3/24/18 – 30 nm – N8º56.1′ W79º33.3′ – Balboa Yacht Club – Sunny, hot and humid.
Rain all day yesterday, in the middle of the dry season! Motoring along the edge of the lake, we looked for panthers and monkeys and sloths through the binoculars, but no luck. Twenty minute power nap, then Yayoi and I scrubbed the decks clean of the advisor’s boot marks under the heavy rain, scooting under the bimini when the lightening got closer than three seconds. Lighter rain after 13:00, zero wind.
At some point the left engine started overheating. Throttled down and pushed the starboard engine up to 2500 rpm to compensate. Later, the starboard engine started putting white smoke out the exhaust but we had to keep our speed up to stay on schedule. Come onnn, keep it going a little longer! Finally hit the first lock at 17:00 and checked the port engine. No belts! They must have popped at some point, causing the overheating issue. Chris started the engine long enough to maneuver into the lock and tie off, then the pit crew jumped in to replace the belts as the water started dropping. Gary and Gary worked in the compartment with Cheryl ran around top-side supplying the tools and materials as needed. 10 minutes later they opened the gates and Chris yelled down to them, “I need my engine! How you guys doing?” “Done! Start her up!” Boom, done. Back to two engines. Nice job.
A short distance down and we entered the second lock. We glided up next to the tug we were assigned to, coils of heavy black line ready to toss and secure. A normal approach, but when Gary wound up and heaved his line to the tug, a loop got stuck on the cleat behind him just at the heaviest point of the heave. Pop! Gary’s bicep tore. Our instructor-advisor doubled up laughing, pointing, trying to breathe and re-telling how it happened. Jerk. Gary’s bicep was bunched up and actually looked bigger under the skin, if not slightly out of position. He took it like a trooper though, and Cheryl tied some ice over it to start the healing. Hopefully he won’t need surgery.
18:00 – Ok, out the second lock and into the last lock before entering the Pacific Ocean. We motored slowly down the canal trying to make room for our tug to get ahead of us to repeat our last boat-dance to secure down the lock. Unfortunately, the water bubbling up was causing a strong shifting current and we just couldn’t quite make enough room in the narrow channel with our large crab angle for the tug to pass. And this is when the craziness started. Our advisor was yelling highly improbably commands the entire time at Chris. “Left! Power up! Reverse! Right-Left. Left! Right!” Chris tried telling him he had to keep the crab to stay left against the wall, but the advisor would just repeat his commands louder and louder until he was screaming. Without the tug passing, we had to make a last minute change and tie to the completely un-aware cat in front of us. We were getting close by this point, the water surging us forward, too fast, side surge, screaming and bam! We hit Victory Cat. It was a side blow to their aft quarter and our starboard quarter, hard enough to make a horrible crunching sound. We bounced off, Chris was able to reverse and maneuver enough to throw a line to them, but no one was looking. Meanwhile, our screaming advisor was like a crazy man, “Throw it throw it throw it throw it!” without anyone to catch our line. We came to against the fenders, eventually bounced a line off a crew’s back from Victory Cat who turned around and people started catching our lines. Secure. Whew!
Damage assessment: Victory Cat had a small fiberglass ding under their after pulpit, Ka Lani Kai had a couple of crunched in fiberglass dings about a foot above the waterline. Hurt prides, repairable dings and a bad experience, but Chris stayed calm and Victory Cat’s crew tried to reign in the excessive claims for repair costs to their boat. They decided to talk about it later once less was going on.
18:40 – Moored at Balboa Yacht Club mooring field as the sun went down, $30/night. Hailed for an outboard by calling the Yacht Club on the phone and got picked up for transportation to dinner at the club. A rule here is no private dingies allowed due to the lack of dingy space on land, but transportation is free. Just tip the driver a few bucks. We had a lazy dinner, ordering Corvina, Balboa beer, ceviche de pulpo and diablo de pollo while recovering from the events of the day. Cheryl stayed on the boat, not feeling well and going to bed early. We miss you Cheryl!
Victory Cat’s crew sat at the table next to us, and we chatted amiably for a bit, trading transit stories. A hint or two were laid down from the captain about core damage to his boat, but we glossed over it, Chris wanting to delve into that issue in the morning.
08:00 – Cool morning weather finally, cloudy, light breeze. Wish it stayed this pleasant all day. The men took a taxi tot he Volvo shop while the women went provisioning at El Mercado de mariscos. $2/lb Corvina plus $1 tip to clean it. Steak, shrimp, hamburger, cheese, hummus, oranges, apples, milk, egg, veggies, etc. As for us, we found a parachute flare, finally. Coolant and epoxy, but no luck on the radiator cap or spare alternator/water pump belts. We still have one spare set, so it should be ok. Came back for fish and burgers at the bar, then zipped back to the boat to grind and sand and patch the hull damage with Marine Tex. It came out ok, water proofed and not too ugly. Final grind out, repair with fiberglass and gelcoat can be done in Hawaii.
Chris hopped back down into the engine bay again (the newly designated “Captain’s Quarters”) to take apart the throttle cable due to some errors. The starboard electric throttle wasn’t commanding the engine as expected, perhaps even contributing to our bump yesterday. After complete dissassembly and lube and she’s good as new.