Day 111-In the Land of Comarca de San Blas (Spanish) or Kuna Yala (Indigenous)
Latitude: N 09 degrees 33 minutes
Longitude: W 78 degrees 56 minutes
Air Temperature: 82 degrees F
Water Temperature: 81 degrees F
Date and Time: Monday, February 6, 2006, 1900 EST
Miles Traveled in the Last 24 Hours of Passage: 118 miles
See Pictures Here

Total trip miles–731. Wow! We are here in the San Blas islands. During the night we had to roll in the head sail and start motoring. There was plenty of wind but it was coming from the wrong direction. This morning at about 0930 we spotted land. At first we saw some very low islands and then behind those islands we saw the mainland of Panama. This was one of those moments that takes you by surprise. We have made many landfalls, but somehow this one seemed different. Judy Martin from Nitro, West Virginia, and Mark Handley, from Mattoon, Illinois–sailing into the San Blas islands. Not something that would have been written in our high school year books as aspirations for the future, but here we are. The moment was almost dreamlike. I found myself asking, “What’s a girl like me doing here?” Mark had to admit this morning that on the night we met and he shared his dream of sailing around the world with me, it was really only a dream. He evidently never really expected to do it. I had to tell him that he made a big mistake sharing that dream with me if he really didn’t want to do it. I might not be the person who dreams up these wild adventures, but I take seriously the job of doing everything possible to make dreams come true. So here we are.

We are anchored off Porvenir, a tiny island that is the western entry point for the San Blas. No one lives here. It is just the official check in station. We had hoped to get checked in and headed to one of the reef islands known for great snorkeling by mid-afternoon, but Caribbean lunchtimes, slow, slow processing of paperwork, and the fact that about 25 other boats decided to enter paradise today, we are still sitting here in Porvenir. This is a small island, maybe a half mile long and the width of a football field. There are some beach huts, a little museum, a small building that houses the check in staiton, an old World War II air strip that is still in use, and a hotel. Well, a hotel of sorts. A small red plane flies in and out about 3 times during the day. The runway runs diagonally across the island to make the best use of the little bit of land. Right now there are about 25 sailboats anchored on the south side of the island, and we have all made sure that we are not anchored at the end of the runway. When the plane comes in it is skimming across the top of the water and when it takes off, it flies right off the north end of the island. There is a beautiful white beach all along the south side and palm trees scattered about to make this look more like a South Pacific island than one in the Caribbean.

Soon after we anchored, Mark headed to shore to check in, but he was only able to do accomplish the first part of the process. The second part would have to take place after lunch. I think I’ve mentioned that lunch time is taken very seriously throughout the Caribbean. At about 1400 we both went back in to get the cruising permit for Panama. What a fiasco! The line was very long and the poor guy processing the paperwork was very slow. It took us two and a half hours of waiting, but at 1630 we exited the tiny room with the required paperwork. It was too late to move to another island for the night, so we will wait until morning. We met some great people while waiting, however. We met a couple from Southhampton, England, off Poco Andante. That is translated as “slower than walking” and that is certainly true of sailing! We also met a couple from the south of France. They are both serious bike racers, but are taking time to sail around the world. We are the only boat from the USA anchored here tonight. The other boats are from Germany, France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Antigua/Barbuda, and the Netherlands. The reason so many boats are here is that the Blue Water ‘Round the World Cruising Rally boats are meeting here this week. Bad timing for us in terms of numbers of people checking in, but once we leave here tomorrow morning we will disperse ourselves and each find out own little piece of paradise. It is nice, however, to meet so many people that will be transiting the Panama Canal at about the same as we hope to go through.

There are literally hundreds of islands here. Some are inhabited and of the inhabited islands, I am learning that some are truly traditional with no schools or churches, while others are traditional but have incorporated schools and churches, and still others are uninhabited but the coconut trees on those islands are owned by various families. We are going to go to an uninhabited island group tomorrow and then on to a village island tomorrow afternoon or on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, our stay here is being cut very short. We have learned that the wait to go through the Panama Canal might take up to a month instead of the two weeks we had allowed. So on Thursday evening we will take off for Colon. We will arrive on Friday morning and begin the process of getting checked in for the Canal transit. Once we are given a transit date, we will come back here if we have a 3-4 week wait. If the wait is only a week or so, we will wait in Colon. If we don’t make it back here this time, we will have to find a way to come back and spend a couple of months here at some time to really get to know the people.

