Leaving the Atlantic Behind.....

Gatun Locks on April 22nd

Canal Pilot Carlos, briefing the Crew.

    

Uplock is much more turbulant when you are behind a 600' container ship.....

 



Gatun Locks at Sunset. We will spend the night on Gatun Lake...28 miles to the Pacific Locks tomorrow.



 Panama Canal approaching it's 100 year anniversay. This control center was completed in 1913, the opening of the Canal.





Bridge of the Americas - Gateway to the Pacific   

All Aboard and Away We GO!

Panama Canal - Here we come...finally! We should be going through the first set of locks around 4 pm CST today and then through Miraflores into the Pacific side early Saturday afternoon. Talk to you after we're through.  

Waiting...

The trip from Florida was great, with good winds most of the way. I arrived on April 4th at about 11pm. and was able to sail through the breakwater at the Atlantic entrance to the Canal. On the 6th, the people from the admeasurement office came to see that nothing had changed since the last transit on December 7th, 1998. Right now my transit date is April 19th, but that can change. In the meantime, I am staying with my good friend Steve Jackson. He is a Captain for Copa, the Panamaian national airline and lives in Panama City.
I purchased a sewing machine and am making up "fitted" sheets for all the cushions on Flyer.. very domestic.

p.s. A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA. Now spell it backwards.

On an ancient wall in China

Where a brooding Buddha blinks

Deeply graven is the message-

It is later than you think.

The Clock of time is wound but once and no

man has the power,

To tell just when the hand will stop

At late or early hour.

Now is all the time you own?

The Past a golden link,

Go cruising now my brother

It is later than you think.

 The Time is Now.....

Tony Blessing Flyer, Mike, and Colleen.  Sounding the horn for a Safe journey.......

Lifting the line.....  A sweet farewell to my friends at Indiantown.

Crew Hard at Work

 Two Pirates fixing a compass....  always navigating from a different North

Stoney's & Mike's Favorite Wench hard at work....

Making Friends with the Locals

Leaving Tomorrow



The desire to build a boat..begins as a little cloud on a serene horizon.  It ends by covering the whole sky so that you can think of nothing else    



The End is Near - The Beginning is so Close