N55 Rainbow Chaser set to transit Panama Canal Sunday

6/17/17

N55 Rainbow Chaser set to transit Panama Canal Sunday
UPDATE: N55 Rainbow Chaser got bumped from their spot in line for transiting the Canal. New details forthcoming.

Midway through its delivery from St. Lucia to Cabo San Lucas, N55 Rainbow Chaser, currently sits at the Shelter Bay Marina in Cristobal, awaiting her turn to transit the Panama Canal tomorrow afternoon. The boat will pick up its pilot at 3:30 pm (EDT) and is scheduled to complete the Gatun Lock by 6:15 pm (EDT). She’ll continue through the remaining two sets of locks on Monday and will continue her roughly 2,100-nm journey to Cabo.

Nordhavn Southwest salesman Devin Zwick is bringing the boat, currently listed for sale, to the more accessible location on the Baja Penninsula.

The boat endured a couple of false starts before getting going when one routine pre-departure checks revealed one radar and the autopilot not functioning. A fix by Danlee, a tech at a local electronics outfit, had the boat on its way June 7. Four hours later, the boat had u-turned and was back at the St. Lucia dock, with Danlee once again trying to resolve another electronics issue, this time with the second radar. Zwick, along with Danlee and Jesse from Alcom Electronics on speakerphone, figured out the problem.

On June 8, Zwick and his crew of Matthew Pehkoff and Nicholas Sosa set off. Along the way the boat encountered other electrical issues with the Autopilot, the Nobletech and then on the third day, a generator overheating problem. Zwick didn’t despair though. “You’ve got to anticipate these kinds of things in a boat that hasn’t been used in a while,” he said. “In a way, this delivery is a 3,300-nm shakedown cruise.” In fact Rainbow Chaser had only accumulatd 60 nm under her keel in three years sitting in St. Lucia. “Nordhavns are so robust, with so many redundancies, that even givien a few hiccups in transit, we still felt confident to proceed.”

The crew pulled into Cristobal on June 14 and have been performing boat duties as well as enjoying Panama as they wait for today’s departure. “So far the trip has been beautiful, gorgeous sunrises and sunsets,” Zwick said. “Catching a lot of Dorado and Tuna. The weather has been behind us the whole way allowing Matt Pehkoff to cook delicious elaborate meals. Six days is a great amount of time to cruise… not to long, not too short.”