New vocabulary words for us today are ulas and molas. An ula is a traditional dugout canoe. The Kuna world is a matriarchal society and Kuna woman are very skilled in paddling their ulas from island to island. They do this in order to sell their molas. These are beautifully reverse appliqu�d and embroidered squares of cloth that Kuna women craft by hand and wear on the front and the back of their blouses. They paddle through the anchorages quietly offering their molas for sale. I bought only 2 today, but hope to buy more in the next couple of days. So far I have a fish and a turtle. I’ll keep you posted on future purchases.

A couple of notes: We are back on Eastern Standard Time. We will remain so until we reach the Galapagos. And I hear the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Superbowl. I’m sure Jon on Dutchess back at Shipyard Quarters and my nephew Tommy’s wife, Marilou, are very happy people and probably a bit hard to be around right now. In my family, the Cleveland Browns are the team of choice and the Steelers are the “enemy”. I guess all I can say is love thy enemies. I’ll keep my hopes up that Patriots will be back in there next year. But now it must be about time for baseball season to begin. Go Red Sox!

Day 112-Carti Sugtupu, San Blas, Panama
Latitude: N 09 degrees 28 minutes
Longitude: W 78 degrees 57 minutes
Air Temperature: 82 degrees F
Water Temperature: 81 degrees F
Date and Time: Tuesday, February 7, 2006, 1900 EST
See Pictures Here

This was quite some day, so this log will be a long one. If you just want to know if we are fine and enjoying the San Blas, you can stop here. We are. If you want the details, read on. I hope you enjoy reading about our wonderful day with the Kuna Indians on Carti Sugtupu.

When we got up this morning, we still weren’t sure which island we were going to travel to today, so we spent more time reading the Panama Guide and trying to decide. Did we want an uninhabited island or an island with a village? If we wanted an island with a village, did we want totally traditional (no schools or churches) or one with a school? Did we want to go to an island close to the mainland, or one further out? As we read, we discovered that one island, Sugtupu in the Carti Group, has a post office. We desperately need to mail something overnight to the US dealing with our boat documentation, so even though I had read that this island has been spoiled by the number of cruise boats that visit it, we decided on Sugtupu. We knew if that didn’t work out, we could move about a half mile to another very traditional island with only 4 families living on it. So we left Porvenir around 0930 headed about 3 miles south to Sugtupu which is very close to the mainland in the south of the Gulfo de San Blas. As we left Porvenir, I was at the wheel and had to cut in front of a boat whose crew was pulling up the chain anchor rode by hand. The boat turned out to the Gipsy Moth IV from Great Britain. This boat was sailed around the world by one of the most famous cruising couples of all time, Eric and Susan Hiscock. Eric wrote the first book that Mark ever read on world cruising: Cruising Under Sail. It was a real rush to be right next to this boat carrying so much history.

We had a latitude and longitude reading for an anchor destination of Sugtupu, and as we neared the island, a man and his son came paddling up to us in an ulu (traditional dug out canoe). The father, Ernesto, was dressed in jeans shorts and a t-shirt and spoke very good English. He talked with Mark, who was on the foredeck ready to set the anchor, and before I knew it, he was onboard helping us to navigate between two reef areas. His 11 year-old son, Rudy, stayed behind in the ulu and kept up with us as we headed in to anchor. What I didn’t realize at the time was that there was another 7 year-old son, Kevin, in a second ulu. He couldn’t keep up with us and after anchoring, Ernesto and Mark had to rescue him with our dinghy. Ernesto is a 42-year old Kuna entrepreneur. He speaks Kuna, Spanish, English, French, and a little German. His business card lists him as a local excursion tour guide. Basically, he does serve as a tour guide of Sugtupu and of the cemetery and jungle on the mainland for people who sail into the island as we did today or for those who come in on the “adventure-oriented” cruise ships. Ernesto, Rudy, and Kevin spent some time on the boat with us and we learned that we had come on a good day for visiting. There were no cruise ships anywhere near the San Blas and at 1300, two families were hosting puberty celebrations for their 11 year-old daughters. We could visit the island and see the celebration.

