82km man made canal joining the Atlantic and Pacific, allowing passage between the oceans without navigating the dangerous Cape Horn, Magellan Passage or the Arctic and Beijing Straits.

Comprised of 3 sets of locks on either side of the Gatun lake, around 26m above sea level!

First step is to make sure you have a booking to travel (sorted by Clipper) it’s a pretty popular route!

On the day of our passage we were up nice and early, on the boat ready to slip lines at 5am. After motoring out to the start of the canal we had to collect our canal pilot who’s job is to navigate the boat safely across the canal. The pilot boat came alongside and our guy casually stepped across to start the process. Panama Canal pilots assume complete responsibility for the vessel they are on, the only place worldwide that the skipper isn’t liable for the vessel!

On the approach to the locks, we were sandwiched in a raft between Punta and Bermuda. This 3 boat trimaran now had steering controlled by the speed of either boat on the outside and the overall speed by us in the middle. Approx 2m on either side of the outer boats and we were followed in by UNICEF and HalongBay, also rafted together. Lines were thrown onto the the boats by Canal staff and these were used to keep the boats central in the channel as the water level goes up/down.

I mean, essentially they’re a massively scaled up version of locks on canals back home but they’re super impressive close up and the volume of water moved is immense.

They run 365 days a year and transport over 1000 ships from one ocean to the next.

Initially started by the French who wanted a channel from one side to the other, after large amounts of politics the Americans finished the canal after realising that damming the river and building locks to lift the ships at one end and return them at the other side was the only way this could work.

Now there’s actually two sets of locks at each location; a newer, wider set for the new Panamax ships from 28.5 to 49m wide!

Our dinky yachts got a lot of attention from the canal operators, lots of cheers and pics- I guess something new and exciting to break up the monotony of large red and black tankers! We also felt tiny inside the huge channels, despite going through the older set of locks.

A nice 6 hour motor along the lake ended with a little traffic jam for the set of locks to take us down into the Atlantic.

After the final set of gates opened up it was all quite emotional – finally on the same body of water as England, the end is really real now!

The pilot was dropped off and we continued to Shelter Bay on the Atlantic side, ready to wait for another 5 boats the next day and Qingdao another day later.

It was a special and fantastic experience and obviously had to be done whilst wearing a Panama hat- my first souvenir of the race so far ☺️

After a mild disappointment (yes we sailed well, yes 4th is a great result and still and improvement, and we had a nice time but I’d be lying if I wasn’t disappointed to be pipped out the placings right near the finish! Especially after making it 200miles ahead to the next finish gate in 2nd place!!

Once the wind died we started the long slog of a motor 680 miles to Flamenco Island Panama.

This gave us an opportunity to get ahead on the few maintenance tasks needed to keep Betty well oiled and running well, including servicing the jammers and winches, some whipping (sewing) lines and of course servicing the most important Jabsco5000 heads(toilets) – keeping every crews behind happy!

In order to keep everyone cool we set up a paddling pool (thanks to Rich for acquiring this one in Airlie beach!) On the foredeck, used the storm sail as a nice base and filled using the firehose. The gentle rolling of the boat gave a nice whirlpool effect (that and the copious beans on the menu!)

For a couple of days the whole crew became very suspicious of each other in our murder mystery game. Each crew member was given another’s name, an object and a location on the boat (picked out of a cup) and the aim was to kill them using the object in the location.

Hence everyone become suspicious and unhelpful! No I can’t pass you the tweaker line, or follow you to the foredeck when you have a winch handle in your hand 😂

Once you have tagged the person in the location with the item, you take on their mission.

It was great entertainment, seeing people’s competitive side coming out whilst getting sneakier and sneakier, sometimes even employing others to help coerce their victim to wherever they need! Dan used his skipper role to call Steven to the foredeck on pretence of chatting about the food, only to kill him with the rubber duck, much to sevens relief as he had a tricky one… me, in the heads with the storm sail. Now the heads part is fairly easy I hear you thinking, however the bulky, heavy and slightly smelly bright orange storm sails represent a tricky object to wrestle to the heads surreptitiously! In true Dan resourcefulness he saw his opportunity at breakfast when I went to use the heads, running off to wrestle the sail into the galley and waiting to kill me as the door was unzipped- bit of a shock as I opened the door and nowhere to run!

By the morning only 2 remained- Kaz and Dave. By now each of them knows who their murder is, just not where or with what! Kaz became sneaky and employed the help of other crew to get Dave to Dans bunk area and win the game with a roll of gaffer tape!

