Shelter Bay Marina in Colon

The trip to Colon was a broad reach and then down wind. We left San Blas after dark so we would have a daylight arrival in Colon. The ships and freighters were so thick you could almost walk from ship to ship. Most were anchored as we approached the canal zone, all waiting for there turn to transit, but we passed many in the night. The passage was also made harder because we needed to stay close to shore in a 1 knot current to avoid the 2 to 3 knot current further off shore. We spent most of our time here at Shelter Bay Marina trying to arrange to get the steering problem fixed. Many phone calls to Benetau and a trip to Panama City to arrange a haul out. I think our temporary fix is good and we are set to transit the canal starting on Saturday. The first set of locks to the lake will be done at night. We will then anchor over night and transit the down locks to the Pacific on Sunday. A big thanks to Mike for making a trip here to deliver the rudder parts.

We did have time to take a tour of the locks. The sight of the huge ships, just clearing the sides of the canal was awe inspiring. The mechanical mules pulling the ships along at a snails pace was riveting. On Sunday as we transit the Miraflores lock around noon, you can watch on the live video feed. http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Miraflores.