Shortly after 1300, we dinghied over to the island and were met by Ernesto. We started our island tour at the southeast end of the island where the medical center and school are located. The school and medical center are poured concrete and the school is being renovated for the February visit by the President of Panama, and the children are on holiday until March, so we saw only an empty building. This whole island is not as large as a city block in New York City, but 1,000 Kuna Indians live here according to Ernesto. There are 2 dirt-packed avenues that run the length of the island, with narrow walkways that run perpendicular to the avenues between the huts. Each room in a hut is about 12 feet square and some families have only one room while others have 2 or 3. No hardwood is needed in the main construction of the huts. The walls are made of what I assumed are sugar cane poles lashed together vertically. The roof is layer after layer of palm fronds. There is a wooden door, but no windows, so the insides are very dark. Hammocks are everywhere as this is what the Kunas sleep in. There are stores that sell cold drinks and a few essentials, but certainly nothing fancy. We went to the congreso building and met one of the two men who are second in command under the chief or sahila. They are referred to as the deputy sahilas (pronounced like silo). The congreso looked just like all of the huts, just larger. Four hammocks hung in the center of the room and only the chief and his deputies can use these, while everyone else sits on the hard benches that form a square around the hammocks. More benches fill the room, all facing the center. Ernesto explained that all decisions for the village are made here. Woman can attend and sit and watch, but they cannot speak. Men make all of the decisions in this otherwise matriarchal society. Next we visited what Ernesto called the “bar” or party hut where the celebration was taking place. Traditionally this is the hut where chicha is made. Chicha is a mild alcoholic drink made form fermented sugar cane juice, but today the chicha hut was being used for the puberty rite celebration and the alcoholic drink for this day is rum. Here we met the village chief and the second of his deputies. We also met the man in charge of the “bar”. These men all wear long pants, dress shirts, and formal dress hats. Each time we met an important person, we were directed by Ernesto to give them a dollar, or five in the case of the chief, as part of getting their approval for our island visit and to pay our respects to their position. A bit of a strange system, but it works. You are also expected to pay a dollar to get permission to take pictures of any adult Kuna women. You can photograph children, but pictures of the women or special ceremonies come at a price.

We went to Ernesto’s complex of huts and met his oldest son, Ian, and his 5 year-old daughter Nayelin. He showed us molas that his wife had for sale and we sat inside and then moved our chairs outside to enjoy the breeze. A couple of men came by in an ula with lobsters for us. They had 3 for $3.00 and threw in a small one as a gift. Ernesto’s complex is on the north side of the island on the water, so there was a wonderful breeze at all times. I had seen his wife in room next to the one where we were sitting. She was in a hammock, but did not come out to meet us. A little later, one of the boys came out with Wilfran, the 7-month old. He was a very cute and very happy baby and the 3 boys seemed to be very much a part of taking care of him. It was time to move on and we visited Ernesto’s mother-in-law’s complex, visited the Kuna museum on the island, and then went back to see how the celebration was proceeding. Everyone was still passing the rum bottle around and drinking shots. All of the women were on one side of the large hut and all of the men on the other, with a group of about 6 men sitting between. They were wearing green dress shirts, long pants, and black dress hats. Eventually, a couple of them put on pelican bone necklaces and danced. If we had stayed on into the evening, everyone would be dancing, but around 1700, we decided it was time to go back to Windbird for the evening.

The chief is coming out to Windbird at 0800 in the morning to visit with us and then Ernesto’s 2 oldest sons will go with us in our dinghy to another island closer to shore. We might get to explore a small river near there that goes into the rain forest. We will do that and then move to the north to some uninhabited islands for tomorrow night.

We feel overwhelmed being immersed into this culture so foreign to our own so quickly and at the same time feel so lucky to have met Ernesto which gave us the chance to really get to know the island of Sugtupu.

Day 113-Sugtupu to Acuadup to Western Holandes Cays, San Blas, Panama
Latitude: N 09 degrees 36 minutes
Longitude: W 78 degrees 47 minutes
Air Temperature: 82 degrees F
Water Temperature: 81 degrees F
Date and Time: Wednesday, February 8, 2006, 1900 EST
See Pictures Here

Another phenonmenal day. The sun is setting and we are now in West Holandes Cays in the San Blas. We are anchored behind a reef and looking right out into the Caribbean Basin. To our left is an island with coconut palms white sand beaches-Acuakargana–and to our right is another island with coconut palms, lots of pelicans, and white sand beaches–Waisaladup. As we anchored here, schools of very small silver fish flittered out of the water and back in again-over and over. Not sure what they were, but the glittery effect was beautiful. There was also either one lone dolphin or a small whale that continued to surface and then dive in front of us. While that was happening, flocks of pelicans swooped playfully along the beach on Waisaladup. I can hear the surf pounding on the reef in front of me and birds calling in the palm trees on shore. All of this comes at the end of day where we started on Carti Sugtupu, dinghied 2 miles to Acuadup and back, and then sailed here. It has been an amazing day filled with experiencing new and wonderful things.

