Panama and onto Cristobal for bunkering

Monday 26th January

Up for 04.30 this morning to help test the gear. Everything was ready to go and then at half past five we were told that we wouldn’t be going until 01.00 the next day! I spent the rest of the morning till breakfast writing letters and then turned to with the crew for the morning, fresh water hosing the hatch lids ready for painting.

Tuesday 27^th January

Was woken at 03.45 and sent down aft to operate the capstan.

We were in the first locks. By the time my first hour came up we were in the last lock just about to leave. This was to be only the second time I had steered under a Pilot and was feeling a bit apprehensive. All went well even though it was the narrowest part of the canal.

During my second hour we were just in Gatun lake and went up to anchor to await descending Gatun locks during the day. At 18.00 we moved into the lock. The Pilot had a trainee Pilot with him who was interesting to talk to and told us about the training scheme. They are on full pay from the beginning. For the first 4 months they do nothing but watch the experienced pilots. After that they allowed to take small ships through the easier bits (i.e. the lake). After 18 months they are allowed to take small ships through on their own and so on. The longer ships need 5 years experience and the largest 10 years. We anchored in the bay off Cristobal to bunker in the morning.

Wednesday 28^th January

I kept the anchor watch for 2 hours during bunkering this morning. The Chief Officer relieved me at 06.00 and I did correspondence work till breakfast. We finished bunkering and sailed at about 10.30. I turned to on the 4 to 8 in the afternoon to find that the automatic steering gear had been repaired in Balboa. After working out the Azimuths etc. I stood by in case the automatic pilot played up and did the weather report for 00.00 GMT.

Thursday 29^th January

Back on daywork again. In the morning I got the ship’s plans out and found out what all the valves, air pipes and filling pipes around the decks were. I then made a scale drawing with all these on for future reference as regards correspondence work and painting them. In the afternoon I painted No 4 hatch coaming using a roller whilst Billy did the cutting in with a dog’s leg. One of the A.B’s showed me how to rig a stage.