Transit
update. It is Thursday 7th and we
are still on for the 9th February.
We should enter the Gatun Locks around 9.30pm
UK time but it could be later. We will
then be on a buoy in the Gatun lake for the night, the Pilot Advisor will
re-join around 6am and we have about 30 miles to go to the Pedro Miguel locks
then to the Miraflores Locks which let us through to the Pacific. If we are on time we will be at the
Miraflores Locks between 6pm & 10pm UK time. Watch us (possibly!) on
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
For more
information on the canal & how the locks work try:
Harry has made lots of new friends since we have been here, and is really happy. In early
January 13 year old Sarah arrived on ‘Avatar’ with her parents, Ed & Val, and
the Garner family from One World
returned – just in time to help celebrate Freddie’s 9th birthday –
having old friends back was a fantastic bonus.
He had a great party which all
the children enjoyed.
With a hose and washing-up liquid our old
main-sail made a superb water slide, which was used for several days before
being cut up and I have now made 3 covers for our folding bikes, storage bags
and numerous other things from it.
Marie &
Oscar arrived from South Africa on ‘Banana’, with their lovely dog, Dinghy,
Gill & Keeley from Australia came on ‘Chaotic Harmony’ and then Ben, Julie
& Steve arrived from America on ‘Omar Sea’– all of them aged between 12
& 15, which means we have seen little of Harry after school each day. They
all do school in the morning so are usually finished by noon, ready to go
swimming, exploring or, currently, to all go on Minecraft together.
Over the
weeks the kids have spent hours exploring the old jail and battery – the battery tunnels go
into the hill and are full of bats and cockroaches –so they have been going up
there in the dark to play vampire games.
The whole place is like an apocalypse movie set with the old church, the cinema, ‘The Locker Room’ bar and grill and rows of houses just abandoned and being taken over by jungle.
The church
The airstrip is the perfect place for bicycle races and the covered parade ground good for flying remote-control helicopters. We have all enjoyed the walks and cycles around the place though I have not explored the tunnels at night!
The whole place is like an apocalypse movie set with the old church, the cinema, ‘The Locker Room’ bar and grill and rows of houses just abandoned and being taken over by jungle.
The church
The airstrip is the perfect place for bicycle races and the covered parade ground good for flying remote-control helicopters. We have all enjoyed the walks and cycles around the place though I have not explored the tunnels at night!
Lots of empty & unused roads around Fort Sherman
Harry had an amazing 2 days at an adventure camp with Lely, Max, Ela and Solomon from 'One World' & their Dad, Wes.
Zip wires over the Gatun Lake, sitting on a 2000 pound bull, jungle nature trails, milking a cow and much more. The kids returned and went straight into the pool while Wes looked exhausted! It was so kind of him to take Harry with them - he will never forget the experience & the fun they had.
In the jungle all around Fort Sherman we have seen lots of Howler and
Capuchin monkeys, toucans (with splendid colouring), sloths, an armadillo and a
Tamandua (looks like a black and white anteater).
Harry took this amazing photo of the Armadillo he saw with Max and Wes when they cycled to Fort Lorenzo on the Chagres river.
The toucans fly around the boats on the hard
but are impossible to photograph as they fly off as soon as you get within 200
yards. We still have some ants on board
but are now hosting our 6th gecko – they climb along the mooring
ropes and reappear in lockers, down below and in cabins. So far we have liberated 5 but the 6th
has not reappeared since we saw it on deck 10 days ago.
We found 2 geckos emerging from almost empty cans of soft drinks - they also like cake crumbs!
Last week,
after seeing a couple of boats having engine problems as they set off for the
canal, John decided to run our engine
and it would not start. 3 days later he
had cleaned everything in the engine, installed a new starter motor and fixed
the electrical problems that appeared.
As we get closer to our transit on the 9th February more and
more jobs appear. 
For the Australia Day party the kids decorated the restaurant and pool areas & did a great job.
Jessica put on a special children's yoga session in the hotel which all enjoyed
To transit we had to take
our documents into the measurer’s office in Colon and book an appointment to be
measured. They still had all our details
from 2000 when we went through but we had to be measured again – and we are
mysteriously 2 feet longer and 1 foot narrower than before. The price goes up at 50 foot length so we are
still at the lowest rate. Then we had to
pay US $1850 in cash in Colon- a bit nerve racking as there are lots of muggings-
then we had to book a date and now we have to confirm 48 hours, 24 hours and 4
hours before. About half of the money is
a deposit which will be returned if we cause no damage. Also
need to have 4 x 125 foot lines on board, extra fenders and 5 adults (4 as line-handlers
and 1 helmsman) as well as a Pilot Advisor with us on both days. So we have Anna & Marcus from Germany
coming with us, as they sailed here but are not going through on their boat, and
Charlotte is joining us! The planning of
food and sleeping arrangements has taken time and shopping, and much thought as
to stowage for the transit and then for weeks at sea. It is so much easier to get the heavy stuff
here, like tinned food, flour, milk, rice and pasta, but we have to provide
meals for 7 for the 2 transit days as well as accommodation – a juggle for most
boats.
Update on Charlotte.
Charlotte
has been working on catamarans in Denmark, taking technicians out to build a
new wind farm in the Kattegat. The
company is between contracts at the moment and she is working on a super-yacht
in the British Virgin Islands for a few weeks and so is flying down to Panama
to be with us for a few days which is wonderful for us
When we go through we will head out to the islands in the gulf of Panama with Charlotte for a few days. We will return to drop her off and to buy fresh fruit & vegetables before heading to the Islas Perlas then to Galapagos, Easter Island and Pitcairn...