Early in the day, Ernesto (our guide from Sugtupu) and his 3 sons came to go with us to a neighboring island. It was a 2 mile dinghy ride to Acuadup. Ernesto’s oldest son, Ian, was to be our guide and he piloted the dinghy through the choppy waters. Acuadup is a traditional Kuna island. It was very different from Sugtupu in that there was open green space between the huts instead of small walkways with packed earth.. I said to Ernesto that his island was the town and this one was the country. He agreed. There were coconut palms, banana trees, breadfruit trees, calabash gourd trees, and lime trees everywhere. Once in a while, a little color was added by large hibiscus flowering buses. As we walked, every hut had Kuna women trying to sell me their molas. They had them displayed on the grass, on the sand, hanging on poles, everywhere. I did buy as many molas as I could afford, but finally had to keep saying, “No more money for molas”. The Kuna women speak no English, but they have no trouble saying “ten dollars”. I think they understood that I was saying that I had no more money, but I am sure they didn’t believe me. Buying molas could become an obsession, so I was glad I had brought a limited amount of money.

On one part of the island, the people were relatives of Ernesto, so we could go into the huts and see how the people live. Every hut has many hammocks, one for everyone that sleeps there. For the most part, living rooms and kitchens are outside, and only sitting areas and sleeping areas are inside. On this island, parakeets and monkeys had been brought from the mainland as pets, and there were many wild pigs in pens. It was a very special experience to visit this traditional Kuna village. There were very few men on the island as all were out either fishing, getting water from the river on the mainland, or working their garden plots on the mainland. The women are tenacious sales people, and the children run about happily. But by 1100, it was time to head back to Sugtupu. We had promised to stop by the airport on the mainland on the way so that Rudy could see it, so that was our first stop. There were no people there, so we had the runway to ourselves We looked around and decided that it was time to head for the mainland. We headed out into the choppy seas and by the time we reached Sugtupu, we were all soaked. We went directly to Ernesto’s house as he had asked us if we could please take a picture of his whole family and print it for him before we left. A few more extended family members than we expected also wanted their pictures taken, but we finally broke away and headed back to Windbird with just Ernesto and Ian. We printed some pictures for them and then they untied their ulu and paddled away. It was with mixed emotions that we said goodbye. We felt very lucky to have gotten to know a Kuna family so quickly, but at the same time, the constant pushing of Kuna molas and other artifacts was wearing thin. We pulled up the anchor at about 1400 and headed north to our present anchorage.

We are now about a half mile from one of the major passes back out into the Interior Basin of the Caribbean. We will spend tomorrow walking on the islands and snorkeling, and then in the early evening we will head out for the Panama Canal. We will arrive on Friday mid-day, and immediately start the process for getting registered to go through the Canal. Once we are given a date, we will figure out whether we will stay in Colon to await transit, or whether we will explore others parts of Panama while waiting.

So I will check in with a log before leaving here, and then check in again once we are in Colon on Friday. Colon is not a city that is safe to walk around in, so we are really hoping our stay there will not be the reported 4 weeks. That could be a very long 28 days.

Day 114-En route from the San Blas Islands to Cristobal, Panama
Date and Time: Thursday, February 9, 2006, 1900 EST
See Pictures Here

As the sun was beginning to sink below the horizon, we were leaving our anchorage at Acuakargana and Waisaladup islands in the San Blas. We are now headed west into the sunset and should arrive in the Panama Canal area by mid-morning. I find myself leaving the San Blas with a bit of sadness, and at the same time, a great deal of joy. We were only here 4 days, but these islands offer so much and we really connected. I keep thinking of Ernesto Perez’s oldest son, Ian. He is a very bright and thoughtful thirteen year-old. When we said good-bye yesterday, he hugged and kissed me and it was very special. As with teenagers everywhere, he had a CD player attached to his ear most of the time. I asked him what kind of music he listens to and he said the Rolling Stones, Red, Red, White, and U Quatro. I’ve never heard of the last two, but we did have the Rolling Stones in common. I wonder if I will see Ian again someday. Maybe. He has a copy of San Blas cruising guide that has Kuna words translated into English and Spanish. He has added his own column in French. I tried to explain to him that if he could print out his 4-column language guide, he could sell it to all sailors visiting his island. I would have given anything to have a copy of what he had, but there are certainly no copy machines on Sugtupu. There is one computer, however, but I’m not sure there is a printer. Maybe someday I will come back and have the time to help him print his language guide. For now, as I leave here, I have happy thoughts of the people we met and am a little sad that we didn’t have more time to spend with them.

