Crossing To The Other Side!

We are not sure how it happened but we got lifted out of the water at the marina as planned, our antifoul paint arrived as did our dinghy and the surveyor turned up even though a few hours late. It was 5 days of hard work getting up at 6am to start early and finishing at dark. The weather was kind to us as it was cloudy keeping the heat down a bit. We re-launched Tuesday which was exciting backing out of the lift with 20 knots of wind blowing and not a lot of space, still we made it to a slip in one piece and the boat looked lovely - all newly polished and painted.

We had a few days to clean the boat and then Friday 4 March (Karen's birthday) we transited the Panama Canal. We had 5 line handlers on board, one more than required as one of the boats line handling for us had a guest on board. We had met up with 2 Australian boats and one Kiwi in the San Blas and they wanted experience of line handling before transiting with their own boats. A boat called Sunshine that we knew from last year also agreed to line handle for us which meant ourselves and CD could go through the canal together.

We motored across Colon harbour to the anchorage and waited for our advisor. At 4.30pm Robin arrived and we set off for the canal. There are 3 locks up and 3 down. Near the lock entrance we and CD rafted together (tied up alongside each other) to enter the lock. There was a ship and a cruiser in front of us and just as we were about to go in the lock they decided there wasn't enough room for us too. A quick turn around and we headed to the lock next door but again the ship in front was too big as they won't put you in a lock with a ship bigger than 600 feet. We motored around for over an hour before going into the lock which meant it was dark. We have now experienced almost every type of transit and time except that as a single boat! We finally got through the canal and gave Robin his evening meal as we left the lock. We moored in Gatun lake at 8.30pm and the canal pilot boat came to pick Robin up. We had a meal and a few drinks and I got everyone to sing happy birthday to me! It was certainly a different way to spend my birthday and one I won't forget.

The advisor was due to arrive at 6.30am so we all headed to bed. We were woken by a knock on the hull and were worried we had over slept. It was Dave off CD who had been told by his advisor to be ready for 6am so he thought we ought to be up at 5.30am!!!! So we were all ready nice and early for when the advisor arrived at 6.30! Dave has still not lived this down.

We were lucky as Robin was our advisor this time too. On the way across the lake we had a cooked breakfast of sausage and scrambled egg. The sausages looked good but when I went on deck to check if breakfast was OK I was told the sausages were covered in plastic!! So to eat them, we had to sit and pick the plastic off and Robin made the best job as I guess that as a local, he was practised. After a 4 hour motor across the lake we arrived at the down locks. Again we rafted to CD and we got through the locks without any problems. We left the gates of the final lock to the sound of 'We are the Champions' by Queen!!

We celebrated our entry into the Pacific with a bottle of bubbly and a few beers. 3 of the boats headed back to Shelter bay and Wayne and Debbie from Sunshine stayed on the boat with us an extra night. It was such a relief to have arrived safely without any problems and to be able to relax after all the work of having so many people on the boat and the stress of going through the canal.

The following day, Dave and I had to return to Colon to line handle for Don and Kay who had helped us. Chris and Mike stayed to mind the boats. Again we had a smooth transit and the first part was very easy as we were the middle of 3 boats which meant we didn't have to do anything. But by the time we got back to Panama City we were exhausted and needed a few days to recover.

We are now preparing for our trip to the Galapagos and up to Mexico which means trading charts and doing lots of shopping. This has been interrupted today by the threatened Tsunami from the Japanese earthquake. We have left the anchorage and anchored in deep water well away from other boats. As I write it has passed and was nothing more that a choppy sea, luckily.