartagena. But he didnt want to leave me and said we might never hook up again...so we are both flying. I feel bad about it. But it is his decision. My regret is that we will not see the San Blas Islands and everyone keeps telling us how wonderful they are.
Note to self - need to find a way to be able to sail the open seas without fear so you can visit amazing islands!
Note to self - need to find a way to be able to sail the open seas without fear so you can visit amazing islands!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Sick as 2 green parrots!
Oh dear! We were at Captain Jack's hostel in Portobello, the Caribbean side of Panama, and I met a nice sea dog called Terry and his crew and managed to wangle my way onto his catamaran called Double Diamond. Such a great crew and what a beauty of a boat; huge and flat and luxurious!! 42 ft long. If I could sail around in a 38ft Catamaran, I might consider buying a second hand one in a few years. Except I hate the idea of being in open seas in a storm....
....the plot thickens; I meet another sea dog at Captain Jack's and he invites us on a little yacht trip, 5$US per head for a spin in the yacht and lunch. Sounds good to me and a great opportunity to test our sea legs and stomachs. Bad idea. Very bad idea. I take an anti-sickness pill 1/2 an hour b4 we leave. I am feeling fine in the bay. I then feel a bit anxious as the sails go up and we exit the bay into open water. Uli has a grin on his face - he loves sailing - yet, to my eye he is a curious tinge of yellow.
A little while later, I have popped some Ativan, still feeling fearfull but not sick, now Uli is turning green.
We both end up at the stern of the boat feeding the fish, over and over again. Poor Uli suffered more than me. I had moments of respite, whereas he stayed at the stern, head buried in arms for most of the trip. My poor darling; it is just awful when you can't help someone.
Once we returned to Harvey, we went to bed and stayed their til the next morning!
What did I learn?
* still scared of open sea
* being sea sick is like hell on earth, but worse because it is at sea
* be prepared; have bought some Stugeron Forte and we will take it as stated by anufacturers
* in the moment of being sea-sick, this eclipses open-water anxiety!
* Valium plus ani-emetics makes you feel lousy in the head for about 2 days afterwards
I am going to see if I can still fly to Columbia!
....the plot thickens; I meet another sea dog at Captain Jack's and he invites us on a little yacht trip, 5$US per head for a spin in the yacht and lunch. Sounds good to me and a great opportunity to test our sea legs and stomachs. Bad idea. Very bad idea. I take an anti-sickness pill 1/2 an hour b4 we leave. I am feeling fine in the bay. I then feel a bit anxious as the sails go up and we exit the bay into open water. Uli has a grin on his face - he loves sailing - yet, to my eye he is a curious tinge of yellow.
A little while later, I have popped some Ativan, still feeling fearfull but not sick, now Uli is turning green.
We both end up at the stern of the boat feeding the fish, over and over again. Poor Uli suffered more than me. I had moments of respite, whereas he stayed at the stern, head buried in arms for most of the trip. My poor darling; it is just awful when you can't help someone.
Once we returned to Harvey, we went to bed and stayed their til the next morning!
What did I learn?
* still scared of open sea
* being sea sick is like hell on earth, but worse because it is at sea
* be prepared; have bought some Stugeron Forte and we will take it as stated by anufacturers
* in the moment of being sea-sick, this eclipses open-water anxiety!
* Valium plus ani-emetics makes you feel lousy in the head for about 2 days afterwards
I am going to see if I can still fly to Columbia!
Yacht passage from Panama to Columbia
I think we have cracked it; we(me!) have hustled hard to find a yacht to take us to Cartagena, Columbia. Its been a bit of a head ache because we have had to align the dates with the delivery and receipt of Harvey and the Tracker vehicles in Colon, Panama and Cartagena, Columbia, respectively.
We are now booked on Tango a small yacht, with 6 births, and the Captain is french and loves to cook. I want to know who is sailing the boat when he is flapping his culinary wings in the galley? May he has auto-pilot and AIS??
Now that we have booked the trip, my fear of open sea water in a small yacht is getting a lot of attention; I am going to knock myself out with Valium or something.
I am hoping the visit to the San Blas Islands en route will be my reward.
We are now booked on Tango a small yacht, with 6 births, and the Captain is french and loves to cook. I want to know who is sailing the boat when he is flapping his culinary wings in the galley? May he has auto-pilot and AIS??
Now that we have booked the trip, my fear of open sea water in a small yacht is getting a lot of attention; I am going to knock myself out with Valium or something.
