Boy has this past 13 days flown by!! We have really enjoyed the anchorage here near the Flamenco Marina and while the rain dampened a few of our days, all in all the weather has been warm, breezy and humid...typical Tropical climate... We have met up with several familiar cruisers we have met in our travels as well as many new friends we continue to meet. We have enjoyed book exchanges, musical jam sessions, sharing cabs, finding the "best" grocery stores and places to find boat parts as well as just sitting down at happy hour and sharing stories... Sans Cles and us have moved into the marina for the last couple of days, to have some ease in getting the Canal officials to complete paperwork, get the boats measured and take delivery of the huge lines and tire fenders needed. Not to mention getting "provisions for 3 weeks" on board from our 5 hour shopping marathon on board from a dock, rather than loading a dinghy and making several trips out to the boats! Today we even had our Yellow Fever shots (now required for people entering many Central and South American countries) and are doing the final touches to protecting Triple Stars from the locks....covering the solar panels, clearing the deck of anything not attached to the boat, hanging tire fenders and preparing the huge lines and stashing all of the food and provisions we just bought! Our plan now is that Saturday morning about 8am, the Canal Authority Advisor will board our boat and about 7:00 or 7:30am we should begin to travel under the "Bride of the Americas" and motor for about 2 hrs to the Miraflores locks. The web cam is located at the 3rd lock, SO at the earliest we should be in those locks about 10:00am..... I will try to up date on this blog, via SSB radio, on Saturday morning as we move closer to the locks. I am finding it really difficult to describe just how fun, anxious, scared, relieved and excited I am feeling! That's www.pancanal.com multimedia...Live camera...miraflores high resolution... then click on the magnifying glass....