Finally Through the Panama Canal & Now Off to Galapagos Island
The last two days have been very busy and I am glad to share a few photos of our transit through the Gatun Locks to the Pacific Ocean where we will prepare for our passage to the Galapagos Islands. The passage will take 9 days if we can keep our speed of 6 knots. This should be interesting because it will be my friend Adam first time out at sea. It will also be the longest time I have been at sea and I am hoping it will be as wonderful as people say. I have been watching the wind reports and it sounds like we should have 10 to 15 knots all the way to the Galapagos and I am hoping for 20 to 25 because we will not make good distance at 10 to 15 knots, so wish us good luck. My mom will be flying out of Panama tomorrow and will rejoin us sometime later on.

We put tires and bummers on both side of Dragonsbane to protect her from the lock walls, Tug boats, and Pilot boats.

The Panama Canal Line handlers tossing there lines to us so we could tie our heavy rope lines to them. They would drag in our rope lines and tie us off to the canal walls.

The target is for the line handlers that walk the walls of the Canal. They practice throwing there monkey balls at the target and over the top pole.

After we went through the first 3 locks we spent the night on the fresh water lake and tired to a mooring ball for a freighter, enough room for two sailboats. We awoke at 6:30am and motored 5 hours to the Pacific locks on the lake. We then went through 3 more locks and dropped 150 feet to Pacific sea level.

After we finished our Transit a dingy tender came along side Dragonsbane and took all our tires and ropes for $10.
Thanks,
Jacques
Greetings, Adam and crew, from Carmel, IN!
April 8, 2013 at 7:14 am
Thanks, Jacques We enjoyed the canal pictures. Going through the canal has been a feature of our bucket list and plans are shaping up for next Spring. Have a better picture in mind now of some of the workings of the transit process. We watch for your adventures daily. Hi to our friend, Dale Elsa and John McKenna
April 8, 2013 at 6:06 pm
Thanks Elsa and John!
Dale said hi and is glad to hear form you , Take care!
April 21, 2013 at 11:06 pm
safe travels to all of you over the next nine days or so, cant wait to read about and see the pictures of the islands, I hear they are amazing!
April 9, 2013 at 2:23 am