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.