Through the Gatun Locks
Hello All,
We had a great time on the blog today watching the web cam at the Gatun Locks. It was difficult to know what to look for but finally we saw clear as anything, Intrepid side-tied to Pura Vida - a sizable catamaran that Zac planned to transit with.
I received a most welcome email from Jeffrey Vagt this evening. He had recorded the footage from the Gatun Locks web cam most of the afternoon, sped it up and posted it on YouTube! Here is a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLwnaz1bsRI
If you notice about 00 :58 you can see two masts with mast lights on entering the lock, the lock fills and then they exit behind the wall. That explains their disappearing act earlier!
I will post tomorrow about the Miraflores Locks transit. The web cams there have an angel that makes it much easier to tell where everybody is.
Until Then,
Marianne
PS Thanks a million Jeffrey!!
We had a great time on the blog today watching the web cam at the Gatun Locks. It was difficult to know what to look for but finally we saw clear as anything, Intrepid side-tied to Pura Vida - a sizable catamaran that Zac planned to transit with.
I received a most welcome email from Jeffrey Vagt this evening. He had recorded the footage from the Gatun Locks web cam most of the afternoon, sped it up and posted it on YouTube! Here is a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLwnaz1bsRI
If you notice about 00 :58 you can see two masts with mast lights on entering the lock, the lock fills and then they exit behind the wall. That explains their disappearing act earlier!
I will post tomorrow about the Miraflores Locks transit. The web cams there have an angel that makes it much easier to tell where everybody is.
Until Then,
Marianne
PS Thanks a million Jeffrey!!
posted by Zac at
7:31 PM
20 Comments:
This is so cool! What a great idea Jeffrey had. It takes some serious looking even still to see them. Took me three times, but well worth the looking.
Go Zac, Homeward bound!! Steve
It was a GREAT evening! Since my w*rk net connection is so much faster & much more stable, stayed after. Even keeping in mind Lady Marianne said it might be a couple of hours once the Pilot boarded the ships, it was good to be as close to live chat as we could & still getting to see Capt Zac! go thru the first locks @ a little after 9p ET. One could feel the exhilaration amongst everyone :)
Thx Lady Marianne for your trusting us to behave ourselves - God Bless ya!
I think all who stayed thru to the end had a wonderful time! Hopefully, Capt Zac! knows by now we've never stopped keeping him in our thoughts & prayers.
I kept one thought in me mind toward the end - when no news, all the more reason to pray that much more (yes, I did send a couple Upward).
As always, thx for letting us, The ZacPac, share in this GREAT adventure.
HUGS!
Tomi/ATL
Darn, it goes so fast, I think I miss it. Try to stop it now and then but I can't tell which is the Intrepid.
Nice though. Thanks Jeffrey!
Namaste~~
Kudos to Jeffrey Vagt! His YouTube video allows for a great perspective and it makes it easy to orient yourself to the ships out-bound to the sea and those just starting their transit, such as Intrepid.
If you can, watch it carefully from about 0:58, and as Marianne says, you'll see the two masthead lights of Intrepid and Pura Vida. Now, go back a bit, and see how far back you can pick them up as they approach the far lock.
You can all see how hard it is to figure out distance and angle at night. Now, imagine how difficult it has been for Zac all the times he's been sailing at night. Makes you think, doesn't it?
To Zac and his support team; well done!
Papajock
I had to watch the video three times before I saw Zac and the other boat. After getting used to the size of the freighters as they passed through, I was totally surprised at how dinky the sailboats were! Great video showing how the locks work.
How AWESOME was that???!!! Have fun being anchored in Gatun Lake! I'll have my eye out for you when you enter Mira Flores...High Def, of course! We love you, Zac! As a mom of a 17 year old son, what can I say? I'm as proud of you as I am my own son! You're a great kid with a lot of determination. Loves, hugs and a safe voyage back to MDR! Heather, El Segundo, CA
Marianne,
Thank you again!
Thank you also to Jeffrey Vagt.
