Earthrace crew - hurry up and hustle in Panama

by Bob Maxwell on 9 May 2008 The thunder of twin Mercruiser 540 hp diesel motors announced the arrival of the 78 feet New Zealand bio-fuelled trimaran Earthrace in Colon, Panama at 1900 GMT yesterday.

On time they were already 1100 nautical miles ahead of the 1998 Cable & Wireless round the world record, just seven minutes short of 75 days.

Earthrace skipper Aucklander Pete Bethune had hoped to hear that his high tech wave-piercer would be waved straight into the 37 nautical mile lock system that separates the Atlantic from the Pacific but it was not to be.

Del;ays caused by recent lock maintenance combined with heavy high season transit traffic has caused a heavy backlog which the Canal Authority is trying to clear. Some boats have been waiting for more than two weeks to get the call.

Almost 24 hours later Bethune and his international crew are still hoping that they will be able to delicately arrange an early mark for the potential world record breaker.

'We are trying to negotiate our way through the canal,' Bethune, said.

'There are weeks and weeks of boats backed up waiting to go through. So we are busy hustling to get in front of the queue,' he said.

The Earthrace crew had a fast passage from San Juan, Puerto Rico after a 30 hour delay, because their biofuel was not onsite.

The frustration was evident as Bethune commented 'We were in port for over 30 hours, which is about 28 more than we'd like. A huge amount when you spend so much time and effort trying to save a few minutes here and there.'

Not wasting a minute, the Earthrace crew repaired their autopilot, and installed a FLIR night vision system ahead of their Pacific Passage up the Central American West Coast.

Last year, Earthrace, then without night vision capability, overran an unlit fishing skiff off the Guatamalean coast. One local fisherman was killed and Bethune and his crew were under 'boat arrest' for more than a week before local courts found they were innocent of any liability.

Back in Panama, its hurry up and hustle for the 43 year old former Oil company executive and his crew. If they don't get a fast passage, any chance of setting a new world circumnavigation record could slip away.