Pacific at Last!

Pacific at Last!
Originally uploaded by mlingswiler.

The weather had been bad for the past few weeks and the boat was stuck at Isla Grande. Kitty decided to fly down, and we took a plane to the San Blas Islands, drove to Cerro Azul (a small town in the mountains), and took a ferry to Tobago (an island off Panama City).

Every thing went well until I got food poisoning for which I will leave out the details (it wasn't pretty)!

While Kitty made her way back to Miami, we made it through the Panama Canal and today are anchored off Panama City on the Pacific. Just in time for Carnival.

The trip through the canal is a two day event for small yachts making the 50 mile run. We started at 5:30 pm when the pilot arrived on the boat to guide us through. We then proceeded through the first set of locks which brought us up to the height of Lake Gatun where the pilot was picked up and we spent the night.

The next morning the pilot arrives at 6:00am and we begin the run through the lake and the three locks that dropped us to the level of the Pacific. The trip through the lake was surprisingly scenic as it is uninhabited rain forest. We were through the canal by 1:00PM.

It went pretty smooth, but was nerve racking. Before we enter the first set of locks, the pilot had us tie side by side to an Italian sailboat, and we both enter the lock behind an extremely large container ship.

On the last set of locks we did the same, but in front of a very large containership. It is extremely ominous looking straight up at a ships bow, and hope I don’t see that while at sea!

I knew I was on the wrong boat when the Italians broke out the shot glasses after the first lock opened! The Brits don't seem to be as care free (no offense to any of my British friends, but tell me if i'm wrong). On one occasion they seemed to be upset when my under shorts were drying in the wind under the British flag. They mentioned something about this being a proper British vessel. Friends, I really only needed to dry my under shorts. This really had nothing to do with vessel registry. Everybody knows I would have done the same if were a US flag. I always thought formality was one of my strong points.

Carnival made for an interesting day/night. While going through the locks in the canal, Rob was passed the email address of a girl from Spain that was on a tourist boat also going through the locks. Us and three people from another boat started Carnival at 10:00am. They were drinking pain killers for most of the morning (I of course wanted no part of that). Later in the day we met up with the Spanish girl, only to find out she was traveling with a very strange American. I will spare all of you the details. The story of seven turistos and 1 million partying Panamanians would have been a lot less amusing sober, but none the less it was a great time. The Party ended around 2:00AM. The people of Panama are wonderful.

We will be provisioning the boat for the next few weeks and waiting for the third crew member to arrive. Our next stop should be the Galapagos. I'll keep everybody posted.

The pictures are of a Kuna sailing canoe in San Blas, us passing one of the containerships in the lake, the lock doors opening, looking at the bow of a ship in the lock and The Pacific!

Congrads to all my BK friends on your IPO.

Slow Going

Slow Going
Originally uploaded by mlingswiler.

Well…we successfully sailed from Bocas to Colon and now we are and at anchor at Islas Grande (That’s Big Island for all my gringo friends) on our way to the San Blas Islands.

We will then go back to Colon to transit the Panama Canal on Feb 22nd.



Colon borders the canal on the Atlantic side, and is appropriately named. If you ever have a chance to visit……don’t. It does have a yacht club of sorts for small boats transiting the canal. There are all sorts of colorful characters from all corners of the globe hanging around. It’s somewhat like an international Jimbo’s.



We went through the paper work to get through the Canal and were given the date of Feb 22nd. This and the lack of appeal of Colon has us heading for San Blas Islands. Hopefully I’ll get some pictures worth posting. The one here is of Rob not catching fish (Maury we need some tips!!). To my BK friends; the GPS is working great. We haven’t found any bottom! Somebody tell Kelly-Ann that the Ramen noodles were great. Did she get the idea from Jerry-with-a-G.



I do have an “only Mike” Story:



In Bocas we were staying in a small marina. Every day this particular sailboat would leave the dock sail around the bay and sail perfectly back into it’s slip. I was talking to the marina owner and up walks a blind man. It turns out he was the owner of the boat and sails it with the help of his Chilean friend.



Later the next day I was working on something for the boat at the workbench which is at the end of the marina dock across from the shower. I saw the blind man leaving the shower and attempting to negotiate his way down the dock toward his boat. I asked him if he would like me to show him the way. He replied “Either that or take a swim”. I showed him the way and where to grab to board the boat. I’ll admit he seemed perplexed, but he was a blind man that sailed so I returned to my work.



A few minutes later I hear yelling in Spanish between him and his Chilean friend who was walking toward the boat. As it turns out …..I showed him to the wrong boat. The next day he kindly asked me if next time I would show him to the boat with the women!



I want to return a few comments. Nobody leaves there name so I’m only guessing on the authors.



Roger-- Only you could write a comment regarding my content that I need a Webster’s dictionary to figure out!!!!!



Frank—No el pop tarts in Panama you As$%ole!



WeWe(Ron)—I look good in a grass skirt.



Steve—Beer is only a buck in Panama….Come on down!



Who wanted more frequent updates? I’m on a boat.



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