In the Pacific!!!!!!!

Serai
Jason and Emily Willis
Sat 24 Mar 2007 17:47
08:54.53N 79:31.46W

We are now officially sitting in the Pacific Ocean. I think Serai is excited
about the new challenge and excited to have a new ocean under her hull! As
the last of the lock doors opened it was a pretty emotional moment. The
Pacific ocean slowly came into view as the gates opened wider and wider,
opening up new challenges and new adventures for us all. Thanks so much to
all those who managed to watch. Sorry about the container ship that decided
to pull along side at the end! Despite our protestations the lock controller
refused to make it back up so you could enjoy the view!

The trip through went without any problems. We started off tied to a
Moorings 40ft cat. This meant I had little to do, as the moorings delivery
captain had full control with his 2 engines. We spent the night in Gatun
lake, and had a little rain, before the dawn chorus of Howler monkeys woke
us at 6 am. The Advisor was late, arriving at the boat at 7.15. He then said
we had to be at the next lock 28 miles away, by 1200. I gulped a bit, as we
had lied a lot that we could do 8 knots under motor - this saves about 800
dollars! I told him that normally we could but perhaps now we were in fresh
water and sitting much lower in the water, perhaps this would be more like 6
knots now!

We went for it, cutting as many corners as we could, and did in fact get to
the next lock in time, just!! However, halfway there we were told that we
would not go through until 1 pm. At the next lock we had another 1 hour
delay and another boat joined us on the other side of the cat. Another guy
also took the helm of the cat. The same guy who had cracked his first beer
at 0600 - hmmmm, bit nervous now! But by this stage we were so close that
we were beyond care! Serai did not miss a beat the whole way through. We
serviced the engine before leaving and she ran so well.

After arriving in Balboa, we dropped off all our line handlers - Rudy, Chris
and Barney. Rudy was brilliant in getting all our paperwork done - he is an
amazing mr. fixit! Chris and Barney are delivery crew on a 45 ft cat with
engine trouble. They have been in Colon for 2 weeks and are heading to
Australia. We wish them all the best and hope to catch up with them again,
along the way! We are now anchored at Flamenco Island. Our friends, Geoff
and Merel on Sifar, were there to greet us as we came in and the came
aboard for a couple of beers! There are quite a few other boats here, and
only plan to stay until Tuesday, before heading to Las Perlas. We really
need to get somewhere with nice clean sea water so we can jump in. The plan
is to stay in Las Perlas for a few days and then head off to Galapagos.

Keep the emails with all your news coming. All the distances start to get
much longer, so we need news to keep us motivated!

Anyway, take care one and all.

Till the next time

Love

J and Ems