The passage to Panama was a great experience for me and I learned a lot... For one thing I will never consider sailing with another owner... Ramon is a very sweet guy and we are very close friends but he greatly exaggerated his sailing experience and I was left to primarily "single hand" the boat with incompetent crew, who knew very little... I only managed 4 hours of sleep on one 48 period because of problems created on deck while I was off watch, forcing me out of my bunk and getting the boat back on course, the whole time Ramon telling me he could handle it, even though he had a back filled Genoa and was trying to steer the boat into the wind, instead of letting the wind carry it back around and resetting his course...
One night he called down to me and when I came on deck the mainsail was flogging in the wind with the control line that controls it (main sheet) completely torn away by an accidental gybe... He was in a panic mode and didn't know what to do... I told him to bring the boat into the wind so I could go forward and secure the boom which was swinging back and forth across the deck completely out of control... He was having trouble finding the wind as he was not obviously looking at his very expensive wind direction indicator instrument right in front of him at the wheel and I had to come back and bring it into the wind... While forward, with him at the wheel steering, the boat once again started to come around and the boom slammed into me, knocking me backwards across the deck... As I was falling backwards I was sure I was going overboard, in heavy seas, the middle of a dark moonless night, 400 miles from the nearest landfall, with Ramon at the wheel... At that point I really felt I was a goner and thought to myself it’s over, but lucky for me I landed just short of going overboard and slammed against the lifelines and seriously bruised my kidney on a spare fuel tank that was secured to the toe rail of the boat... I had to lay there for a few minutes getting my breath back and waiting for the pain to subside all the while listening to Ramon frantically asking me if I was okay and to get up... I managed to crawl back into the cockpit and get the boat facing into the wind again, started the engine and set the autopilot with very firm instructions for him not to touch anything... After finally securing the boom and lowering the main sail, I unfurled the Genoa and got back underway... Needless to say I got very little sleep that night but was very happy that things didn't turn out worse...
Before we had departed Ramon had told me he would be doing the cooking, even though I had suggested we take mostly finger foods and avoid cooking as much as possible, as it could be very difficult under normal sea conditions... He assured me I would be surprised by his cooking and truer words have never been spoken... When we provisioned I thought many easily prepared side dishes (i.e. instant mashed potatoes, etc) would be easier so we stocked up on these items... He bought ham steaks and ham slices for his favorite meal which was ham and cheese wrapped in a tortilla which became our main staple on this voyage, that and instant cup of noodles. H only had a huge frying pan in which to prepare foods and neglected to tell me he didn't have any normal cooking pots or pans on board...
Ramon is very eager to learn the tricks of living aboard, and I tried to help him whenever the opportunity presented itself. As an example during the night while on watch Ramon enjoyed a bowl of tortilla chips. Unfortunately the bowl was ceramic and on one of my frequent trips on deck to the sound of flogging sails and the boat smashing into steep seas, this dish went flying and broke into many sharp pieces on the cockpit soul. Of course this presented a problem for anyone in bare feet, trying to maintain a balance on a rough twisting deck in the middle of the night. After picking up the pieces I explained he needed to return the bowl when finished to the galley to avoid this happening again as a broken piece of pottery could cause serious injury, especially 400 miles from the nearest landfall. The very next night on another “visit” on deck, under similar circumstances another bowl went bouncing across the deck, fortunately it stayed intact and once again I lectured him on how dangerous this could be, and he assured me he understood. This understanding on his part was short lived as again the following night a bowl went sliding across the cockpit table and I was able to catch it before it went flying. This time I took the bowl and with Ramon looking on, threw it overboard. Lesson learned, finally. Just one of many, including using the cup holder instead of sitting full cans of beer on a rolling tabletop, after spilling a couple of cans of beer in his lap. Life onboard a sailboat underway is very different from life on land. Cooking, as he found out can be very difficult when the pan goes sliding around the stove top let alone trying to maintain your balance on a rolling deck inside a boat which can bring on real nausea, unrelated to his cooking skills.
For the most part the weather cooperated and we managed to sail at an average speed of 6.7 knots... There were a few days that storms hit but we managed to ride them out without to many difficulties... Ramon managed to rip out several of the sail slugs on the new mainsail when he used one of the deck top winches to pull in the 1st reefing out haul, thus rendering the mainsail unusable for the rest of the passage... We finally made it into Colon after 8 days and brought the boat into the Panama Canal Yacht Club until we could get passage booked for transit thru the canal... We spent the time, while waiting, repairing the auto pilot which had stopped working in the middle of the night (guess who's watch?) and which I was able to temporarily repair using his $49 tool set and no spare parts, as well as taking the main sail into a local sail maker who was able to repair the tears and damage...
His friends from Chile had arrived before we got there and were there to greet us... They are helping him sail the boat from Panama to Chile and I hope Ramon's angel continues to sit next to him on the journey... Of course nobody but Ramon spoke both English (kinda) and Spanish, so I spent the week unable to communicate with the new crew except through gestures and sign language... Of course there were other problems that had to be overcome, but I would be redundant in describing them as they involved Ramon...
The Atlantic side of Panama, in Colon, is a big stinking pile of garbage and open sewers, suffering under a very high crime rate... It stinks, and is dangerous, especially for wealthy looking Gringos... I was glad to get underway again through the Canal, which I have always wanted to see and to transit... Panama, once out of Colon, is a beautiful, sparsely populated country with massive rain forests and jungles full of many unique species... I awoke in the morning on Gakin Lake, to the sounds of monkeys in the trees of the jungle along the edge of the lake... This beautiful lake has several hundred islands, containing many species of animals found no place else on earth, and are protected... Once through the Canal, on the Pacific side, it was cooler and totally different from the Atlantic side... Panama City is a large, modern, clean city full of beautiful parks and efficient highways... Needless to say, when I boarded the plane to fly back to Puerto Rico, a great feeling of relief overtook me...
I am now in the Spanish Virgins aboard my own boat, enjoying my quiet solitude..
P.S. Ramon and I are still very good friends and he wants me to come to Chile for a visit... He is halfway now between Panama and Chile at present and I hope his guardian angel continues to look after him..