After a few more days motoring, fuel was getting a bit low and the call came for all boats to go to Costa Rica to refuel. Initially this was met with some groans at missing out on an extra day in Panama, but on arrival at this secluded bay surrounded with Palm trees, a small marina with bar, restaurant and gentle reggae playing we were hooked!

It was also excellent timing to arrive into such a beautiful place to be able to celebrate Ben’s birthday there too (lucky as I don’t have a present on board 🫣)

A few beers, a good meal to refuel us and the next morning at the crac of dawn we were (mostly) ready to refuel, check out (and in) with immigration and then continue the 48 hours or so to panama.

Deep clean was initiated on the boat to make Betty clean again and give some TLC – look after the boat and she’ll look after you! Every cubby and area of the boat, including the garage (Lazarette) and Sail locker are emptied, cleaned and reorganised, leaving just the floorboards to be lifted and the bilges cleaned once in Panama.

Low and behold final evening before arrival into Panama and the engine fuel system stopped working, so we had only 30L left in the tank to get us to Panama. These boats use 5-15L per hour when motoring (around 8knots) so that wasn’t going to get us the 100 or so miles left to go! Large amounts of swearing and time spent in the engine bay couldn’t solve the issue, thankfully Bermuda came to our reduce and gave us a tow the rest of the way and we motored in the last 20 miles to the marina. This was probably the best nights sleep – no engine, nice cool boat with a breeze blowing through and only a 2 hour towing watch each!

The last few miles into Flaminco Bay was a truly spectacular sight weaving our way through a field of active, drifting and anchored ships, making our pretty large yachts seem like children’s toys amongst theses giants of 200m+ waiting for their turn through the canal.

After a half day of finishing the deep clean (something that had to be done despite some crew not pulling their weight and disappearing- always bad for team morale!) we were free to enjoy a couple of blissful days off in Panama. We went to explore the lovely Old town, a very quaint area of the city with strong Spanish vibes. Feels very safe and plenty of nice bars and restaurants and a lovely climate at that time of year.

Also managed a boat tour to Monkey island to view the native 4 species of monkey that inhabit Panama, as well as some crocs (no swimming in the canal!) and lots of wonderful bird life.

Next stop… Panama Canal and THE ATLANTIC!!!

Highlights (and lowlights)

A beautiful cruise out of Seattle along the sounds with stunning scenery, the snow capped mountains and forest of the Olympic park. Passed a group of small yachts racing towards Vancouver as part of Saturday racing, what a glorious place to live and sail 😄 will definitely be back!

24 hours of training with the new crew, followed by waking up on the race start morning surrounded by a slightly fishy smell. Fortunately it wasn’t the fridge, but a whole pod of humpback whales giving an amazing sunrise display of breaching and tail slapping as they pass on their way north to their summer feeding grounds of the Arctic.

Amazing Le Mans start, 1st to have the code 1 up and charging away near the front of the pack! Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, we were miming and ahhing about changing sail, decision made to switch after lunch…

Not waiting for us to eat lunch, the code 1 decided to split from head to toe (technically the foot), amazingly captured by the folk on Unicef!

The WTC rowing team was assembled in record time and the tennis court sized sail, now trawling for fish in the sea at the side of the boat was hauled back on board and code 2 hoisted.

Serious damage had occurred, David and Susie inspected the sail and pictures were sent to Hyde sails for advice, it was unclear if the sail could be repaired on the boat or not. This was a serious blow at the start of the lightest of light wind legs- we would be seriously hampered without this huge lightweight floaty sail!

After a couple of days a plan was made and the team assembled, almost 24/7 to attempt to fix her. A valiant effort and after days she was ready to fly again (with a reduced wind rating) an absolute heroic effort from the sail makers and the rest of the team to keep them motivated, fed and watered whilst cooped up below decks all hours of the day and night!

Meanwhile the weather remained pretty cool and very windy, within 24 hours we had the code 3 flying in 30 knots – bit of an eye opener for the new crew and some unexpected thrilling sailing for the rest of us!

Not having the code 1 slowed us down for a few days, but really the weather gods looked on us kindly and we didn’t loose too much ground!

After a lot of moaning about the lack of wildlife and the cold, all of a sudden the heating was turned up and the sun came out to play as we came level with Mexico.

The heat was searing and below deck became a furnace, appetites reduced and the shady areas of the deck became part of the rotation whilst on watch.

The first major event of the race was the scoring gate, this we were narrowly “ahem” pipped to the post by Bermuda after some very close racing, still bagging another 2 points which can’t be taken away!

