FINALLY PANAMA CANAL

The weeks before the transit was hectic. So much to do, the excitement and the plans. For two weeks we didn’t stop fixing, scrubbing and stocking up her, the queen who looks after us.

To say good bye, the hardest thing but also to say good bye to the Caribbean that has been our home for 5 years was not going to be easy.

The canal transit day came on 5 of march, up early to do last Laundry, buy the ice, pay the bills for fuel and the Marina and off we went to anchor in the flats, an area outside the canal.

We had our friends Judi and Edd from Clare de Lune onboard as well as Mia, a mum and fellow sailor.

The advisor came onboard and off we went.

Not going to bore you with details of the transit as it has been written here before but all went well. We drafted up to a tourist boat, good fun but we had to tie and untie between the locks. Kind of stressful as the water churns around and you seriously have got no time for errors. Between doing the rope work we did have time for a beer or two and some colouring with Alice. Mia was amazing!

The ship coming toooo close.

After the first part of the locks we got to Gatun lake for the night. Chilli con carne on the menu and few drinks but honestly, we were all tired….

Had to take photos of my Facebook as my phone was stolen in Ecuador, but more of that later.

After a good night we carried on motoring on the Gatun lake, a boring 40 odd miles stretch. The super thing was that Edd and Judi taught us all to play Mexican train game.
I’m shit about learning new games, no time or tolerans for it but this was good. In fact, we were all sold!

So the next 6 hours it was pretty non stop playing.

The next set of locks, back on to to tie and untie with the party boat and eventually we were chucked out into the Pacific.

No great moment, no thought of “we did it,” only thank god it’s done. Motoring to Balboa yacht club, picked up a mooring and get onshore for a meal, drink and say goodbye to our company. We were all tired.

So there we were, on a buoy, our first night, in the Pacific with the great unknown in front of us……happy!