Friday- Transit Day 2
11 December 2009 | Panama- Panama City to Colon (the Canal) via Gatun Lake
Mostly sunny, very warm, light breeze, land and sea
We all had some leisure time this morning; had a hearty egg breakfast and the girls went kayaking while the guys swam, Perhaps the guys should have stayed out of the water as there are alligators here but evidently they were not hungry. The ACP advisor, Evan, came aboard at 12:45 PM just as lunch was coming out of the galley. Today we are locking down through 3 locks which should be easier and less likely to have troublesome issues. So as the captain had planned we will be side tied and as luck has it to Discovery, the small cruise ship which transited with us yesterday. Behind us is a large freighter. The pleasure boats are usually in front of the work boats as the latter 's propellers creat quite a wash and then resulting whirlpools in the locks. Some of the folks on Discovery were talking with us in the locks and we met the grand daughter of the captain on the first vessel to ever transit the Canal, the Ancon. She wsa making her first transit on the Canal and quite a nice woman. Again today all went without a problem although John had some tense moments keeping the boat in place before the first lock while the freighter and cruise ship got in place. Went into the only marina on this side, Shelter Bay near old Fort Sherman. Back in the Atlantic!