04/10/2009, Shelter Bay Marina, Panama
The photo is of our first Carribean sunset. Taken at "the Flats"anchorage area.
We were awakened to rain shortly after 5 a.m. Once we closed up hatches, which then the rain stopped just as soon as it started almost, we decided since it's so close to dawn, & we're able to start to see light, to get ready to pull up anchor & head to Shelter Bay Marina only about an hour away, to drop off our crew, top off our diesel & water & be on our way. Shouldn't take more than an hour right? We'll be heading out into the Carribean by 9 a.m. Wrong! Way wrong! It's Good Friday, so no diesel at the fuel barge in SB today. I just hung my head when Jesus, the Marina manager told us that. We are SO CLOSE! The Carribean outside the breakwalls is RIGHT THERE! Going home is just right over there to the E. of us! Had we had any idea we wouldn't be arriving here until today, we would have gotten diesel back on the other side, but we had never heard of any other yachts having to wait so long in the day on the second day of the transit to go through the final locks. But!, there is always an upside. When Jim went to check in at the office, Jorge, one of the SB employees said he would be hauling the trash away at noon and would take our jugs for us & return @ 2 w/ fuel for us! Thank God! So that just gives us more time to get some projects done. We topped off our water, put our hailing port letters, "Traverse City MI" finally on the stern, Jim worked on the cable for the backstay that he started y-day before Jose' came, got the mast for our wind generator installed, and a few other odds & ends. The fuel was returned at 2:45, by the time we filled our tank & returned the 2 borrowed diesel jugs to Claire de Lune so we could leave w/ all ours filled, then continued to pick up our projects, we didn't pull out of the marina until about 5:45, giving us only 45 minutes to clear through the break wall & stay out of the shipping traffic in daylight. As we left the marina, & headed down the channel toward the break wall, there were ominous rainy clouds all around us. This was not projected on the weather we just checked on earlier that afternoon. Now what?! Another delay! Surprised by this time? No. Upset? Yes! I want to get home to my kids!
So we think the better of it and pull off and anchor, wait out the rain, go to bed early & decide when we wake, we leave, providing the weather looks good.
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Comments [0]
04/10/2009, 9.3691,-79.9503
Everything here is fine. Here is where we are, check it out! All our Love!!
ESN:0-7481291
Latitude:9.3691
Longitude:-79.9503
Nearest Location:not known
Distance:not known
Time:04/10/2009 12:44:55 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=9.3691,-79.9503&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
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04/10/2009, 9.3797,-79.9345
Everything here is fine. Here is where we are, check it out! All our Love!!
ESN:0-7481291
Latitude:9.3797
Longitude:-79.9345
Nearest Location:not known
Distance:not known
Time:04/10/2009 12:21:34 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=9.3797,-79.9345&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
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04/09/2009, Lake Gatun, Panama
WOW! Sleep! What a concept! We both slept like babies, and didn't get up 'til way after sun up! Basically hung around and visited w/ George & Janet, George's brother Ted, & his 2 young adult children who are visiting & going through the canal w/ them. Super nice family! Even though we had wanted to go through the canal several days ago, we are so very glad we were able to buddy boat w/ Claire de Lune. It's times like this that I feel things happen for a reason & we don't always know what's best, that God does & he is working for us in all things. The boat Sheli, chose to anchor off the moorings a bit ways off from us. About 11, since our advisors we're not arriving yet, and we saw no signs of them, Jim radioed for an update. "Your advisor will be arriving at 14:15 and you have a 15:15 lock time". Ya know, I really hate being out of control!!! At the hands & mercy of others! But it's not like we can call the ACP & tell them, "No, sorry, that's not acceptable, we're going through now, like it or not!" So we sit, we wait, & I try real hard to stay positive. I am all for when I get a setback, to try to believe, everything happens for a reason, & is for the best, and maybe this will just give us a better start wind or something. Just something to help me be able to "let it go". But I still really hate being in no control of things!
At 1:00, so an hour & ½ EARLY, our advisor, Jose', arrives. Jim is right in the middle of a project replacing our back forestay cable. When Jose' arrives though, he tells us that we are not transiting through the remaining canal until 4:15, then a while later, it's pushed back again to 4:50. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit w/ Jose' for the remainder of the afternoon, talking about everything from Religion- yes, he's Catholic, politics, recreation, the canal, etc. But we're still wanting to get going. Once we get through the canal we need to drop off Steve, Thomas & Olga & give them $ for taxi & bus ride back to Panama. The last bus to Panama City is at 9, so it appears they will be staying w/ us one more night, and we'll be getting refueled and more water in the morning.
This time it was just Claire de Lune & us, the other boat we were w/ y-day was able to leave an hour before us. We got through going down w/ no problems. Our sister boat though, had a bit of an issue this time. As we were getting in to the first lock, the aft line thrown to the canal line handler didn't quite get to the line handler. Ted on Claire de Lune missed twice and for some unknown reason the canal line handler on shore didn't throw his line to Ted to help pull their stern around & Claire de Lunes anchor hit & scraped the wall of the lock twice. Thankfully no damage was done, but it was scary nonetheless. Other than that, which was enough, thank you very much, our transit went well & after going down the 3 sets of locks, we were in the Carribean! We drove the 5 miles to the flats where we anchored for the night at about 7:45 p.m.
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04/09/2009, 9.3442,-79.9075
Everything here is fine. Here is where we are, check it out! All our Love!!
ESN:0-7481291
Latitude:9.3442
Longitude:-79.9075
Nearest Location:not known
Distance:not known
Time:04/10/2009 00:44:27 (GMT)
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04/09/2009, 9.2718,-79.9234
Everything here is fine. Here is where we are, check it out! All our Love!!
ESN:0-7481291
Latitude:9.2718
Longitude:-79.9234
Nearest Location:not known
Distance:not known
Time:04/09/2009 22:36:54 (GMT)
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