In Panama waiting for the transit date

Serai
Jason and Emily Willis
Thu 15 Mar 2007 16:02
09:20.66N 79:54.58W

We made it!! 1951 miles sailed since we left the BVI and we are now sitting in the Flats waiting for our transit date. We had an awesome sail down from the San Blas and once again we caught another whopping Tuna, which was great eating. Coming through the breakwater and being surrounded by all the very large container ships really is an experience. The ports of Panama really do not sleep and there is a constant hum of activity 24 hours a day.

We completed stage 1 of our paperwork yesterday and we are now waiting for the measurer to come to the boat with his handy tape measure to check what length we are and to look at our lines. Once this has been completed we then have to goto the bank and pay our fees and then wait for our date. The waiting time is fairly short, 5-7 days is the average. So we hope to go through in about a week. We are line handling for another boat on Mon/Tues so we will experience going through the canal before we take Serai through.

Its a strange sensation to think that the Pacific Ocean is only 50 miles away but also an exciting prospect. We have met a lot of boats in Panama already and the majority are heading our way. There is not much wind out there at the moment so we hope by the time we get through it may have picked up a little.

Until next time
Ems and J xxx