We spent our day at Disney World today. We headed over to Waisaladup mid-morning to explore and to snorkel. The island is narrow and you can see the ocean surf across the island. The part of the island where we beached the dinghy looked like a coconut tree park. The area under the trees was cleared so that you walked on sand from tree to tree. As we walked further down the island, there was more vegetation under the trees, and it was beautiful in a different way. We rounded the tip of the island and watched the waves of the Atlantic as they crashed on the reef and then headed back to where we had left the dinghy and went snorkeling. We were over sand at first and then weaved in and out of the coral reef that follows the shore of the island. The fish were not as big, and there wasn’t quite the variety that we saw in Bonaire, but the coral was beautiful and colorful. There were so many different kinds of coral, and the soft corals swayed with the ocean surge. I found myself swaying with the coral and truly spellbound by all of the colors. I thought that if Disney were going to build a fake coral reef for children to snorkel in, it would look just like this. Neon green coral, purple coral, yellow coral, red fish, blue fish, yellow fish . . . it was beautiful. We went back to Windbird to have lunch and then headed back for one more walk and one more snorkel before leaving. On our walk we watched the pelicans fly overhead and land on the water close by. In the water, the sunlight was just right and the colors were even brighter than in the morning. We saw some fish that were new to us, and some old favorites. We watch a spotted ray for a long time and swam with schools of neon blue chromis and blue tangs. We chose this anchorage because the guide said it was good for snorkeling, and indeed it was. It was a very good choice for our last snorkel in the Atlantic. The next time we put on our snorkel gear, we will probably be in the Pacific Ocean.

We are moving along under a moon that has only a few days until it will be full. There’s not a lot of wind tonight, so we might be motoring to Cristobal. Right now we are motor sailing and listening to Jimmy Buffet. I’ll check in tomorrow to let you know how things go.

Day 115-Cristobal, Panama
Latitude: 09 degrees 20 minutes
Longitude: 79 degrees 54 minutes
Date and Time: Friday, February 10, 2006, 1700 EST
Miles Traveled from San Blas to Cristobal: 88 miles
See Pictures Here

We had a great overnight passage from the San Blas to the Panama Canal Zone. We arrived safely at about 1000, so it took us a little less than 14 hours to make the trip. We sailed under double-reefed main and reefed head sail to slow ourselves down so that we would have good light to enter the Canal Zone. What we didn’t know is that we would have a good 1 knot current against us beginning in the wee hours of the morning, so we got in a little later than expected. As we headed into the Canal Zone, a school of Spotted Dolphins served as our welcoming committee. With so many boats coming in and out of here, those dolphins must be worn out at the end of each day.

We had some mail that needed to get to a post office about a week ago, so Mark headed into the Panama Canal Yacht Club as soon as we arrived. I stayed on the boat as we have read that it is unsafe to leave your boat without someone aboard here. After being here for the day, I think that leaving during the daytime is fine, but at night, you need someone to keep a look out. Mark was gone about 2 hours having successfully gotten the mail off, plus he returned with the lines required for Canal transit and tires that we need to use as fenders. He is a fast mover! We did not plan to do any of this until Monday, but when he got to the Yacht Club, he found that he could not walk to the Post Office. It is very close, but it is totally unsafe to walk anywhere here. So he got one of the many cabbies that hang out here to take him. This guy is even a faster mover than Mark-and that’s going some. He took Mark to the PO and then he asked him if we were already registered to go through the Canal. Mark explained that we had just arrived, but the guy said, “What are you waiting for? If you’ve got a copy of your boat documentation and a crew list with you, we’ll go straight to the Admeasurer’s Office and make an appointment to have the boat inspected.” Mark had the documents, so off they went. The Admeasurer will come tomorrow to check the boat to make sure it safe for a Canal passage. We will go to the CitiBank on Monday to pay the fees, and after 1800 on Monday evening, we call to get our passage date. The cabbie Mark randomly chose is an agent here and he swears he can make that call for us for $10.00 and get us through the Canal by the end of next week. That seems VERY optimistic, but he did a great job today of getting about 3 days work done in 2 hours. But I believe in magic, so we’ll see what Monday brings.

When Mark returned with the lines and half the tires, I asked why he didn’t bring all of the tires. It seems that a 72 year-old gentleman from Romania needed a ride back to his boat. Mark took him instead of the rest of the tires. The man is traveling solo around the world in a tiny, tiny sailboat-and he has no dinghy. A very brave soul. But since Mark had to go back in for the rest of the tires, I went with him. I’m glad I did as we finally met Patrick and Margaret aboard Aqua Magic from Portsmouth, England. We have talked with them on the radio many times and it was great to meet them. They have a transit date the end of February and think that our cabbie will not be able to get us through next week. We shall see.

