Sally and I now sat on their slightly upgraded Legend IV. An Oyster 575. Jean and Alan are off to do it again. This time they decided to let Oyster do some of the bureaucratic work as part of the Oyster 2013 World Rally. They do however have to sail their own boat. But even some of the hard work has been taken out of that task with the help of electric winches to haul sails up and in.
It is one of those nosy pastimes to peruse another mans boat. I find it very interesting as one can often learn neat tips and tricks in doing so. But we really should not go aboard yachts that are less than a year old (and over 50 feet!) We are still suffering some pretty heavy boat envy.
Sally still can't get over the washing machine that is neatly hidden in the galley.
But enough about the boat. I moved to London almost 10 years ago and have probably seen Jean and Alan once since then when I was on a trip to South Africa to see my parents. I was very glad to find that they haven't changed much.
We had been in contact over the last few months as Legend was playing catch up with Orion and stopping at many of the destinations that we had blogged about. We were in two different oceans. Legend in the Atlantic and Orion in the Pacific.
As Legend meant to get to the Pacific, we offered to help (as this would be our 4th time in as many weeks transiting the canal). The offer was to spend 2 nights aboard so that we did not have to rush on the morning of the transit. We had a bunch of chores to do during the day and then shuffled over to Colon via a gratefully air conditioned bus in afternoon traffic. After a brief wrestle with a taxi driver over the price of fare to get us to Shelter Bay Marina (which is the pimple on the bum that is Colon) - I.e. its a fair way out of town - we made it.
We were welcomed aboard Legend IV and reacquainted with Jean and Alan (whom Sally had never met). Chris and Nelly, (friends of Jean and Alan) were also aboard as they are sailing to Galapagos with Legend. Chris is a wealth of information as he is a meteorologist and has great experience sailing / racing.
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| Jean and I |
The next day saw us off to the flats to await our advisor before we headed through the locks. We were rafted with 2 other Oysters and the whole lock was filled with yachts (no ships this time). Thanks Oyster World Rally organisers!
The lock was filled using only one pipe (rather than the normal two) meaning that there was a slightly slower rate of ascent, but way less wash / turbulence. As such the boats did not tend to get bashed around as much and less tension on the cleats.
We tied up to the large mooring ball and enjoyed a pleasant evening listening to the howler monkeys singing to us with anything but melodic tones.
The next day we had the same advisor back again and ploughed through Gatun Lake with 150 hp Volkswagen engine barely even making a murmur beneath us. We re-rafted with the other Oysters and began our decent. Legend's bow thruster a huge help in keeping the raft centred.
Suddenly I noticed that the vessel next to us had no raw water exiting the exhaust. Quick to understand the implications (especially as i had just noticed this in lock 1), I warned the skipper.
To which he laughed and said if he had a dollar for every time some one noticed he would have been able to buy a larger Oyster (apparently raw water exits below the water line and there are a myriad of electronic devices to monitor slight changes in engine dynamic).
We reached the Pacific hassle free and dropped anchor with the rest of the Oyster fleet and a few yards from little old Orion.
Legend IV, ready to cross the pacific.
Legend IV, ready to cross the pacific.
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