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Mischief - Leaving Las Perlas



Hi Folks

We are off again and we are all glad to be back on passage, if only to give our livers a rest.

We had a great time in San Blas and managed to kidnap Yellow Shirt Thomas for the trip to Shelter Bay, Colon. We called in at Portabello which is where the pirate Henry Morgan was based for sometime having ransacked it and held the inhabitants to ransom. We passed the final resting place of Sir Francis Drake at Nombre Dios Bay. Despite being a national hero at home he is also regarded as a pirate by the locals. Portabello was great and the people were very friendly. We had a great meal at a restaurant called Captain Jacks in the next bay round as recommended by Shepherd Moon who ate there the night before, great shout, thanks.

We left there and put Thomas on the helm to prevent him having his head in a bucket like the previous day. We had a close encounter with a cargo ship at the entrance to Colon at the start of the Panama Canal. We wrongly thought it might stick to the bouyed channel but with a local pilot onboard they seem to go where they like. We took avoiding action despite being under sail and arrived safely at Shelter Bay a short while later. We said goodbye to Mick who took the train to Panama City to catch his flight home

After a few days in the marina which was an old US Navy base we set off for our transit of the Canal. That for me has been the highlight of the trip so far. We had a Panama Canal Adviser come onboard called Edwin who was very helpful with his advice and made for a trouble free transit through the first set of locks into Gaton Lakes. We rafted up in the lake which is 35m above sea level and is man made to enable large shipping enough depth to transit from Atlantic to Pacific or vice versa. Next morning at first light Edwin came back on board and we headed for the Miraflores locks which release you under the bridge of Americas into the Pacific Ocean. The whole experience was fascinating if not a bit nerve wracking in the huge concrete locks.

We then headed for La Playita Marina which will be the last time in a proper marina for some months. We headed into Panama City from there to firstly go to huge, very American, mall to get some provisions and my phone fixed. We then visited the old city and found a pub called the Red Lion so couldn't resist a few pints.

Dave and Lisa joined us a few days later and after a whistle stop tour of the City we headed off for the Las Perlas Islands. We found a couple of beautiful, deserted anchorages before checking in on Contadora for a beach BBQ and prize giving. At last we won a prize, first bag over the line. This was not an insult to Wendy as I first thought but it is because we are carrying a bag of merchandise for the ARC as are a few others and we did it faster than rest of them.

Anyway we are on the move again heading for Galapagos with flat seas and perfect winds to fly the spinnaker. To make the day perfect we caught 2 skipjack tuna to supplement our ever increasing fish stocks. Trevor is concentrating on fishing on the trip, usually at the cost of everything else such as sailing and keeping watch. We do have fillet steak in the freezer but we are convinced he doesn't want to share it so keeps catching fish.

Anyway I must go as the fish needs cooking on the BBQ which is my job apparently.

Cheers David

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