Earthrace Clears the Panama Canal - Heads for Mexico

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - The goal of Earthrace is to set a new world record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe, running 100% renewable biodiesel fuel, and with a net zero carbon footprint. The amazing Earthrace boat started their record breaking attempt starting from Sagunto in Spain, and yesterday they passed through the Panama Canal. There was some concern because there are literally hundreds of yachts backed up on the Caribbean side waiting to get through, but they were able to diplomatically negotiate their way through the Panama Canal with the help of the Panama Canal Administration, and are now on their way to Mexico on the next leg of their record setting attempt. (more)

The Coolest Boat in the World: There's no doubt about it, the Earthrace boat is simply cool to look at. They run on 100% biodiesel with twin 540 hp engines. The fuel they use is good enough so the engines don't require and modifications. The boat can do 40 knots flat-out, and they've gotten it up to 30 knots in Gatun Lake, but for the most part they try to run somewhere between 20-25 knots for most of their record setting run.

Strike? What Strike? The Earthrace ground support crew innocently made reference to the ongoing "malicious compliance" strike being carried out by the Panama Canal pilots on their website after they had left Puerto Rico and were heading to Panama. A news release on 7 May 2007 made reference to the strike, saying "Ahead lays much uncertainty. A strike by Canal Workers has currently paralyzed shipping with delays of two weeks for transiting vessels." When the ground crew arrived in Panama they began a frantic effort to negotiate a speedy transit through the Canal in order to stay on track for their world record setting run. But the reference to the strike had severely pissed-off the ACP. Now what?

Did Somebody Mention A Strike? Of course not. With the Earthrace boat still on Caribbean side of the Panama Canal, both the skipper and ground crew began a frantic effort to conduct a little diplomatically correct backtracking --

• Earthrace crew make it safely through Panama Canal
  
  
• Mon, 12 May 2008 09:08a.m.
  
  
• New Zealand skipper Pete Bethune has thanked the Panama Canal Authority for allowing his 23m trimaran Earthrace a swift transit through the canal.
  
  
• The Earthrace crew, attempting to set a new world record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe, had feared being held up by an industrial dispute on reaching the Panama Canal on Friday.
  
  
• But Bethune said on his Earthrace website the delays were due to excess traffic and significant maintenance work in the canal.
  
  
• "I am very grateful for the assistance of the Panama Canal Authority in clarifying this matter and in allowing Earthrace a swift transit through the canal to continue on our World Speed Record route without delay," wrote Bethune.
  
  
• The Earthrace boat started its bid in Spain on April 27 and has to complete the round-the-world trip in under 74 days to beat the current record set by a British boat in 1998.

They Were "Corrected" By The ACP: The ACP made it perfectly clear to the Earthrace crew - drop any references to the strike by the Panama Canal pilots and repeat our party line or forget about getting through the canal quickly. Of course they did the right thing for their boat, their mission, and their sponsors, backtracked a little on their statements, and just got the damn boat through the friggin' canal. And thanks for that, by the way. Now, with Panama in their rear view mirror...

Happily Motoring for Mexico: The boat made the transit yesterday during the day. This morning they finished taking on fuel and then had to wait for a few hours to get a harbor pilot to help them navigate out of Rodman and to get clear of Panama Canal waters. They are now officially done with their Panama portion of the trip, and are still on time or ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, Back on the Canal: I understand some 38 new ships arrived yesterday and another 53 are coming in today. The backlog had dropped down to about 80 vessels waiting to get through but that it should be back up to 100 in no time. Meanwhile, the ACP put through about a dozen private yachts yesterday, realizing that they are about to get vocal about being made to wait. The pilot's have asked their members to politely decline any offers to work additional hours. The "non-strike" strike continues, now in it's 12th week. The ACP continues to try to create reality in their public statements, and I wonder how long they think they can keep it up. Maintenance work? When? Where? Higher levels of traffic? Please be specific. In fact the ACP traffic statistics show that the peak traffic levels from February and March have started to fall off in April. So, why isn't the backlog going away?

Thanks For Staying Away: I got into contact with Fiona Clark who was heading up the groundcrew for Earthrace. Once here in Panama they had realized the gravity of their mistake in mentioning the Pilot's strike in their news releases. I know the ACP is going ape-shit nuts over my reporting on the strike, and that I would do them no good at all, so I just stayed clear of them until they had gotten through. I met up with them (and met Fiona personally) on the pier at Rodman this morning. "Thanks for that..." she said, about helping them by staying clear of the controversy. Of course, I didn't want to do anything to slow them down and was glad to see they had gotten through the Panama Canal and had managed to navigate the controversy intact. They called it "a miracle" that they were able to get through so quickly, considering the backlog of yachts waiting to get through on the Caribbean side.

Slips Happen: The Earthrace engineer Mark Russel slipped on the back of the boat and badly cut his left foot. There were some fuel cells holding the biodiesel, and a piece of aluminum frame was exposed. He slipped and fell down onto the sharp metal. This, from the Earthrace Captain's Blog, Day 12. Waiting in Panama:

• There’s a sudden burst of swearing from Earthrace and I look over to see Mark busy clutching his foot and blood oozing out between his fingers. We quickly scrounge up some bandages and slowly take Mark’s hands away from his foot. He’s got as large gash between his little toe and second toe, and as his hand stops supporting the toe, it suddenly flops down, the gash being only millimeters from going right through his foot. I push the toe back up against his foot and we start wrapping it up.”
  
  
• Mark takes a look at the gaping wound and suddenly goes pale. “Man it’s a ****** bad one”, he pants between gritted teeth.
  
  
• “We need to get him to a hospital quick smart”, I yell out to Fiona, who like all of us, initially thought it was just a little graze. Minutes later he’s in the car with Fiona and Bobbo, and on his way to the local hospital.
  
  
• “That’ll probably be the end of the race for him won’t it”, Rob says to me, looking concerned. I think about Mark’s situation. The best case is there is no ligament or tendon damage, in which case it’ll just be a bad flesh wound that needs about a week or so of talking it easy. Not that life on Earthrace involves taking anything easy. If the damage is more severe though, it could have him out of action for a little longer. Certainly the cut is a bad one.

Tough Bastards: Good news - Mark has been stitched back together and is now on the boat and heading for Mexico. There have been five failed attempts to break this world record which has stood for ten years. If you ever get the urge to give it a shot you're going to be needing crew mates like this Mark Russel guy.

Skipper Pete Bethune: Waiting for a ACP Pilot to help them navigate their way out of Rodman, skipper Pete Bethune answered just about every stupid question I could dream up. Hey, why not? They were just killing time and waiting for a pilot to help them get clear. They contemplated just leaving and paying the fine (bad idea, not good at all...) And, they found out it would cost upwards of $2,500 to get a pilot over there right away. Better to just wait for the guy and make up the time later.

Fiona Clark and the Ground Crew: Engineer Celestino de Freitas on the left, Ground Crew CEO Fiona Clark in the middle, and Operations Manager Adrian Erangey on the right. Taking care of the millions of details required for making a record breaking attempt like this, the grunt work gets done by the ground crew. They will fly to Mexico early tomorrow morning to meet the boat there.

Politically Correct: "I am very grateful for the assistance of the Panama Canal Authority in clarifying this matter and in allowing Earthrace a swift transit through the canal to continue on our World Speed Record route without delay," wrote Bethune. Yup. I would recommend a little mouthwash to help get rid of the aftertaste. Hey, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. In this case the Skipper took one for the team. Well done.

Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.