Eastbound Panama Canal--Info from Anyone?

[cluso]

Hi,

Just checking to see if anyone out there has done the Eastbound Panama Canal Transit lately and if so, do you have any good info about the trip. How were the seas going upwind? DebSailing--if you are still around, did you end up doing this trip?

[dockgirl]

Hello,

 

my husband and i just sailed on the star clipper from panama to st maarten , the seas were not nice to us, we spent 9 days out of 14 at sea rather than 5 due to the sea conditions. We missed 2 ports of call, aruba, jost van dyke and only 1/2 day in curacao. This was our second trip on the clipper, 2 years ago we did the windward and grenadine islands on the royal clipper, we had a fabulous time. We will not do (as we called it the crossing), crossing the caribbean sea to the islands, unfortunately the seas were bad from day one leaving the canal, we were just unlucky. Hope this helps lynne

[DebSailing]

Hi Kim,

Sorry for the delayed reply. I hadn't gone on the forum until now. I'm looking to see if anyone is going on the Star Flyer TA October 15, 2011. As regards the Panama trip, as Dockgirl said we missed a couple of ports. Seas were pretty rough. At one point they strung ropes across the decks and these really helped us get from one side to the other. It was interesting that the motion was bow to stern with a bit of twist, rather than the side to side we experienced on the Royal Clipper. Have to admit, I quite enjoyed it! Don't know if the conditions were typical, but engines were necessary. I think going in the other direction might allow for more sailing. Bottom line, great time. San Blas Islands and Cartegena were exceptional.

Deb