Where in the world's Wally????: Key West to Shelter Bay Marina, Panama

KEY WEST TO SHELTER BAY MARINA, PANAMA

We finally got out of Key West a few weeks back (today is Feb. 15th). Leading up to that we waited for some big winds to pass South of Cuba. We sailed into the setting sun. For the next 2 days there was almost no wind (but we did get a chance to see a few frolicking pilot whales!) so it took almost 3 days to make only some 150 miles and before we rounded Cuba to head S.E. For the next few days the winds continued light until we got south a few hundred miles past Cuba. Just after dark one night the main sail fell down from the mast into the sail bag. A 'D' ring had broken. We elected to motor overnight and in the a.m. I went up the mast to fix the problem. Unfortunately, during the night the wind had picked up so we had to turn downwind in 20 kts with 8 ft swells while I hung on for dear life to retrieve the halyard for the main. It wasn't pretty...I ended up with bruises all over the insides of my legs but don't want to imagine what would've happened if I had let go!!!! Some 4 or 5 days later we arrived in Colon on Panama's N. coast at the canal entrance.

There is a big breakwater across a harbor here with many big ships anchored outside and a few inside as well as a large port facility for big ships at Colon. Below you can see the breakwater and a tall post showing one side of the entrance through the break water into the main harbor. It was late afternoon when we arrived on a Thurs. We quickly went West inside to the marina where we intended to haul out in a few days.

The local authority quickly came and told us that we needed to purchase a Panama courtesy flag.....

This is a picture of the offices, hotel and restaurant at the marina............

The around the World Arc was travelling through the canal when we arrived. Some 40 boats are on an around the world rally. While most of them had already gone through there remained some stragglers shown here....

Then that fateful day arrived and 'Wally' aka Dancing Walrus' was lifted out for a bottom cleaning and some repairs.....

We last hauled out in Trinidad about a year ago, March. The bottom paint is meant to stop barnacle growth for a year or two but this brand was not as effective as we had hoped (although any areas where we missed paint last year were much worse than what is seen here). We are trying a different bottom paint this time.

The barnacles did pop off with some persuasion..............

The next few days were full of hard work and no pictures but eventually we got Wally back in the water and we took a 5 mile hike into a local park.

The jungle produces all sorts of funny growth along the road.

We saw 2 sloths hanging from the branches above. This is one of them.

Some leaf cutter ants were busy below.................

Finally we arrived at a Spanish built fort some 400 years ago. It overlooks a bay leading into the river Chagres some 100 feet down a cliff. The river leads inland about 2/3 of the way across Panama to Panama City. A dam was built as part of the canal construction around 100 years ago. This created a big inland lake. The Panama Canal locks are used to lift boats up into this lake, sail across to the other side and then through a 7 mile long trench in the rock to the locks on the Pacific side where the boats go back down. More to be said later. Anyway Captain Morgan the pirate came along about 300 years ago and captured the fort from the Spanish. He then took his boats and men inland as far as he could. He then found 500 mules and transported guns and canons and supplies another 7 miles to Panama City where he plundered all the gold for himself and men that the Spanish had plundered from local Indians. It is hard to tell who was the bad guy here???