I am hoping the visit to the San Blas Islands en route will be my reward.
Sloths
These are very sweet animals - the slowest mammals in the world. I have never seen one before.
We saw eight of them at the Smithsonian nature reserve, all living peacefully up in the trees without a cage in sight. Excellent.
We also visited a botanical zoo, and saw a tapir and a Harpy Eagle and a squirrel monkey. All animals that are rare and only found in a few areas in the world. Unfortunately all these were captured creatures.
We saw eight of them at the Smithsonian nature reserve, all living peacefully up in the trees without a cage in sight. Excellent.
We also visited a botanical zoo, and saw a tapir and a Harpy Eagle and a squirrel monkey. All animals that are rare and only found in a few areas in the world. Unfortunately all these were captured creatures.
Transiting the Panama Canal
Oh golly! It's been 2 weeks since my last confession - I mean Blog entry! Well, so much has happened since then, I don't know where to begin. A good start is the Panama Canal transit; it was excellent, totally novel, and bizarre, and extraordinary, and a dream-come-true experience.
I felt very honoured to be chosen as linehandling crew aboard So Long a small yacht Captained by Susanne a solo female German Skipper.
Uli was a linehandler for Galenaia Captained by Tony a solo male English Skipper.
Ironically, Susanne and Tony are married and are full time yachtees and sail together - but apart if you see what I mean, because they are in separate yachts. The only downside is that Tony's boat is a lot smaller than Susanne's and so he sails a lot slower - sometimes he will arrive at a destination WEEKS after Susanne. Tony needs to get a bigger boat, or stop snoring!!! That could be another reason why they sail separately. Susanne has sweet Honey the dog to keep her company too.
We were up before dawn for the transit. Got to Balboa Harbour meeting point at 0415 hrs. Well in time for 0500 hrs departure. But in fact we were left hanging around for hours awaiting a 'Panama Canal Pilot' to come aboard and escort us through the canal - a regulation for all ships, no matter the size.
We transited the canal from the Pacific side to the Caribbean/Atlantic side. You can of course go both ways.
Yachts are not allowed to sail near the locks so we motored to the first lock - Miraflores. There was
*Susanne the Captain
*me
*another Gringa volunteer from a yacht (she wanted to have a test-run through the canal to learn the ropes before she brought her own yacht through)
*2 linehandlers rented locally; a couple of young girls wanting to earn a bit of extra cash
So, five female crew, plus the Pilot.
We rafted up to Galenaia with rope so that we were 2 yachts travelling in parallel.
We motored to the first gates Miraflores which consists of 2 locks and this raises you 2 levels up. Then you exit and motor about a mile and then you enter the Pedro Miguel locks and that raises you to the level of the Gatun lake.
For technical detail read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Locks
Suffice to say that the locks are absolutely huge, the ships seem huger and there is a lot of fiddling and hawling long, long lengths of rope to keep you in the right place at the right time within the lock. It is similar to going through a lock on the Thames river in England except that it is on a massive, awesome and sometimes overwhelming scale. And for bigger ships there are mules - heavy machines - that run along tracks to keep the big ships in position with chains.
Then you sail through the lake and keep in between the green and red buoys and try not to hit other ships travelling in the other direction.
We tied up to a buoy overnight. The pilot was picked up and then we had a little celebration party.
Next day we went through the Gatun locks. The Pilot was brought back to the yacht (a different one, nice but not as friendly and cute as the last one) then we were rafted up again and this time another gringo yacht joined us so we now had 3 yachts rafted together in parallel.
At Gatun locks we dropped down to the Atlantic sea level. Then the pilot was taken off the boat and we were dropped off on land near Colon, a notorious city, to find out way back to Harvey. This was easy even though it was so late. We caught a cab, then a bus, then a cab and we were home before midnight.
It was too late for one of the boy's crew - Ben - to get a ride in a dingy back to his yacht at Balboa Harbour, so I invited him to sleep over in Harvey. We had a little nightcap together and toasted our good fortune and novel experience.
Next day, we took Ben back to his yacht. We were invited to lunch on his yacht.How lovely!!
It was an amazing and great experience and I throughly recommend it as 'bucket list' activity. In fact, I think Panama is a great country and would recommend a visit here.
It must have been nerve wracking for the Yacht Captains though; they went through a lot of planning and logistics and work and great cost to do the crossing. We just turned up for the ride.