I sat at my computer from 3 pm to 5:55 pm waiting, when I was interrupted by a family member (teenager- who else?) I moved for a few minutes and missed it.
It was quite exciting leading up to the the point before I left. Man you Packers really have something special going through your veins. 243 comments, This was a special time for all.
I look forward to the Miraflores tomorrow.
Regards
S
Hey ZacPackers! I'm as frustrated as a horned toad here. Due to some problem with my ISP, I've been off-line for at least a week. I missed timely blogs about some big doings -- like arriving at the Canal Zone and making it into the Gatun Locks.
I've read all the blogs and will spend most of tomorrow reading all the comments that go with them.
Even if belatedly, I broke out into a sweat and experienced some outrage at Zac's dealing with ships not using their AIS systems and, it boggles my mind, no running lights! That is scarier than pirates to me. Aren't there laws about these things? Can't coastal countries enforce them at least within their territorial waters? Don't tell me that all this stuff about lights and other warning acts are merely based upon customs of the seafaring folk. Somebody get some addressed and lets start a letter or email campaign.
Bottom line: Zac's obviously capable of dealing with the nutters out there, he's in the canal, and doing great! Soon he'll make that right turn for the downhill (?) trip to MDR!
He'll remain in our prayers until we know he's home and know that Mom is stuffing him with all the comfort foods that he's missed over the last year!
The Croaker
Awesome job Jeff. Thanks!! If you don't mind I isolated the movement of the cat and Zac, into a 4 frame ani gif in b&w for the folks who might still keep missing it :-)
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6917/zac.gif
Big Thanks to Anonymous for posting a slowed-down version of the locks: http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6917/zac.gif
Was finally able to see the trimaran and kind of sort of see Intrepid.
Wasn't exactly the Cinemascope experience I was hoping for, but it certainly was cool to see him heading for the Pacific. As Croaker notes, just "one righthand turn" . . . and then every mile he makes will take Zac closer to home.
Mike Perham, who is a great writer, and has a great sense of adventure (you can follow his journey at www.totallymoney.com/sailmike) is stuck in Auckland, New Zealand for a while with what looks like a major problem with the rudder bearings. New bearings will have to be custom-made for the boat in France, and then installed in New Zealand. This will place him deeper into the Southern Hemisphere winter for his planned Cape Horn roundings -- which could well be altered to a Panama Canal passage.
Why the report on Mike? His boat is so darned fast that some months ago it looked like he would be returning home to England before Zac made it back to MDR.
He's now encountered so many equipment problems that it certainly looks as if Zac is on a schedule that should get him home before Mike makes either Cape Horn (or Panama Canal, if he decides not to do a winter-rounding of the cape).
So, knock on wood, it looks as if Zac could very well become the Youngest Person to achieve a Solo Circumnavigation.
Because Mike is 4 months younger than Zac, he could after the fact claim the record, at which point Zac would gracefully cede the title, but could do so knowing that he had held it, and that he would remain the youngest American . . . until some crazy kid manages to do it even younger. ;-)
- Grant Fjermedal, Seattle
Hello Fellow Zac Pac!
Very exciting to see Zac via web cam last night.....the quality of the camera was such it made it rather difficult to make out certain objects but not too difficult to spot "our boy"! Being side tied to the huge cat made it nice too! Such fun to watch "live" after all these months following this amazing adventure!
It was fun switching from this site to the web cam "talking" to fellow Zac Pac :) looking forward to that again later today!(even though I really, really, need to finish the bottom painting on "Wombat"...LOL)
The web cams at Miraflores locks are of much better quality and hopefully he'll pass through during daylight hours.
Marianne I can imagine you are just bursting with pride and can't wait to "get ahold of that young man"! I'm sure all Zac's siblings are just as excited as you and Laurence!
What is the distance home once Zac passes through the canal? Will he make any other stops? What are the winds predicted to be in that area along the west coast?
Anita
Waterloo, NY
Captain SV "Wombat"
Glad someone recorded it! Thanks, Jeffery. Time lapse really helps understand how active and busy the canal is....
