Tag Archives: transit

Matt on watch during sunset

Passage: Marquesas to Gambiers Part II

We left on a Saturday for our 900-mile passage with the hopes of arriving by Friday.  We had strong winds, big seas, lots of squalls, a few rainbows, a large pod of dolphins and a few birds along the way.  Overall it was a great passage, but there were times, many times, where it just seemed endless!

If you missed Part I of this series, click here to read it.

First 24 Hours of the passage

  • 15 February, departed 11:15am, 797 to destination.  
  • 25-28kts of wind coming N of E
  • 2-2.5-meter seas in short increments making a lumpy ride
  • Avg. Speed 6.4, Max speed 12.6 (surfing down one of these big waves)
  • Travelled 155nm, 642 nm to go

Really choppy sea conditions, making it an uncomfortable ride all day and night.  Good, strong winds during the cloudy day which kept it cool for us while at the helm.  At night we had several squalls with lightening on the horizon (which is frightening). We danced with 2-3 reefs at night depending on the wind conditions.

After a short squall, we were gifted with a pretty rainbow.

Rainbow at sea

Rainbow at sea

Matt at watch just before sunset.  He makes this passage look easy.

Matt on watch during sunset

Matt on watch during sunset

This is a good shot of a rain cloud just over the sunset.

Rain cloud

Rain cloud

Here is a shot of a squall that just missed us – ha ha ha!

Rain cloud on the horizon

Rain cloud on the horizon

48 Hours

  • 16 February, 457 miles to go
  • 25-28kts of wind coming N of E
  • 2-2.4-meter seas in short increments, lumpy ride
  • Avg. speed 6.9, Max sped 12.6 (from day 1)
  • Travelled 340 miles, 185nm sailed in this 24-hour period (WOW)

It was another cloudy and dreary day which brought cool weather.  More squalls all night kept us playing dodge-squall.  We did however have an amazing day covering the miles.  We consider a good or average 24-hour period being 120nm sailed.  That is 5kts an hour which keeps us comfortable and the boat moving.  Today, however, we sailed 185 nm which meant we had maintained a 7.7 speed for a long time.  Of course, our “average speed” above includes the speed from day 1 so it does not reflect our great day today.

Blessed to receive another pretty sunset photo.  Photo doesn’t capture the purple and pink sky, but it was pretty!

Sunset at sea

Sunset at sea

Here is a photo of our radar showing us an upcoming squall. Doesn’t that look like fun to go through?  We actually were able to dodge this squall, but it did bring us some good rain and strong winds.

Radar showing a squall in front of us

Radar showing a squall in front of us

72 hours

  • 17 February, 306 miles to go
  • 25-28kts of wind coming N of E
  • 2-meter seas, starting to calm down, longer increments in between the waves
  • Avg. Speed 6.7, Max Speed 12.6
  • Traveled 488 nm, 148nm sailed in this 24-hour period

Sunshine in between the squalls today.  Bright and cheery.  Winds slowed down in late afternoon and evening making it a lot more comfortable.  Funny how you get addicted to the speed.  When you slow down your desire to get there faster outweighs the uncomfortable ride. 

96 hours

  • 18 February, 173nm miles to go
  • 18-22kts of wind coming N of E but winds are starting to shift more E
  • 1.5-2-meter seas, longer increments (9-10 seconds), little calmer, nicer ride
  • Avg speed 6.5, Max speed 12.6
  • Traveled 623nm, 135nm sailed in this 24-hour period

Sunny day, bright and cheery.  A few squalls at night bringing rain, early morning got a double rainbow

A beautiful double rainbow appeared just after sunrise.

Wowza, double rainbow

Wowza, double rainbow

120 hours

  • 19 February, 25nm miles to go
  • 13-15kts of wind mostly E, we lost the Northerly aspect which is frustrating.
  • 1 meter seas in 9-10 second increments, nice and a lot more comfy
  • Avg. speed 6.4, Max speed 12.6
  • Traveled 773, 150nm sailed in this 24-hour period

Wind shifted to East and East of South which makes us point almost into the wind at a 35-38 degree angle, which is really hard to sail. Most boats can point at 50-60 angle, but our stellar boat can do better.  Its’ just not terribly comfortable sail.  On starboard we can do 30-32, but our current port tack is better at 38-45.

This photo is our wind instrument which shows us the angle/direction of the wind (just barely before the 30), the wind speed “13.0” and our boat speed 6.3.  It also has “—” for depth as it is too deep to measure. Our depth gauge stops reading after 100 meters.

