We decided to leave the lovely anchorage in front of the Club Nautico in the Panama Canal area. This was actually the worst (with the exception of St Eustacias) anchorage we have been in. A very tight anchorage with a lee shore of big ships and rock, with a big fetch and ship wakes at all hours of the day and night. The decision was a bit difficult to make as we needed to thread our way back thru the Panama Canal traffic of huge freighters at anchor and moving. Also the wind is blowing 20-25 gusting to 30 knots and I knew it will be miserable getting out of the harbor. We can see the waves crashing over the stone breakwater of the canal harbor. Oh well, we can't stay here cause it really is miserable. We will need to come back and provision for a few days before our transit, on David's birthday the 16th. He actually says transiting the canal will be the best birthday present he has ever received. Good for him!

So we pulled up the anchor in big winds and headed for the breakwater. This is going to be bad. The waves are crashing onto the decks and I am driving, a few bad words may have slipped my lips. We got into the entrance channel and with just the staysail to steady us and the engine going we came into the 10 foot waves against the current. The waves alone would not have been so bad but they had a 4 second interval, which means they just kept coming with a huge chop. Sueno was behind us and Nathalie told me later that Flour Girl was disappearing between the waves. We have had better sails. We are both pretty well soaked. Zack stayed down below with a movie and said he barely noticed anything. That kid is a born sailor! I punched the engine to get us thru the worst of it and we kept heading out to make sure we were clear of the stone breakwater before tuning downwind. I was dreading the turn because there was no way we were going to come around fast enough to avoid the waves crashing onto our beam. I was right and we took a huge wave over the side soaking both of us to the bone. I gave the wheel to David and tried to get my calm back together. I was back on the helm in a few minutes and the rest of the sail was very pleasant downwind to the Rio Chagres.

The Rio Chagres is a navigable river, about a hundred yards across and 35 feet deep. The entrance is a bit scary as you come around into it there is a crashing reef on one side and a crashing reef in the middle of the entrance. That coupled with the big seas was pretty exhilarating. We made it thru and the transformation was instant. We were in a peaceful jungle river. The smell was fresh and amazing. The banks are lined with huge hardwood trees and jungle plants, palms and vines. You can hear howler monkeys and there are birds everywhere, we looked for monkeys and crocodiles but did not see any on our way up the river. We traveled about 6 miles up river to find Mac Pelican and anchored with them and Sueno. We had a quiet night and after dinner we hung a chicken carcass overboard to see if we could attract some crocodiles. It did not work and we resorted to shining crocs with a flashlight. You can only see the red of their eyes but it is still pretty cool just to know they are there.

The next day after school we went for a hike thru the jungle. There was a nice path and Paul from MacPelican had gone to check it out first thing in the morning. He had seen Spider Monkeys swinging from the trees and we hoped to see them. It may be that they only come out in the early morning, or maybe we were to noisy. It is difficult to get a group of kids to hike in silence. Zack has been watching a lot of "Man vs Wild" lately and he actually found one of the plants from the show. Unfortunately is was a thorny one you were supposed to avoid. He held it properly but neglected to warn anyone else and David from Sueno got a nasty surprise when he tried to take it from Zack to see it. The Rio Chagres leads into Gatun Lake, which is the middle of the Panama Canal. The trail led out to the lake and we went to check it out. We saw some big freighters being pushed by tugs and it was good to see it before we get there. We saw what looked like a big stick in the water we were hoping it was a crocodile. As we got closer it started to move and it was really cool for the kids. It was about 7 feet long. The lake is supposed to have a lot of crocs and hopefully we will get a better sighting when we transit.

Another great potluck on Sueno and Zack and Finley stayed for a sleep over before MacPelican heads to Shelter Bay Marina to haul out before going thru the canal. David and I are really glad we spent the month in Grenada getting our stuff done.