Thanks from me too, Jeffrey, for that link. I just had to go to bed as it was 1am ish in UK.
It was such fun though, waiting to see him enter the locks and talking to the rest of the Zacpac whilst waiting.
Hope I can be here when he enters the Miraflores lock.
Croaker...you are funny ( frustrated as a horned toad!) and Anita...I hope Wombat can wait so you can enjoy the LIVE show!
Hope to see y'all later.
UK friend
It took me a few times before I even saw the catamaran and Intrepid's lights. It looks very cool even going by so fast. I'm sure the Miraflores Locks will come out better.
Good luck passing through. Marianne, I'm sure your two oldest men are having a blast right now.
Fill Those Locks,
Douglas Pistone
MDR, California
@ Grant,
I got a bad feeling about poor Mike's endeavor, seems to me someone somewhere is trying to tell him something. :-( Did you know that Saito-san is still stuck in Punta Arnas, coming up nearly one month now. Basically being held hostage over who is going to pay for the rescue costs and repairs. Now if Mike takes that route in his boat and something goes wrong, there goes another month. I believe that if he takes the Panama Canal route he still must cut down past the equator and then back up and back home. He can't zoom from NZ thru Panama and straight across to England. That does not a circle make :-)
The boat is the biggest worry of course. Scouring his site, it states the actual owner of the boat is on the team and tasked with preparing it. And she's a top notch sailor experienced with that boat and others in the most demanding races. So far these rudder bearings have failed on every leg of Mike's race. UK to Africa, Africa to AUS, AUS to NZ. Something is very very wrong. Moreso since they have both been replaced inbetween. Something is out of alignment that is causing this stress or something else is occuring. I'm wondering if Mike's inexperience comes into play. Can he be driving the boat too hard. With a finely tuned boat like that is there perhaps a fine line between breaking it and nursing it along. Every run he's had so far reads like a thrill a mile a minute, high winds, surfing down waves,flying over waves etc. Can he be over stressing the vessel? Do experienced sailors on that type of vessel know to reign it in at a certain point and balance it? I don't know :-(
If it's not the pilot and it is the actually vessel just being old and tired, then we must expect other parts to slowly fail as well. That I'd be worried about even more than anything in attempting to round the Horn. Look at Saito-san and his heavy duty vessel took a severe bashing to the point of having to be towed in.
Everythig just seems wrong or "off" on Mike's campaign. Something's not right. Someone needs to recognize those signs and take them into account.
Whatever the case may be, we'll hold thumbs for Mike and regardless of the outcome, I am sure his journey will be memorable for the rest of his life and will lead to better and greater things for him in the future.
Yeah i finally saw Zac..took 4 times but i for sure made out the cat with Zac tied to it!!
Yesterday was so exciting..all my co workers were asking all day how things were going with Zac..at 5:45 i had to leave for the bank and the 15 min. drive home and i missed the live passing:{but thanks to "Jeff" i got to see it!
Looking forward to the High resolution of Miraflores today.
I can't believe he's almost home..can you imagine how the Sunderlands feel if we feel this way..What a proud moment that homecoming will be!!
See you all at Miraflores!!!
Laura BD
it may have already mentioned/answered, does being tied to another boat and Zac not "sailing" his own boat going through the locks affect the "technical" terms of unassisted, solo navigation? Who would make the determination? In any event Zac is our champion.
I've been following Mike's adventure also. I hope his Pacific crossing is safe and uneventful.
Zac and Mike are both couragous and spirited young men.
peace,
bob
EXTREMELY COOL!!!!
What a great video! I watched last night but "lost" Zac when his masts disappeared. Now that I can review the footage it is clear to see where he "went" Thanks for recording it and sending it for all of us to watch.
Go Zac, Go!
Thanks for the great video. Our best wishes and prayers are with Zac on his home stretch. I would like a copy of his book with Jen's photos.
Does anyone have the site link for Mike's journey?
Leo
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