" A LADY TRIP " SAILING AROUND THE WORLD and avoiding the recession, ( presently in the panama Canal )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Thu 28 Jan 2010 14:42
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WEDNESDAY 27th January
2010 ( today:- Hugh and Dick Gibson's
Birthday) 40 again for the old aged twin friends.
07.00hrs Beautifull day again, skipper went for a
short jog of about two miles, made a few calls and back to the boat to do the
typing etc.
09.00hrs replied to some emails, plus the Blog.
Replied to " Robert Reardon" ( who sent an
email to us , despite Fat's warning about doing so !) Its great to hear from
home and get the news.
Anyway, We never knew that Robert and the Fat Man
were related, What went wrong there ! Ohhhhhh the boat
shudders.
Robert was financial controller at the Blarney Park
Hotel, when the Skipper DESIGNED the swimming pool there , way back when
!
Robert was the whiz Kid, He could always find the
money required for all Gerry O'Connor's Hotel Plans, and then suddenly was
robbed by Freeda,
and taken out to the Blarney Woollen Mills.
10.00 we cleared all the Marina paperwork,
and gave the flag pole another coat of varnish, The stuff was like bloody
glue,
and ( of course ) the skipper made a dogs bollux of
it all, Shit, it will need another good sanding to get it right
again.
We filled the water tanks and got ready to
roll.
13.00 We had a light lunch at the Marina. and
said our goodbye's
14.45hrs We slipped the lines ashore and made
our way across the Harbour to the place known as the " Flats " and
anchored.
We had to wait here for the Pilot to take us
through the Canal. He arrieved at
17.45 ( 2 hours late. as they say here , Panama
Time ) His name was "Ricardo" and he had an assistant," Nidia" ( she is a
pilot student at college)
Ricardo spent about 45mins explaining his role in
the crossing and outlining every little detail we would have to deal with over
the passage.
He was so polite. and he was the head man for our
group of yacht's, 13 in all.
We then motored to the Canal Basin, about an hour
away, and by now it was dark. OHHHHH what a sight. The Skipper could
feel the shivers going down his spine,, GOD we are
Here !! thrilling , the excitment on board was " massive boy" as they
would say in Cork.
We were rafted up to a Canadian Yacht called "
J'Sea " The owner is from Vancoover , but usually keeps the boat in
Turkey.
We were the last into the lock as " Ricardo "
gave all the orders to the others from the main ship . " A
LADY"
All lines were thrown from the shore, and basically
we were controlled by these lines, 4 in all , 2 from the Bow and 2 from the
stern,
The Massive Gates Opened and in we went, All lit up
like a Circus,, just magic. I would have wished the whole world was on board the
witness the
sheer thrill and excitment of it
all......
The lock gates closed behind us and the chamber
flooded,, in just about 8 / 10 minutes, we had risen 8 meters, ( 24 million gls
of water)
This was repeated 3 times and then we exited into
the huge manmade lake called " Lake Gatun " , about 30 miles
long
There we dropped anchor and had dinner on
board with our Visitors, They departed ai 22.00 hrs and said they would
return
between 06.00hrs and 07.00hrs in the morning.
We had a long and exciting day, so we all went to
the bunks almost immidiatly with the stars dancing
overhead..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
P.S today 28th we will be going through the canal
out into the Pacific and will be seen on camera about 5 pm Irish time ( G M T
)
See ................... http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
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