We arrived in Colon on Wednesday February 20th in the morning. We are staying at Shelter Bay Marina located on an abandoned US military base. Very nice with lots of other catamarans...Nathalie is taking over...
Well, we made it! We arrived last Wednesday in Colon and settled in a very nice marina called Shelter Bay marina just after the breaking wall of the entrance of the port of San Cristobal (the port of Colon). We had a beautiful sail both days 15 to 20 knots wings on wings, cannot get much better! We spent the night in Portobello which was interesting , not great holding , mainly in mud but a small town with a fort, a well-known church , and a busy road with colorful buses leaving every hours or so. The kids (and ourselves too) are really excited to get back to civilization, Wi-Fi, laundry, lots of other catamaran cruisers in this marina. We are going scheduled to transit on Friday 29thy of February. We met a couple on a lagoon catamaran who are going to be our line handlers and David is also going to get a firsthand experience this Wednesday on a big catamaran going this Wednesday. It is all working out pretty good. We went one time to Colon, mainly a grocery shopping trip. It is not the type of town that you can really get excited about, very dirty, noisy and dangerous but it is always interesting to see.
The kids met the daughters (12 and 14) of the dock master and they are off on their bike in the afternoon when they get back from school! The marina is located in a park which previously was a US military site. It got evacuated in 2000 and the building are now abandoned but the park is still beautiful and it is safe to ride your bike around and see white face monkeys and slugs. I managed to call mom with Skype and was really excited, I will use it more... so, that is it.... Waiting comfortably for Friday.
EN ATTENTE DU TRANSIT DU CANAL DE PANAMA
Notre premiere grande etape est presque franchie!!! Nous sommes a Colon pres du port de San Cristobal ou les bateaux passent de la mer des caraibes a l'ocean pacifique depuis Presque 100 ans (ouverture du canal en 1914). C'est incroyable mais vrai !!! Nous sommes dans une tres jolie marina avec beaucoup d'autres bateaux, en particulier beaucoup de catamarans, sur un ancient site militaire americain abandonne en 2000. La marina est donc assez neuve , dans le parc et de ce fait, il n'y a pas de problem de securite ce qui est un souci a Colon. Les touristes sont avises de ne pas se deplacer a pied meme sur une courte distance et en pleine ville dans la journee, de ce fait il y a des taxis partout (peut-etre que cette insecurite est aussi un peu exageree a leur avantage) mais la course est tres peu chere, entre 2 et 3 dollars. Nous sommes alles reapprovisionner le bateau hier et avons trouve l'essentiel, pour le surplus, nous attendrons d'etre du cote pacifique ou la ville de Panama city offre tous les grands magasins comme aux USA ou l'Europe. (Alec se demande si on trouvera du nutella!!!!) Nous avons d�j� notre date de transit, vendredi 29 Fevrier. David va aider un autre grand catamaran mercredi afin d'avoir un peu d'experience et savoir ce qui nous attend. La famille francaise a bord de ce catamaran va aussi traverser le pacifique, ils ont deux jeunes a bord de 17 et 20 ans,tres sympas, qui ont commence leur vie sur le bateau au meme age qu'Emilie et Alec. Nous profitons bien des avantages de la civilization dans celle belle marina (machine a laver, internet Wi-Fi, restaurant) et je suis sure que nous serons aussi heureux de quitter la civilization pour les Galapagos! A bientot......