09 :20,94 N 79:54,17 W

It was only a three hour sail to Shelter Bay inside the entrance to the Panama Canal. Though we had to dice with large super-tankers and container ships which had right of way. A definite occasion when sail gave way to power. Briefings and official bureaucracy take up all our time and we learn that we will actually go through the Canal twice. The first time helping on another Blue Water boat and the second time on Moonshadow.

Our transit was very exciting. First we left the Marina and went out to the Flats Anchorage where our transit advisor came on board. As it got dark we made our way towards the three Gatan locks with 85' rise into the Gatan Lake. We had to make a raft of three yachts in the dark in the narrow chanel in front of the first lock with huge ships bearing down on us, a strong wind and little room for manoeuvre. It was a challenge because the skippers were Dutch, Italian and of course English and the transit advisor was Panamanian so the air was blue and it was a relief when the monkey (a lead ball with rope around it) was thrown onto our deck and the corners of our raft were attached to bollards on the lock wall. We were promised a slow fill because we were all yachts but water rushed in from below and we were soon rising up to the Gatan Lake. We anchored in the lake overnight and were woken at sunrise by the unnerving calls of howler monkeys. The journey across the lake took all morning through an idyllic landscape of small islands covered in dense vegetation. Rafting up in daylight in front of the of Miraflores Locks was accomplished more easily and the three locks down to the Pacific were successfully navigated. Moonshadow has arrived in the Pacific.