Panama Express!
We beat our record from the Panama canal to 2 days... too strong Tao!
Thursday 8 June: Colon
Of Portobelo we go directly to Colon which is a few hours of navigation. We get wet in the face of the Club Nautico in the middle layers of diesel!.
View over the docks and huge cranes. First go to the anchor of the "Flats" to measure the boat... but the meter comes with two days late.
Friday 16 June: Day J to cross the canal.
We expect the "Flats" our adviser... but yet when nobody comes!
One more day to take advantage of pollution of Colon.
Finally our "Adviser" comes late in the day the next day and it's the race to not miss our lock.
We are couple of two other boats to cross the three Gatun lock.
We enter the first lock. The walls are of high.
The water is rising and in a few minutes we dominate the sea of the Caribbean that we leave behind.
Two more locks for tonight.
Our companion of lock is towed by motor on rails.
It is dusk as we go out the last lock to get to Gatun Lake buoy (buoy we know well to be stayed 11 during our last visit days).
Sunday 18 June: Crossing of Lake Gatun
Early, Viktor, our new "Adviser" goes aboard and we guide you to the locks on the Pacific side.
And here we are in Panama City with mission to make races more than fast and go.
To be effective we rent a car for 3 days.
It's in the jams that we travel Panama City in all directions every time back to the ship the full chest.
Our journey ends the third day at the Abastos Mercado, There where farmers sell directly their fruit and vegetables.
The freezer is full. Over more for ice chocolate!
Friday 23 June: Mission accomplished
The Panama exit formalities, full of fuel and road to the Las Islands Lagoon to 35 miles offshore. Anchor opposite the island of Contadora, where there is a good Internet connection. Three days of laundry await us...
Tao is the only boat in the Bay and the environment is even more enjoyable.
The evening whales spend off the coast...
One of them is curious and surfaced within a metre of our bow. What whirlpool!