Yes we did make it here on Monday evening; sorry it took so long to update the blog.
We had a magical trip down the coast of Panama, arriving at 22:10 on Monday evening, 15-20 knots breeze all the way – to a fairly hairy entry to the little marina, after passing all the big ships at anchor waiting for the P canal. What an incredible sight, on arrival we were met by ever reliable Finn from World ARC - who guided us in by flash light. Only after we tracked down the WARC folks to their hotel 20 miles away! As the first Mono hull home we felt great, and celebrated alone late into the night
When you head off to sail around the world, the last thing we expected to run into was another round the world “rally” this time the “blue water rally” - some would say it’s the perfect time to commence a pacific crossing, others would say the race organisers were trying to keep us apart - but K8 speed meant we arrived ahead of their plan and it was fun to run into other RTW sailors including Peter Mantel (ex CEO JLL) on his Oyster.
Two days in the very welcoming port “shelter island “ - (ex US navel base) located in the middle of a nature reserve has been great , lots to do on the jobs list – mostly now done - (note – rig checks are important, we found a dislodged clevis pin on the first spreaders ) and lots of mundane stuff –cleaning the dinghy, repacking kites etc, not to mention 4 hours washing down the boat (gee there was a lot of salt in that last leg)
Good news – despite previous comments - this is a very warm and welcoming location, and it is very cheap! – The UK marina industry could learn a thing or two. Suffice to say the GM of the Marina was on the dock to greet us personally.
Now with the jobs list done we are ready and waiting for the Boss to arrive (Mrs H) who is coming in to join one of the great (and safest) passages of the world, the Panama Canal Transit – so if all goes according to plan we will transit on Saturday Morning - and you can watch us live on the Panama Canal web cams! We will keep you posted - but rarely will you be able to see us in real time over the web as we make one of the great crossings from the Atlantic to the Pacific (admittedly the easy way!)
Meanwhile with time on our hands and jobs done, little city excursions call - so were off for some sight seeing in Panama City (1 hour by train, following the route of the canal ) – we decided to give Colon a miss - the crime rate is higher then Manchester!