Raymarine Wind Instrument

Raymarine Wind Instrument

124.5 hours

  • 16 February, arrived 1545
  • 8-12kts of wind coming E of S making it incredibly difficult to sail.
  • 1-meter seas
  • Avg. speed 6.4, Max speed 12.6

Had to motor sail most the last 8 hours because the wind was not cooperating and came south of east.   It was such a relief to see land.  The island to the left is Mangareva (main island) and the island to the right is Taravai (where we are headed).

Land a ho!

Land a ho!

Entered the NW pass with no current or swell.  Nice, easy, calm, and wide entrance.  Followed our path from a previous trip here.  6kts of wind speed coming south of east. 

Photo of Taravai as we head toward the pass

Taravai approach

Taravai approach

Photo of Mangareva as we head toward the pass (you can see Mount Duff which we hiked last year).

Mangareva, the main island

Mangareva, the main island

Heading to Baie Onemea (where we anchored with Halcyon and Agape last time we were here).

Total Passage Data

  • Average overall speed 6.4
  • Max Speed 12.6
  • Trip distance 800.2nm
  • Total miles sailed 838.9 (up and down waves, through water)
  • Total miles from Nuku Hiva, Marquesas to Taravai, Gambiers = 969nm
  • Time in Total 124.53 hours

And we rest after a yummy pork chop dinner, cold beer, and admire the sunset

Sunset at Taravai

Sunset at Taravai

What do our gauges tell us on a passage?

Sugar Shack has a lot of amazing technology on board.  It keeps track of everything from current weather conditions, direction of the vessel, auto pilot, and more.

Our B&G chart plotter is what I reference most.  It has many screens, but the two I use are this page and the radar page.  This overview gives you all the data you need to know.  Wind speed (true and apparent), wind direction (true and apparent), boat speed, course, longitude, latitude, steering, and VMG (velocity made good).  Along with lots of other important data.

B&G Chart plotter

B&G Chart plotter

Raymarine wind instruments are located outside in the cock pit (one on port and one on starboard).  They show us a visual of the wind direction, wind speed, boat speed and depth.

Raymarine Wind Instrument

Raymarine Wind Instrument

Raymarine auto pilot head instruments are located outside at the helms (one on port and one on starboard).  They provide a lot of useful information in addition to controlling “auto.”  You can set each square to display the information you want, but we have them set to display AWS (apparent wind speed), depth, SOG (speed over ground), DTW (distance to waypoint), COG (course over ground), and AWA (apparent wind angle).  With autopilot we can set it to “wind vane” where it holds the approximate course but based on the wind angle.  You can plus or minus in increments of  “1” or “10” to change your direction.

Raymarine Auto Pilot

Raymarine Auto Pilot

At the Navigation Station Inside

Inside we have another Raymarine auto pilot set to display different setings.  TWS (true wind speed), AWS (apparent wind speed), SOG (speed over ground), DTW (distance to waypoint), XRE (cross track) and Heading.

Raymarine Auto Pilot Nav Station

Raymarine Auto Pilot Nav Station

VesperMarine is our radar display which shows us what is coming within a 24nm radius.  We can set alarms that beep at us if anything comes within a certain radius (like another boat or squalls).

Vesper Marine Radar

Vesper Marine Radar

We use Navionics on every passage which is on the iPad and shows a map of where we are, where we are going, our boat speed, and approximate arrival date/time to either the waypoint or the final destination.  This photo was taken on day 4.

iPad showing Navionics

iPad showing Navionics

We use Open CPN on Matt’s computer.  I could not possibly tell you all that it does, but it is invaluable to us.  We can overlay our course over maps which show us areas to avoid (bommies, reefs), depths, other vessels (their distance to us, direction, size), etc…

Computer using Open CPN

Computer using Open CPN

We use everything we can to insure a safe passage.  It is a blessing that our boat is so well equipped with top of the line technology to get us safe.

Panama Canal Profile

The Panama Canal Locks and How they Work

For simplicity, I will be talking about transiting the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Boats start this adventure by staging at “the Flats” or “F” anchorage which is outside of Colon Town.  Once at the staging area, you wait to be boarded by a designated advisor or pilot who stays with the boat through the first set of locks.  Southbound transits usually have a start time of 1600.  (Of course, you’ll soon read, we transited at 0500 and did this passage in one day.)  Start times are an estimate of when an advisor will arrive and board your vessel.  The blue arrow on the image below points to the “Flats” anchorage.

