Guess where we are!
Coolrunnins
Sun 21 Nov 2010 22:11
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08:56.244N 079:33.348W
After 2500 miles we finally made it to the Panama
Canal at 5.00 pm on Friday 19th November. All pretty exhausted and
sailed out but safe and happy to all be in one piece after such a long
trip.
Amazingly we have been on the road for 5 months
through some good times and some bad times. We spend Thursday night in a
little cove in the Las Perlas Islands. Charts and guide showed a nice
clear anchorage so we were a little surprised to wake up in the middle of the
night to find jagged rocks all around us after the tide had dropped 10 ft or so
and a squall came through. Goes to show shouldn't get complacent and it
was a lucky escape.
Weather on Friday was beautiful and an easy sail
into Balboa where we are moored under the Bridge of the Americas at the entrance
to the Canal. Crazy busy here and we are all shell shocked with people,
noise, traffic and shops. After so many weeks of remote
locations it took a day or so to adjust.
Panama so far is great, pleasent people and great
services from what we have seen so far. All highly civilized.
The boat has been measured for the transit and we have hired a british
agent who is more undercover than James Bond and we are yet to find him in
person.
We should have a transit date allocated soon and we
are a little nervous as we are surrounded by some really massive shipping
at very close quarters. It is an amazing and intimidating place to be
in a small boat, as we are mored about 400 yards from the main channel and
30 meters from the pilot station. For anyone interested there is a
web cam at the Miraflores locks where you would be able to see us going
through once we have a time and date if you log on to the Panama
Canal website.
We are just trying to get some photos together of
the Panama Pacific trip so far and we will try to get them posted
tonight.
All very surreal actually being here but all
very excited specially with the benefit of food and water from a surprisingly
well stock supermarket, think guiness, tetley tea and Inka Kola for the peruvian
crew!
Will let you know the date when we know
it!
Thank you all for your support so far to this
important part of the journey. We really appreciate it
Paul and the crew....
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