The next part of the race was a bit complicated, in that there was 5 finish gates and the finish line. Essentially we needed to try come first over every line as no one, even the race office, know which gate would eventually be chosen as the finish line when the wind runs out.

Some great tactics got us over the first line in 1st, we were closely pipped to the second line by Punta. The third line was really just bad sailing, we were in a close battle with Punta for 1st and 2nd until a few almighty squalls hit. The first couple we rode out valiantly but unfortunately decided to drop our kite for the 3rd- to be fair it was an almighty black ominous looking cumulonimbus with lightning, and we didn’t want to break another sail, so down came the code 2. Unfortunately the cloud turned out to be all bark and no real bite, so Punta managed to storm ahead and take second and in the mean time Bermuda took 3rd whilst Halong Bay got lucky missing the squalls and took 1st.

Never mind, we’ll just keep going for the next gate and hopefully they’ll call it at 4… sadly despite coming 2nd over the line, the other boats ran out of wind further back up the course and so we ultimately took 4th place. Not a bad result, we sailed well, had a great team but doesn’t reflect our 1/2nd positioning for most of the race, but that’s the weather gods for you!

Takeaway memories from the race…

The awful dead meat smell in the corridor- a hunt to find the source if the foul smell initially led the sniffer to Ben’s boots, the bed sheets, bunk areas, all shoes and boots had to be sniffed in the process. Turned out a can of kidney beans was rotting in the bilge below so after the real source was removed and disinfected Ben and Dave were owed an apology for their stinky boots😂

How long is Mexico? Turns out it is huge! Much much longer than the USA coast! We seemed to be sailing past Mexico FOREVER!

Then Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica were all done in a flash!

Crazy squalls, almost every night, with the most spectacular lightning and rain storms

Once we got closer to the coast the wildlife was spectacular. Seeing the humpbacks breaching just behind the boat was such a highlight!

Seals who just lay on their backs floating with a flipper in the air were very common close to Seattle and San Francisco

Turtles, so many turtles! When the sea was calmer as we sailed past the last of Mexico and the other Central American countries there were soooo many turtles. Midday they seem to come and float near the surface, so much that we had to try and steer around them!

Boobies! Yes so many of these huge seabirds in the sky soaring around, especially around sunset. Off the Mexican coast we had Jeffery come to join us on the push pit for an overnight stay. He landed, ignored our attempts to chase him off and spent a lovely evening looking out to sea, pooping on the deck! Several others took to the bowsprit but none were as friendly as Jeffery.

And last of all- the dolphins, so many dolphins, big ones, plain ones, spotty ones and the cool little spinner dolphins who always seem so excited to come play with the boats now wave and give a great show!

Super proud of the team coming together, great spirit and hard work paid off!

Did have a blog for Easter Sunday but managed to erase it by accident!

Got my kite mojo back, loving it again.

Paul made hot cross buns for Easter, absolutely amazing!

We appear to be in first place!

There’s an amazing full moon making night sailing fabulous!

Mother duty again- not checked in for a few days due to some fabulous sailing conditions- kite up again, mojo back, then dropped it and beam reaching with the yankee 1 and full main in huge seas and squalls, the result of the moist warmer air of the front of the typhoon mixing with the precious colder air. Huge black looming clouds come out of nowhere, wind direction changes followed by a drop (like the cloud breathing in ready to give us a huge blow). Helmed in a 45knot squall without even a mainsail ease- we are all getting better. Lasted for a good 30 minutes all over 35 knots and was travelling an average of over 12 knots the whole time- new personal speed record of 21.5knots. The boat gets picked up by the wave and all of a sudden you’re looking straight downhill and the tip of the bowsprit looks ready to dive into the back of the previous wave, then you feel the acceleration and the boat pitches forward- catch the wave right and you have a flat boat, super fast and responsive the steering as she glides along. Get it wrong and you’re ping to end up rounding up into a broach or worse driving deep and potentially getting the wind the wrong side of the mainsail causing a crash gybe – very dangerous and can cause catastrophic damage to the boat and crew.

The crew jump to action waiting to ease the main, yankee and then eventually the vang if its really getting out of control! Then after it’s all back under control they grind it lol back in and wait for the next one. Nothing like the looming sensation of anticipation on the helm, feeling the waves increase and watching the numbers change, then everyone starts to get out cameras to capture the huge waves that are coming up behind you- is this just going to tease with 30-35knots or will it be the biggest yet?