We are headed into the Yacht Club for Happy Hour. We are hoping to find someone transiting in the next couple of days that we can go with as line handlers. And we need to find 4 strong people who are willing to handle lines for us. We have to have names for the Admeasurer tomorrow, so tonight’s Happy Hour will also be a time to connect with folks and find the people we need. Mark met a French couple earlier today that are on vacation in Panama, and they are willing to go with us, so we really only need 2 more people.

Since it is not safe to travel into town (Mark says it looks really scary-that it makes the worst inner-city in the US look like a walk in the park.), we’ll spend most of our time here on the boat and at the Yacht Club-certainly not fancy, just the bare necessities. We have to be on the boat all day tomorrow to wait for the Admeasurer, so it will be a forced day of little movement. I think we need that!

Day 116-The Admeasurer Visit
Latitude: 09 degrees 20 minutes
Longitude: 79 degrees 54 minutes
Date and Time: Saturday, February 11, 2006, 2000 EST
See Pictures Here

At 1100 this morning, a pilot boat came up to Windbird and the Admeasurer jumped aboard. Jose Manuel was our official. He was young (by our standards), quick witted, and efficient. He measured our boat, checked out certain safety requirements, and then proceeded to fill out the paperwork. When he was finished, we ended up with an official Panama Canal Ship Identification Number-0801844. There is nothing else we can do until Monday morning when we head to the bank to pay our transit fee and then wait until 6 PM to call to get our transit date. It seems to be totally random. We have met people who registered last Tuesday who got a date of February 27. They know of a couple who registered on Monday and got a date of March 9. Yet we met people last night who registered on Thursday and got a transit date of February 17. The taxi driver/agent, Ellington, whom Mark met yesterday, still says he can get us a transit date this coming week, so we shall see. The boats from the Blue Water Rally, a ’round the world cruising organization, are all here. They were supposed to transit on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but they were told today that half of them would go through on Monday and the other half on Tuesday. This change has caused other cruisers to have their transit dates cancelled and reset. Interesting bureaucracy.

Last night at Happy Hour, we met Lene and Jens from Denmark (boat name Tuwanda), Fiona and Chris, and Fiona’s sister Jo, from England (boat name Three Ships), and Bud and Kathy from Mountain Home, Arkansas (boat name Invictus). Patrick and Margaret from Aqua Magic were also there. We all had a great time sharing cruising histories. We are the new kids on the block amongst this group. Most of these cruisers have been doing this for 4 to 5 years. Both Bud and Kathy and Patrick and Margaret have been in the Mediterranean for 5 or 6 seasons prior to crossing the Atlantic and heading into the Caribbean and both of these couples are in the same age range as Mark and I. Kathy, of Invictus, and I had a great time sharing our highs and lows of cruising. The only low for both of us is that we are far away from family. She has grandchildren and really misses being close to them. Margaret and Patrick have 6 grandchildren, and Margaret has the same misgivings about being away from family. But still, after cruising for the past 5 to 6 years, both couples will continue doing what they are doing and finding ways to leave their boats in safe ports to return home often to visit or spend the off-season at home. So many of the people we meet have no children, so it was great to meet cruisers of the same age that have children and could share their ways of dealing with the conflicting desires to cruise and to also be at home with family.

We met Patrick and Margaret for Happy Hour tonight and will have dinner with them at the Yacht Club tomorrow night. Depending on our transit date, we hope to take the bus together to Panama City on one day, and to spend another day in the “grand stands” watching boats transit the Canal.

Tomorrow will be a day of readying the boat to accommodate 4 to 6 extra people who can accompany us on our transit as line handlers. They will be spending the night aboard, and we are expected to provide food, a comfortable place to sleep, and plenty of drinks. I went into the Yacht Club this afternoon to check my gmail account. This is where all comments to the log are sent. But, believe it or not, the office was closed. In all of the small Caribbean islands that we have visited, the internet café³ have always been open on the weekends, but there in a metropolitan area, the only access is here at the marina and at one internet café ©n town. Neither will be open again until 0930 on Monday morning, so I guess I will just have to wait until then.

Day 117-A Quiet Day
Latitude: 09 degrees 20 minutes
Longitude: 79 degrees 54 minutes
Date and Time: Sunday, February 12, 2006, 1900 EST
See Pictures Here

Not much to report today. I did as much as I could to prepare the boat for the Canal transit. Mark is having a bit of a back problem and spent much of the day sitting and lying down. Despite that, we got a lot accomplished, plus I had time to bake bread. We had dinner at the Yacht Club with Patrick and Margaret and two other couples from the Blue Water Rally that are transiting tomorrow morning. Patrick and Margaret are going along as line handlers and we will look forward to their report of that experience.

