Day 121, Year 1: Tomorrow is Passage Day
Date: Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Weather: VERY Windy
Location: Panama Canal Zone, San Cristobal, Panama (near Panama Canal Yacht Club)

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 . . .

060215 Day 121 Canal Transit Prep