Then a day in the galley- missed out on the light wind session with glorious blue skies and fluffy white clouds in the daytime- gave an opportunity for a much needed hairwash and shaving session. The birds nest on my head as gone and is replace by soft silky hair which the brunch glides through, such a treat- this race really allows you to appreciate the small things. Including a bed that’s flat and doesn’t cause more aches and pains than you already had from the sailing!

Well motherwatch went well, had a fun day in the galley, went over the date line around 3pm (3am uk time) and went back day to the 11th at3 pm! Made brownies and Yorkshire puddings to go with dinner and did some Galley-oke with Kaz and gave everyone a laugh.

Decent sleep and woke up to the code 3 having been flown (between round ups and wraps) overnight. Within 5 mins of taking the helm managed to wrap it; sooooo badly that it couldn’t be unwrapped and continued to get worse and worse. Took hours to unwrap. Ended up taking the tack and clew round and round the inner forestay , then Dan went up and unrapped as much of the head as possible, looked incredibly tough. In the end it was stuck between the yankee and stay halyards and we ground the halyards down which managed to allow the head to come free and the think floated fee into the sea. Bring on the WTC rowing team and be kite was hauled back on board. Several holes to fix but no real harm done, didn’t even loose too much ground to Punta either!

Feeling pretty down about the whole thing but can’t change it I guess. Better try get back on the horse.

169 east, 42 north

Next milestone – date line then ice limit (45n)

Current position- 2nd to Punta

Gained- 12 miles on Unicef (now 22 behind) and 60 on a Bermuda (now 70 behind!)

Clothing layers -full change yesterday sad to take off the fleece trousers, £5 bargain from decathlon and the best purchase!

2 merino baselayer tops, one layer bottoms, fleece onesie, heated gilet, musto primaloft, fern jacket and foulies. Neck warmer, balaclava and headband. Should be room for more! Gloves now needed on deck!

Sleeping bag situation- both fleece layers, fully zipped and covering head. Heated eye mask, surrounded by damp outer layers and a netting bag so I don’t lose my socks and gloves which are keeping warm for next use!

Hoisted Kite at evening watch change, then a few hours of rubbish light wind with big swell and a wind that can’t make its mind where it’s blowing from= v tricky, esp ass soon as you get some speed you overtake the kite and it hangs there like a limp hanky!

Then half an hour before the 3am watch change the wind filled in (exactly as predicted) and backed. Pulled off an excellent gybe, now heading 070 at 10-12 knots so perfect VMG and now listening to the other watch enjoying the super fast exciting kite flying and hoping it’s still the same in a few hours after breakfast!

Galley duty was tough! Beating upwind, falling off rollers. Even Kaz felt a bit squiffy but she carried on like a trooper to serve the gang their food to keep energy high- amazing how important food is on a boat for morale!

Mother sleep- tried another bunk – the Lee cloth too loose and the bunk doesn’t go high enough, spent the whole night hanging onto the frame so no sleep- getting pretty tied! The night was super dark, rainy and pretty windy (20-25knots upwind- 30+ across the deck)

Next day was able to ease the sails and we had a glorious 24-48 hours of thrilling reaching conditions, averaging over 12 knots for over 12 hours! Managed to pull into 1st place on the leaderboard which was sweet!

Starting to get colder now, multiple layers and gloves needed especially at night. Last minute decision to bring heated gilet = best one ever!

Winds dropped and the y1 came back out again, several y1-y2-y1-y2 changes- one memorable one at 3 am, heave too to drop the 1 which we had been holding for far too long, both watches needed to heave the one down and get the two up- then the others had a monstrous y1 flake which near killed them all! Keeps you warm at least!

Just in time as by then we were overpowered by 2! Even the generator said No as the heel was too much. Morale pretty low the upwind grind slowly getting to everyone.

Had to have a word with the watch- too many people disappearing for too long to do the duties- cleaning and bilge empyting, currently a never ending cycle of emptying water from the boat, in particular the sail locker seems to be leaking like a sieve! Asked them to consider the others who are stuck on deck whilst they’re down below as at least 4 on deck at all times.

Overnight the one reef and y2 kept the boat nicely balanced and flattish (lucklily as Dan had to give the generator and the water maker some TLC- saltwater is bad for everything and gets everywhere it shouldn’t be!)

Boat very damp- lots of condensation from cooking and breathing humans as the temp above deck is getting colder- but so far none of the big windy cold conditions promised- seems to be lots of upwind so far!

24 hours later (10th April) wind lighter and this morning we dropped the 2 and hoisted the one to keep everyone busy and warm- unicef and Bermuda came back to join us on our course and popped out behind us so we are in 2nd to Punta who have gone very north. Other boats stuck in a wind hole which so far we have managed to avoid- just flukey light airs, starting to back so nearly time for some kite flying hopefully!

