Where to now?

Happy to have made the Panama Canal transit!

Just a typical yacht going by the anchorage.

Our anchorage at La Playita, Panama City, Panama

The final doors open at Mira Flores and ahead of us lies the Pacific Ocean!

The captain still worried. This is another of our line handlers from the sailboat Aurora B

Way up there is our canal line person who watches us.

Three other sailboats in the chamber ahead of us. The locks are enormous!

The sailboat raft with the doors of the lock closing behind us at Pedro Miguel lock

Still tense at the helm

Who has the right-of-way in the main channel???

Our companion ship in the Gaun locks.

The waters are swirling and the captain is a bit nervous!

This is Aspen rafted to another sailboat going into the locks. The two people in the foreground are the advisors, one for each boat.

Two of our crew for the transit from another sailboat, Chapter 2

Maria getting ready to leave the dock

This is a 102 foot catamaran owned by Richard Branson (Virgin Airlines). We decided it was too big for us

The tires are for additional cushioning of Aspen, just in case...

Getting ready to leave the slip for the transit. It is a tight fit!

S/V Aspen – February 16, 2010 – Log #29
Position: 8 degrees 54.4’ N 79 degrees 31.5’ W
(Balboa, Panama)

So here we are, anchored in the Pacific Ocean at an anchorage near Panama City, Panama. But where are we going next?

There are a string of islands that we can sail to and reach in a day. They are called the Las Perlas Islands (Peal Islands) that are owned by Panama. The TV show Survivor was even filmed on one of them. That sounds like a good destination!

Actually, the Las Perlas Islands are where we leave from to sail to the Galapagos Islands so we will head there after we stock Aspen up with canned food and lots of other good things to eat.

The Las Perlas Islands are mostly uninhabited so we will clean the boat in the crystal clear water and get some rest before the long passage to the Galapagos Islands. We hear they still have WIFI at one or two islands so we plan to use that before heading further out.

So for the next week we will be tweaking Aspen to get her ship-shape (don't you love that?!?) before bringing up the anchor again!

We have also posted photos from our Panama Canal transit aboard Aspen on the blog site if you would like to see them (see address below).

Sail on sail on Aspen...

Steve and Maria