The day of transit has arrived. In about 15 minutes we will set out for the gatun locks. The weather is particularly hot today. Hot and Sunny and humid all at once. We've just met our hired line handlers who Dad's managing to communicate with using his versatile and eloquent command of the spanish language. A command that makes use of arm motions, sound effects, and even surrounding props. With any luck we'll be logging another entry tomorrow night labelling the whole experience as a success.
Nathaniel

9:49 pm
Wow!
Left Shelter Bay Marina at 12 pm with the 3 line handlers and proceeded to the "Flats" to anchor while waiting for the advisor to come aboard at one-five-three-zero. At 4pm pilot boat shows up and drops an advisor both on our boat and on another sailboat (young norvegians aboard) and we follow them to the locks. Our advisor is very knowledgeable in canal history and I keep on badgering him with questions. Half an hour later we enter the first lock after having rafted up with the norvegians (so our boats maneuvers like a catamaran with an engine in each hull) and doing some slalooming between huge cargo ships. We are then going through the locks together with some big ass freighter.... and it is just incredible (the speed at which these locks fill, the way they move the ships with locomotives, the vortices everywhere, the size of the constructions etc...) By the 3rd lock it's dark and we exit onto Gatun lake. and go tie up to a mooring buoy next to our Norvegians buddies. Then I have to feed the pilot and the @@##%%@!!! line handlers who eat like it's their first meal in days; so I have to improvise after they finish my curry in 2 seconds flat. The pilot is off and another one will come tomorrow at 6:30am to help us transit the lake and the three locks back down to the pacific.
But for now I have to cook to prepare food for the pilot tomorrow and our starving linehandlers!!
...
I'll write tomorrow to let you know the outcome of this transit.
But so far so good....
Alan