Aired the tea towels and dried off all the kit today in a beautiful sunny afternoon sailing- another day of solent crusing!!

More light upwind sailing- morning Y2-Y1 changes two days in row, some stunning sunsets and the most fantastic pod of hundreds of dolphins all hunting in a circle then a long row over 500m long!

Dave made cinnamon buns for breakkie, went down an absolute treat, had a pretty uneventful day, still very close racing with UNICEF and Bermuda, we’re all neck and neck with less than 20 miles between us- Measuring distance to finish we appear to come out in the lead. The sailing was very pleasant- very Sunday solent so far- gentle upwind 30-33 degree wind angle as close to course of 060 as possible please!

All to play for, sailing along the edge of the low pressure, had a couple of tacks overnight to stay in the new body of air.

Currently sitting in the galley being G forced into the saloon seat waiting for my bread to rise whilst the on watch struggle with flaking the unruly tennis court sized Y1 into its bag (please dear god for the last time this race!) whilst healed at a most undignified 40 degree angle. Y3 now up, no rest for the wicked, gonna be another tough day in the galley today 😳

Race day 10

Well it’s been an interesting few days! A day of boring upwind in 20knots.

Then a day in the galley – soup for lunch then sausages and mash for tea- massive clear up job.

Halyard sheath went- Dan up rig and was ragdolled and hit head- bruised and sore but ok otherwise – Just trying to top the bruise I got falling out of the bunk trying to get at the med kit!

Left feeling very drained and despite looking forward to a decent all night sleep woke up with dizziness and nausea several times. Several other crew also completely fatigued – poss virus going around. Next day a total slog!

Had an early morning watch where we went from Y2-Y1-code1-wind seeker- saw virtually every sail on the boat in a 12 hour period!

Two hour time changes to keep sunrise at breakfast and sunset at dinner- had been rising at 4.30am

Managed to get some downwind in- hoisted the code 2 in a massive sea state, managed to hold it with difficulty to sail away from the others- as the sea state dropped we had some and lovely kiting.

Had a weird pregnant night shift waiting for a wind veer and increase signifying the time to drop the kite and back to the upwind beating. Managed to time this perfectly and executed a super kite drop and staysail hoist just as the wind swung and hit 25 knots within 30s of the kite going below.

This was the start of some serious upwind beating, increasing over several hours to a morning watch with 4-5m seas and 40-45 knots true wind- equivalent to 50 knots apparent- the most I saw was 54knots! We were lucky, by lunchtime the worst was over and by the time we got to 28knots true the wind get positively light and it was time for more sail!

We got through unscathed- boat and humans all intact and to add to our joy came out well in the next position report putting miles between us and qingdao our closest rivals behind, whilst taking miles from Bermuda in front 🙂

Both above and below deck was tough, the boat sometimes being knocked flat on her side with the acceleration down the back of the waves. The noise of 50 knots is something to behold- whistling in the rig, sea spray blown off your face lik hallestones – time for the ski goggles on the helm as the only way to face the wind. Below deck was warmer- sheltered from the wind but unable to see the big waves coming it wasn’t possible to prepare for dropping off the back of the waves as the bow becomes temporarily airborne followed by burying into the water the other side and creating huge bow waves rushing down the low side of the boat. Got pretty wet getting the y3 back on board after a wave washed it overboard- took 4 on the bow and hoisting it by the sail tie on a halyard to get her back on board!

Some boats not so lucky- Korea had to medivac someone with dislocated shoulder and sanya had to bear off and go the wrong way downwind whilst fixing an issue.

Within 12 hours we were approaching the southern Japanese islands, the wind getting lighter and very flukey as we approached the edge of the high. Initially the plan was to go over the top and get to the downwind section:

A few tacks between the islands and some nice gentle easing upwind. Curry for dinner, Overnight some very light, very flukey winds meant difficult helming, lots of concentration but off watch the boat was flat and meant everyone started to catch up on missed sleep. Fatigue is starting to set in now. The nature of the upwind means lots of water ends up in the bilges- this means emptying with a bucket and scoop every 2 hours at the moment- if we weren’t tired enough?

Day 15 bright and sunny, gradually increasing winds and warmer in the sun. Catching Bermuda- only 16 miles ahead. Qingdao heading to Tokyo to make repairs to back stay. Burgers for lunch 🙂

Susie’s birthday- Sophie and Steve baked some brownies!