Tomorrow morning we go into the city to the bank to pay our transit fee and to do some grocery shopping. We will then wait for Ellington to call the Canal Authority at 6 PM to find out what our transit date will be. I’ll wait to post tomorrow’s log until after I know the date and can report that to you.

Weather here is strange. It can be raining one minute and then beautiful and sunny the next. The winds have been shifting direction every few hours. Not sure if it is always that way here, but I know I will be glad to move on. I just hope we get an early transit date.

There are maybe a hundred sailboats here in the anchorage and in the marina, all awaiting transit through the Canal. It is hard to believe we are one of them; that we have actually sailed here and are approaching the next big leg of our adventure. And it is both comforting and somewhat unbelievable that so many others are doing what we set out to do – to sail across the South Pacific Ocean and perhaps on around the world. When we began our trip it was hard to actually comprehend that we might sail around the world. We could plan for it and prepare ourselves and our boat for it, but it was all theoretical. Now, as we have completed one passage after another and visited so many exciting and interesting places, it is becoming real. We just take it one step at a time. We don’t have to sail around the world this week; we just have to get ready for a transit of the Panama Canal.

Day 118-Canal Transit on Thursday
Latitude: 09 degrees 20 minutes
Longitude: 79 degrees 54 minutes
Date and Time: Monday, February 13, 2006, 2000 EST

Yippee! We do have our Panama Canal transit date and it is this Thursday, February 16. Ellington, the cabbie, took us to the bank this morning to pay the fee and was supposed to return at 1800 to call to get our transit date. Either we missed him or he didn’t show up, so we went ahead and called and found out the rumor we had heard yesterday was true. Since the Canal Authority had to find 12 advisors to go through with the Blue Water Rally boats today and tomorrow, they decided to keep the advisors for a couple of extra days and get some of the backlogged boats out of here. Since we just arrived, we are not part of the backlog, but we called today and there was room, so we have a slot. Of course, things change here from day to day, but I do think we will go through this week, and it will most likely be on Thursday. After Friday of this week, things return to normal, so we feel very lucky to have arrived when we did. Even though we will have extra time on the Pacific side, we are glad that we hurried here and are getting to take advantage of the extra personnel hired for this one week.

By going this week, there will be only sailboats in the locks, no big cargo ships, and this makes for a safer passage. We will also get to go through in one day. The Advisor will arrive at 0400 and we will move out of the anchorage and line up in front of the first lock. Three sailboats will then be rafted or tied together and the middle boat, which will be the biggest of the 3, will act as the pilot boat. Once in the Canal, line handlers on the outer 2 boats will catch the lines thrown down by Canal personnel, tie the125 foot lines we are all required to carry to the Canal lines, and then these lines are hoisted by the Canal personnel and tied to the sides of the lock. With this rafting or nesting of boats, actually only 4 line handlers are needed, one fore and aft on the two outside boats, but each boat is still required to have four line handlers onboard. The boats stay rafted through the three up locks, and then you are untied and race the 24 miles to the down locks. There you raft again and by about 1400 on Thursday we will be one of 48 sailboats that have gone through the Canal this week and are ready for the next stage of the journey.

As soon as we got our date tonight, we started scrambling to find crew to go through with us. The Canal Authority requires that one of their advisors goes through the Canal with each boat and that in addition to the boat’s captain, there are four line handlers onboard. We have enough possibilities that I am certain we will have the four people needed. We are required to feed everyone during the transit and then make sure everyone gets back to Cristobal safely. There are busses that run every half hour, so we will put the crew on busses and they will then take a taxi from the bus station back here to the marina. They will bring back the lines that we have rented for this canal transit and we will sell the tires we bought to use as heavy duty fenders to someone on the Balboa side transiting this direction. You pay $3.00 a tire and they come wrapped in black garbage bags with packing tape wrapped around to hold the covering in place. We have four of these tires on each side of the boat, along with two of our fenders on each side. The garbage bag wrap protects the boat from black tire smudges.

Margaret and Patrick of Aqua Magic returned from their day as line handlers and reported that all went smoothly. We met another couple from the US today, Tom and
Betty Lee Walker from Mobile, Alabama. They are on a 48-foot catamaran called Quantum Leap. A young woman from New Zealand, Kathleen, travels with them. We will be in Taihiti and Bora Bora at the same time, so we will see them again. They are also planning on wintering in New Zealand. We met Gary of Heart Beat today and he is also from New Zealand. He will be moving faster than us and Quantum Leap as he plans to get back to Kiwi land mid-summer.

