GANNET is going to do a portage. Portages are honorable. Chicago was founded on a portage.
No yacht having come forward to offer to tow GANNET all the way through the canal, which it is not certain the canal authorities would have permitted, an agent obtained a quote for a professional tow of $6,000. You may recall that GANNET only cost $9,000, though I have put multiples of that amount into her. Probably on tiller pilots alone, of which more later.
So Edwin of the boat yard here is making arrangements for the little boat to be trucked across. The truck alone will cost $900. There will be additional costs to lift GANNET from the water here and put her into the Pacific at Flamingo Marina, and to build a cradle on the truck for her. I expect that it will all come to between $2,000 and $3,000. The canal transit fee for a boat less than 50’ long is $800, but with additional expenses a transit usually ends up costing about $2,000.
The portage will not take place for another one to two weeks, which has enabled me to order two more tiller pilots from Amazon, which of course delivers to Panama. They did not have ST1000s in stock, so I bought ST2000s which are for bigger boats. I doubt they will last any longer than the 1000s. These things are like popcorn. I can get by with just sheet to tiller steering, but I hope to be able to set the G2 asymmetrical in the Pacific and that requires a tiller pilot.
With the enforced delay here, I will reprovison on this side. I inventoried my lunches this morning and have 39, which is probably enough, but I will buy some more. I already have freeze dry dinners. And probably enough oatmeal and trail mix, though I will top them up. I need juice and snacks and paper towels, etc.
Several of you have expressed hope that GANNET could cross Panama on her own bottom, even if not under her own power, with concern it will compromise her circumnavigation. I fear that you haven’t been paying close enough attention.
GANNET’s daily runs now add up to 26,680. She has sailed farther than that and by the time she reaches San Diego, assuming she does, the total will be more than 30,000 miles.
Above is a screen shot from iNavX of the Panama Canal. The distance from the locks on the Caribbean side to entering the Pacific Ocean is about thirty miles. Transiting from the Caribbean to the Pacific, a boat moves about twenty-five miles south and twenty miles east.
It is a matter of opinion as to whether those twenty to thirty miles by land compromise a voyage of more than 30,000 miles. However I suggest that anyone who spends much time considering this should rethink their own lives first. You need to find better things to do.
Of opinions, only one actually matters to me.
I repeat a story about Abraham Lincoln presiding at a Cabinet meeting, during which an issue came to a vote. Everyone present voted, “Nay”, except Lincoln who voted “Aye” and then said, “The Ayes have it.”
I don’t believe that whether Webb Chiles has circumnavigated five times or six is of much importance.
If GANNET and I reach San Diego, I will say that I have circumnavigated six times. The “Aye’s” have it.
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Because of her shallow draft GANNET is on the catamaran dock surrounded by behemoths, all cookie cutter equipped, big inflatables with big outboards on stern davits, cockpits like patios, some with flowers in window boxes, Biminis, thick power cords, and lots and lots of stuff.
In the panoramic view, the marina buildings are on the left. The red roofs to the right are an abandoned development.
