Trilogy VII Crossing Blog #4: Panama Canal and Our Journey North

Today’s the day!!!!

After 8 days of anticipation (and a steep bar tab at the Shelter Bay Marina…), it was finally our turn to go through the canal!

The crew was in high spirits and excited to see everything up close. After saying goodbye to the awesome staff we headed out and waited for our canal Pilot, Jose, to hop on board and join us. Every boat going through the canal is required to have Panama Canal Authority pilot or advisor onboard the vessel in order to assist the crew and lead the process.

A small monohull was side tied to us for the first set of locks, which are a set of three separate, water-filled chambers that take you to Gatun Lake. We were positioned in the lock behind a gigantic cargo ship, which made T7 look tiny in comparison! Each lock takes you up about 35 feet, and it was amazing to see the sheer amount of water that’s needed to make it happen.

Watch this time lapse crossing of Trilogy VII transiting the Panama Canal! (Note: the video quality is fuzzy in the middle of the video, but the beginning and end are sharp!)

The plan was to ascend to the lake and spend the night on a mooring ball there, but we learned halfway through that we would either have to transit the entire canal in one go, or potentially a day (days?) in the lake for another pilot to be available.

We decided to #sendit, and maxed out the engines at 22 knots in order to get through the lake. The last two sets of locks were smooth and uneventful, and we arrived into the Pacific around 2am.

Unfortunately, our slip in the La Playita harbor wasn’t available until the next day, so we all took turns on anchor watch in order to get through the night.

The next day we arrived in the harbor and began our final preperations for the longer stretches of the trip ahead. A driver took us all into Panama City to stock up and provision, and we said goodbye to Jim Whipple who assisted us through the first leg of our journey. We had one last dinner as a full crew before saying bon voyage to Captain Sydney (Jenna cried) and casting off for Cabo.

Jason said the only night of the trip he couldn’t sleep so far was the night before leaving Panama—not because of any discomfort, but just because he was SO excited to finally go fishing again. Sure enough, as soon as the lines hit the water they started humming with two Spanish Mackerel, and we all enjoyed arguably the best fish tacos of our entire lives for dinner.

The next eight days were filled with more wildlife encounters than any of us ever dreamed of, and we even had a Humpback whale calf pop up 50 yards from the boat!

Dolphins decided to join us for sunset almost every night, and the conditions were great and the fish kept coming. Before we knew it our fridge, freezer, and cooler were all bursting at the seams with Marlin, Ahi, Mahi Mahi and Mackerel. We ate fish for breakfast lunch and dinner and Jason declared “fish are just the vegetables of the sea.”

My favorite preparation was the sashimi platters of tuna we enjoyed in the afternoons. and before we knew, it we could make out Mexico’s Baja Peninsula and were pulling into Cabo San Lucas and our home at IGY harbor. The volume of traffic in the harbor made for an interesting time getting into our slip, but we safely tied up in the shadows of two mega yachts and gave the boat a much needed wash down.

Jenna and Jason quickly found the closest margaritas, and we enjoyed an evening of exploring Cabo on foot. The next day, Jason located a fish processing plant that allows you to donate fish you’ve caught to a local Mexican orphanage, and he was able to provide the orphanage with over 63 pounds of marlin (Go Jason)!

We did a final provisioning run, took on 1,400 gallons of fuel, and enjoyed our last showers for the foreseeable future. Wake up time was 6am and we departed Cabo with a beautiful sunrise illuminating the cliffs. Even though we’ve been enjoying these epic adventures we’re all excited for the last leg of the trip and to be heading home to Hawaii, now and expect to reach Hawaii Island (the Big Island) in approximately 10 days.

Final words of advice from crew member, Chris Stein: “Make sure the boat is going West. East is not the right way!”

-Capain Bobby

Also, the the “oFISHal log” of fish caught thus far:*

1 350 pound Marlin
3 Spanish Mackerel
2 Tuna
3 Mahi

*Jason would like to note that the amount of fish would be significantly higher, but he was forced to stop when the crew turned against him on day 4.