Day 119-Happy Valentine’s Day
Latitude: 09 degrees 20 minutes
Longitude: 79 degrees 54 minutes
Date and Time: Tuesday, February 14, 2006, 2000 EST

We’ve been so busy getting ready for the Canal transit that we almost forgot that it was Valentine’s Day. We have a Canadian couple from the boat, Mystic Jade, who are going to go with us as line handlers, as well as a young man from Barcelona, Spain, who is visiting here. His name is Victor. If no one backs out, we do have our crew. We went to the supermarket again today to stock up on drinks for the Pacific voyage. We thought we would do that in Balboa once we transit, but we hear that even though it is safer on that side, getting caseloads of drinks onboard is harder. So all day today, we watched cases of beer, wine, water, and soft drinks getting loaded on to boats in the marina. Since we are out in the anchorage, we have to transport everything by dinghy, but we are getting there. We will need to make one more trip to the store tomorrow and we should be all set.

The weather here has been very unusual. It continues to rain during the night and a few times each day. Normally there is no rain this time of year, but today while we were waiting for a taxi at the store, we had a tropical downpour. It has also been very windy and the anchorage is choppy. This means getting wet every time we go into the marina. No fun, but at least it is warm and we dry out quickly.

We are told that friends and family that want to watch the transit can do so on the internet. I still have not found an internet café where I can download our g-mail account, but that is on the agenda for first thing in the morning. When I do that, I will also check out the Canal website. At this point, my knowledge is second hand. I believe you go to a Panama Canal website and look for the Mira Flores Lock webcam live video. We will be in the Mira Flores Lock sometime between 1200 noon and 1400 (2 PM) as best as we can guess. It is at the end of our transit and we are told we should be through by 1500 (3 PM). So if you are interested, you can try to find the site and get a glimpse of us as we transit. If I get more specific information, I’ll post that tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow will be another busy day. You have to prepare all of the food ahead of time as there is not much time once the transit begins. We will take our boat into the marina tomorrow evening and stay there the night with the crew onboard. Then we have to come back out here to the anchorage around 0300 (3 AM) to wait for the advisor to board. We then head to the Canal, get rafted with two other boats, and start the trip through the first lock at 0500 (5 AM). I think I’m tired just thinking about it!

If things get too crazy tomorrow, it is possible that I won’t get to post a log, but I will certainly let you know once we are safely through the Panama Canal.

Day 120-Tomorrow is Passage Day
Latitude: 09 degrees 20 minutes
Longitude: 79 degrees 54 minutes
Date and Time: Wednesday, February 15, 2006, 2000 EST
See Pictures Here

The excitement is building. I thought today that taking your boat through the Panama Canal is a bit like the Super Bowl, except that instead of viewing, you are actually playing. There is so much preparation-getting crew, getting lines, reading the books on passage, preparing the boat, preparing food. And in the process you meet so many new people. We moved from the anchorage in what is called The Flats today into the marina. We are rafted with Aqua Magic and will be leaving at 3 AM with them and another boat from Germany. We will head back into The Flats and wait there for the arrival of our advisors, and then head to the Gatun Locks. All crew arrived early this evening, so we are ready to go. We have David and Lee Ann from Ontario, Canada, who are here in the marina and will join us at 3 AM, Victor from Barcelona, Spain, who is onboard tonight, and a young woman named Kim from Western Australia who will join us in the AM. Rented lines are onboard, tires we bought to serve as fenders are hung over the side, quiches for breakfast are already baked, the tacos and Coronas for past passage celebration are on ice, and I think we are as ready as we will ever be. So here goes.

The advisor will board our boat between 3:30 and 4:00 and we will head to the Gatun Locks. There is actually a webcam at that lock, so if you happen to be up at 5 AM, you might check the www.pancanal.org website and take a peek. The next webcam is at the Miraflores lock and we will be there between noon and 2:00 PM-much better timing. We also hear that there is a webcam at the Centennial Bridge and we should be there just after 2 PM. We will wave in case you are watching!

After we transit, we will end up on the other side in Balboa. We will pick up a mooring or anchor there for the next week or so. We hope to have time to catch up on the many things we have on that To Do list. I will definitely check in tomorrow after our transit and let you know how things go tomorrow. The weather here is VERY windy, but they say that shouldn’t be a problem in the Canal. Until tomorrow . . .