The Captains would have paid about 600US for each small yacht plus 65US per day for the rented linehandlers X 2, plus additional long rope ($150 US), plus a huge refundable deposit that they will only get back if they caused no damage to the lock system, plus food and drink for the crew and pilot, plus tyres to protect the yacht from the locks and visa versa. Plus mega shopping and taking on of provisions and drinking water, because as soon as they popped out on the Atlantic side, they were heading for England!
We had a really fabulous time and felt extremely privileged and honoured to have been part of the adventure. I said a few silent words for the >22,000 !!! people who gave their lives to build this canal.
I felt very honoured to be chosen as linehandling crew aboard So Long a small yacht Captained by Susanne a solo female German Skipper.
Uli was a linehandler for Galenaia Captained by Tony a solo male English Skipper.
Ironically, Susanne and Tony are married and are full time yachtees and sail together - but apart if you see what I mean, because they are in separate yachts. The only downside is that Tony's boat is a lot smaller than Susanne's and so he sails a lot slower - sometimes he will arrive at a destination WEEKS after Susanne. Tony needs to get a bigger boat, or stop snoring!!! That could be another reason why they sail separately. Susanne has sweet Honey the dog to keep her company too.
We were up before dawn for the transit. Got to Balboa Harbour meeting point at 0415 hrs. Well in time for 0500 hrs departure. But in fact we were left hanging around for hours awaiting a 'Panama Canal Pilot' to come aboard and escort us through the canal - a regulation for all ships, no matter the size.
We transited the canal from the Pacific side to the Caribbean/Atlantic side. You can of course go both ways.
Yachts are not allowed to sail near the locks so we motored to the first lock - Miraflores. There was
*Susanne the Captain
*me
*another Gringa volunteer from a yacht (she wanted to have a test-run through the canal to learn the ropes before she brought her own yacht through)
*2 linehandlers rented locally; a couple of young girls wanting to earn a bit of extra cash
So, five female crew, plus the Pilot.
We rafted up to Galenaia with rope so that we were 2 yachts travelling in parallel.
We motored to the first gates Miraflores which consists of 2 locks and this raises you 2 levels up. Then you exit and motor about a mile and then you enter the Pedro Miguel locks and that raises you to the level of the Gatun lake.
For technical detail read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Locks
Suffice to say that the locks are absolutely huge, the ships seem huger and there is a lot of fiddling and hawling long, long lengths of rope to keep you in the right place at the right time within the lock. It is similar to going through a lock on the Thames river in England except that it is on a massive, awesome and sometimes overwhelming scale. And for bigger ships there are mules - heavy machines - that run along tracks to keep the big ships in position with chains.
Then you sail through the lake and keep in between the green and red buoys and try not to hit other ships travelling in the other direction.
We tied up to a buoy overnight. The pilot was picked up and then we had a little celebration party.
Next day we went through the Gatun locks. The Pilot was brought back to the yacht (a different one, nice but not as friendly and cute as the last one) then we were rafted up again and this time another gringo yacht joined us so we now had 3 yachts rafted together in parallel.
At Gatun locks we dropped down to the Atlantic sea level. Then the pilot was taken off the boat and we were dropped off on land near Colon, a notorious city, to find out way back to Harvey. This was easy even though it was so late. We caught a cab, then a bus, then a cab and we were home before midnight.
It was too late for one of the boy's crew - Ben - to get a ride in a dingy back to his yacht at Balboa Harbour, so I invited him to sleep over in Harvey. We had a little nightcap together and toasted our good fortune and novel experience.
Next day, we took Ben back to his yacht. We were invited to lunch on his yacht.How lovely!!
It was an amazing and great experience and I throughly recommend it as 'bucket list' activity. In fact, I think Panama is a great country and would recommend a visit here.
It must have been nerve wracking for the Yacht Captains though; they went through a lot of planning and logistics and work and great cost to do the crossing. We just turned up for the ride.
The Captains would have paid about 600US for each small yacht plus 65US per day for the rented linehandlers X 2, plus additional long rope ($150 US), plus a huge refundable deposit that they will only get back if they caused no damage to the lock system, plus food and drink for the crew and pilot, plus tyres to protect the yacht from the locks and visa versa. Plus mega shopping and taking on of provisions and drinking water, because as soon as they popped out on the Atlantic side, they were heading for England!
We had a really fabulous time and felt extremely privileged and honoured to have been part of the adventure. I said a few silent words for the >22,000 !!! people who gave their lives to build this canal.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Panama's Nationa Bird; The Harpy Eagle
Here is a picture of the eagle. Had to go to a zoo to see it. Also, my first Tapir and Anteater.
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