We are finally ready to transit the Panama Canal today! Our final trips to Colon have gone fairly smoothly, although when we went to pay the transit fees, we discovered that they were tacking on extra charges to the tune of $500 or so. This was due to the fact that we had said that we could not go 8 knots and thus were scheduled for a 2-day rather than 1-day transit. We thought this was odd given that all other boats that we had heard about that are similar in size and even slower than us (because they are monohulls) were going through in 2 days but were not paying the extra fees. Dallas then realized that the Panamanian agents who typically handle the paperwork for cruisers just say that all of the boats can go 8 knots even though they cannot because all are doing 2-day transits now (and thus do not have to actually go 8 knots). So…we went back and changed our paperwork to state that we can in fact go 8 knots. We did so with a little reluctance, since we are not too sure if that is possible, but since then, we have confirmed that it won’t be necessary, so we are in the clear.

The oil pressure regulator arrived on time, and after Dallas quickly installed it, the port engine ran for 15 minutes without a problem. Other final tasks such as patching up the dinghy and repairing wiring for the bilge pumps (yet again) have gone smoothly as well. We seem to be ship-shape for the 10 day passage to the Galápagos!

The most (or should I say only) exciting news that we have to share is that we have befriended a young celebrity here in the marina. As I noted in the last blog, Zac Sunderland is attempting to be the youngest solo circumnavigator, and since he is on the last leg of the journey back to California, he is well on his way to accomplishing this goal. Zac’s father, Lawrence, met him here in the marina as he has been doing throughout Zac’s trip around the world, and we have enjoyed listening to he and Zac share tales of their adventures. (You can read them for yourself on Zac’s website, www.zacsunderland.com, which gets over 100,000 hits per day!) They were interested in hearing what Dallas had learned from his trip through the Canal aboard Dragon and asked if we would like to transit the Canal rafted up to Zac’s boat, Intrepid. We readily agreed! Zac’s personal photojournalist, Jen, will be joining him of course, so we will be celebrities (by proxy) for the day!

Zac and his father on Intrepid by Jen Edney

We leave this afternoon (16:00) to transit the first set of locks at Gatun Lake where we will spend the evening anchored. Tomorrow we will pass through the remaining two locks that end with the Miraflores Lock where the webcam is. We are expecting to be there around noon tomorrow but will try to post a quick blog to let readers know what time in case you would like to take a look. When the transit is completed, Zac’s crew will be jumping over to our boat so that Zac can sail to the anchorage on his own.

That’s all for now. Our next blog will be written from the Pacific Ocean!