January 12, 2007

We had an entirely successful transit on my birthday. But the excitement was high. On the locking up from the Pacific, we were side-tied to a megayacht, so there was much scurrying around each time (three) we tied up and untied. As you can imagine, the crew on the yacht was most concerned about the multi-million vessel they were in charge of. The owner and family looked on with what we thought were expressions of disdain. But all went well, and neither the multi-mil. nor the multi-thou. were damaged. As we raced across Gatun Lake, our poor old gal pushing 7.5-8 knots, we were all sure we'd have to spend the night in the lake. We had been delayed at Miraflores an hour and a half, so we hadn't entered the first lock until 1200. But fortune shone on us. As we approached the Gatun Locks, our advisor, Orlando, who was in every way excellent, could see the ship that was supposed to be the last to be locked down for the day still parked outside the locks. He called the lockmaster and was told the ship was delayed with mechanical problems and we could go in with this ship if we could make it to the first lock by 1730. We had about 5 miles to go in the winding channel, 25-28-knot winds, and it was 1645. Nevertheless, we arrived at 1720, pulled around in front of the ship, and were centered-tied through all three locks, with the ship behind us.

We came into Colon in the dark, but had called our agent for the passage, Enrique, and he had talked with the harbormaster at Panama Canal Yacht Club to arrange for a slip for us for the night. So we were in safely on the dock at PCYC at 1930. I had had probably the most exciting birthday of my life. Maybe I'll do it again at 80!

We're off within the hour for a five-day cruise up the Chagres River, the source of the water for Gatun Lake, the source of water for the canal. Thom and Allen will be with us until next Wednesday, when they must return to Panama City and then on to San Francisco. We'll not have any Internet service, since our satphone is still not working, until we return to Colon on the 16th.