The Flats Anchorage

The Flats Anchorage

The six set of locks, were the world’s largest concrete structures for a long time.  In addition, they have functioned flawlessly for over 100 years. The first set are called the Gatun Locks which are physically connected to each other.  Here, the vessel is raised a total of 26 meters in three different chambers.  Each chamber is 33.5 meters wide and 304 meters long.

Each chamber fills at a rate of 3 million gallons per minute and it takes 52 million gallons to move a vessel through all 6 chambers.

Approximately 35-40 vessels transit the old Panama Canal Locks and between 7-10 Neo Panamax vessels transit the new locks per week.  It costs between $600,000-$1,500,000 for the Neo Panamax to transit the new locks.  A cruise ship will pay between $600,000-$1,000,000 to transit through the old locks.  All depends on the amount of water they displace.  The Neo Panamax is 1200′ long with a 106′ beam, and carries over 40,000 containers.  It was built specifically for the new Panama locks.

This is an image of the Gatun locks.  The ship is in the 3rd lock after already being raised in the previous two locks.  Animated photo link.

Gatun Locks

Gatun Locks

The bulk of the excavation took place in the Gaillard Cut which remains, to this day, the area most susceptible to landslides. Gaillard Cut connects Gatun Lake to the last three chambers.

Once the vessel is through the Gatun Locks, they enter Lake Gatun a man-made lake that extends across the Isthmus.  The lake covers an area of 117 square nautical miles and was formed by building the Gatun Dam across the Chagres River.  The damn is nearly 800 meters wide at the base but it narrows to 30 meters at the crest.  The height of the damn is 32 meters above sea level.   Each vessel travels just over 20 miles across Gatun Lake to get to the next set of locks.

This is a view of the Gatun dam from the Panama Canal side.  As you might recall, we showed a photo of the same dam from the Rio Chagres side a few blogs ago.  Pretty cool.

Gatun damn view from the Panama Canal

Gatun damn view from the Panama Canal

On the other side of Gatun Lake are three more chambers.  Miguel Lock, is the first one which lowers the vessel 9 meters in one step from the level of Gatun Lake to that of Miraflores Lake.  Lake Miraflores is a small artificial body of water that separates the Pacific chambers. The ship is then lowered the remaining two steps to sea level within in the Miraflores locks.  This dissension varies greatly due to extreme tidal variations just outside the canal.  The Miraflores gates are the tallest in the Panama Canal due to the tides.  Photo source.

Side view of Panama Canal locks

Side view of Panama Canal locks.

The Process:

After the pilot boards the vessel in the Flats anchorage, it heads 4 miles south to the Gatun Locks.  Typically, cargo ships will proceed ahead of pleasure vessels.  (Again you will find our transit had cargo ships in front and behind us.)  At this time, private yachts will raft or nest together.  Most small yachts (under 25 meters) will raft or nest with one to two other vessels.  Typically, two monohulls will nest on either side of a catamaran.  The catamaran then becomes the main source of power and steerage.  It’s important to realize that all vessels have their engines on at all times to assist in steerage.

As the rafted boats enter the first chamber,  “monkey fists” are thrown to the boat from the center wall and then from the mainland.  These monkey fists are attached to 125′ lines with a bowline knot that are attached to the boats.  We thought the monkey fists would be much bigger, like the size of cantaloupes not the size of golf balls.

Monkey fist thrown to boat to retrieve blue lines

Monkey fist thrown to boat to retrieve blue lines

Upon exiting the Gatun Locks, the vessels are separated as they travel 20 miles to Gamboa where everyone will find a mooring for the night.  In addition, the pilot will leave the boat and the next morning a new pilot will board.  The yachts nest together again for the last three chambers.  The same process is repeated twice on the Pacific locks – as the first lock is not connected to the last two locks.

Each vessel will separate and head toward the Balboa Yacht Club where the pilot will disembark and agents will retrieve their fenders and lines.  And the celebration begins….

TRANSIT FLOW IN SHORT:

  • Flats Anchorage
  • Gatun Locks
  • Lake Gatun
  • Miguel Lock
  • MiraFlores Locks
  • Balboa Yacht Club

Here is a sneak peek at one of our transit photos.  Additionally, if you check back with us you will find several more posts on the Panama Canal.  Evidently, the typical process does not apply to our transit at all.  But, without a doubt the best experience we’ve had in a long time.

Sugar Shack being walked into the first lock.

Sugar Shack being walked into the first lock.