Wednesday 3rd July 2013
Day 9
6.30 am
Well we can see land, yay yay yay.
So after 8 1/2 days, and over 1,100nm we are almost there.
Man has it been a mixed trip, from the first two days of great sailing, to a horrible storm, to 3 days of sheer torture, which was making me wanting to quit this kinda life completely, to the last 3 1/2 days of such calm seas, it made the trip worth while.
Even if we did have to motor the whole last 3 days.
I'm so glad we had those good days, I was so seasick those rough weather days, I really really hated it.
And wanted nothing more than getting off this boat for good.
So in about 2 hours or so we will be there than the fun begins.
To cross through the Canal is no easy thing, I have been reading up about it, if you get a chance you should google it and have a look.
The canal has 3 locks on one side which take a day to go through, than you sit in a man made river over night, than on the other side you go through another 3 locks and it spits you out in the Pacific Ocean, back on our side of the world.
You have to book a transit which takes a fair amount of running around, to get done, from one official office to the next this can also take several days.
Then you wait it can take up to 2 weeks before they let you go through.
You also have to hire a pilot and line handlers to go through with you, the pilot stays through the day but gets off at night time then returns the next day, the line handlers stay with you the whole time.
You have to hire car tyres, and lash them all around the outside of your boat, and there is a lot of safety stuff as well.
When you enter the canal, you will be rafted up to at least 3 other boats, these can range from anything to a yacht, cruiser, tug boat you don't know what till you get there.
Than the cost, man it cost a fortune, we are looking at over $2,000 just am glad we are not a big tanker, as they get charged well over one hundred thousand dollars, man it's crazy stuff.
Well another situation has just landed on our lap, just when we thought everything was fine, Aut ( the Auto-Pilot)
Decided to have a hissy fit, right when we were about to pass a huge Cargo ship.
I think he got excited about seeing land, and just started heading for it.
I went into panic mode yelled out to The Captain, he comes barreling up the stairs, and Aut goes back on tract, this happend two more times, I'm not sure what the hell is going on with him, I know it's been a long journey, and maybe he is just warn out, like the rest of the crew.
And we have landed on land, we are in bortobello, in Panama.
More to come.
Tomorrow is another day.