We left Friday morning from Portobelo to go to Panama City. This trip was on two busses. The first one was a chicken bus to Colon that took 2 hours and cost $1.60 each. The second bus was a nice bus with AC & TV. This was to Panama City it took 2 hours and cost $3.15 each. To get from the first bus to the second we were advised to take a taxi. the taxi ride was 150 yards and cost $2.00 . once we arrived in Panama we took a taxi to S/V Rocinante and were reunited with Larry and Vicky , new friends we had met last year in Mexico and their crew member Joe. We had met Joe in El Salvador when he was crewing on a different boat. since leaving Tacoma 2 years ago we have met several people then parted ways only to be reunited months later. Early the next morning we met our canal adviser "Ricky". He was knowledgeable, friendly and was very pleasant. We rafted to a 67' fishing boat and went threw the first 3 locks center tied. After motoring across lake Gatun we were given permission to lock down on the same day. Earlier we were told we would have to spend the night on the lake. We centered tied alone going down. No problems for Rocinante as everything very smoothly. We arrived in Shelter Bay later that evening. The only hiccup was the next day, Rocinante started to take on water. The bilge was complete full and coming up the floor boards. It took 5 plus hours to figure out the bilge pump was leaking into the boat. Larry ordered a new one, installed it, and 5 days later, all was good. We left Shelter Bay at 5:30 am this morning and arrived late morning to Portobelo. Kokomo was just fine without us.

Life was good on Rocinate!

Denny and Becky