Happys days in Colon????

Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Wed 19 Mar 2008 14:24
Hi,  Rob on the blog today.  We are still at position 09:20.655N  079:54.731W according to our GPS.  The bad news is that it's likely to stay that way for about a month.  We have a transit date of the 20th. April, arg!  The good news is that the admesure went well yesterday, and we are in the system, and have a transit date.  A couple of other boats here got refused, albeit they are prawn fishing boats from Honduras and not in the best of repair.  It is quite interesting watching all the ships passing back and forth as we are anchored about a half mile from the main channel leading into the canal.  The other day a yacht transport ship went by, loaded up with yachts and motorboats.  However I am sure that it will start to ware a bit thin in a few days.  We have just got back from the supermarket, the highlight of the day.  The supermarket is the best stocked I have seen since leaving UK.  Though only a ten minute walk away, getting to it and any where else in Colon requires a taxi ride.  The streets are too dangerous for gringos to wander around.  When enquiring where the post office was, in order to buy a few stamps to send off some postcards, we have been told by locals not to go there even by taxi as it's very dangerous ("lots of bad men there").  This really limits us to what we can do to spend our time here.  (I don't mean we planed to spend our time sending loads of postcards)  I guess we'll need to go look for some where nicer to anchor, but we don't want to go too far in case we miss an opportunity to transit the canal earlier, quite a dilemma.  We have just had another excellent meal produced by Lyn, and it's now after nine PM so time for bed, not even time for a game of uno.  Actually he doesn't mention uno very much these days, apparently we are not letting him sit in the winning seat.  Anyway time for bed so I'll get this bit of blather sent.
 
Be happy Rob.