Archiv
CW 43 2003
20.10. - 26.10.2003
This week is under the impression of passing through the Panama Canal again. Don't worry, we didn't take SILVER BLUE back to the Atlantic, no, she is still standing in the Flamenco marina, high and dry, with people working hard on her. There'll soon be more on the works progress and on the Flamenco marina situated on an island with the same name.
| This time we're helping Christine & Christopher (right) bring their
catamaran Kassomay through the canal. But this one turned out to be a longer trip with lots of delays. Originally the transit should have taken place on Thursday morning, but the day before Chris had called to let us know that the transit had been rescheduled for 6pm. Well, a night-transit is probably also very interesting and impressive. So we agree to meet the next day in Colon, at 4pm. As we arrive there we're told that the transit has been rescheduled again, on short notice. The reason for that are freighters with a hazardous load and they are never allowed to be in the same chamber as yachts since, in case of an emergency, the chamber is simply filled with halon to extinguish fires. |
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Our new appointment is for Friday 8:30am which is actually rather late
- especially when the pilot arrives an hour late. And, believe it or not, it's the same sleepy fellow we had. Most of the time Tony sleeps or talks on his mobile phone, only shortly interrupted when he eats or even gives one or two directions. But he doesn't do that very often and this time it's also rather confusing which caused a few "disharmonies". But just before 10:00am we finally take off. Will we manage to cross through the canal today? |
Well, no, at 4pm, after we've passed the first three locks und Lake Gatun,
we're told that we can't finish the transit today and whoosh, a pilot cutter
comes to pick up our pilot.
He's supposed to be back at 9am on Saturday ... we'll see.
| So we drop anchor in the canal, in Gamboa where the Rio Charges flows into the Panama Canal. A pretty place actually, and we did go swimming for a while, but on the next morning we see an about 2m long crocodile right there. There seem to be quite a few of these cute bigmouths around - later on we even spot one in a lock chamber. Who knows, it might still be there, riding up and down all the time …? |  |
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By now we've found out that our pilot won't be back before 12.30pm so we take the dinghy to the Gamboa resort not far away and have a small lunch there. |
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After that we actually do get to continue the transit. In front of
one of the locks we see a ship coming from the town I was born in and
at 8pm we finally arrive at the Flamenco marina. Until then, take care! TOM |
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