Back to the marvel of the Panama Canal. Only 7% of the worlds fleet is too big for the Canal. King Carlos V of Spain ordered a survey back in 1524 but they presumably decided that cutlasses would be inadequate for the job. It was however started in 1880 by the same designer as the Suez Canal but problems forced him to give up after 20 years of struggling. In 1903 Panama seceded from Colombia and a treaty was signed with the US for the granting of a public maritime transportation service. The next year the US purchased the Canal properties for $40 million( a lot of money in 1903) and began to dig. The first vessel thru’ was US cargo ship “Ancon” on 15th August 1914. In 1999 the Canal was handed back to the Panamanian government as it was agreed that the largest piece of their infrastructure and economy was owned by a foreign country, and this wasn’t right. Today more than 13,056 blue water ships from 70 nations are handled each year. While it cost us US$900 the average toll for ships is about 70 to 80 thousand dollars. The record amount paid was $359,950 for the “Norwegian Pearl” and the least was Richard Halliburton who swam the canal in 1926 and was charged 36 cents after his displacement tonnage was calculated. The journey thru’ the Canal takes about 8 hours but between 14 and 16 hours are normally spent in canal waters. Okay 2nd lot of trivia is over. We areon a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club …no anchoring here and no marina. Funny arrangement tho’ as you can’t use your dinghy, but they supply a launch to ferry to and from shore or another boat. Just call them up and over they come, and it’s free and so it should be as they charge marina fees for a mooring. Still until we get our provisions, fuel and our papers from Tito we’ll stay and they have internet over the moorings.