Panama Days

It is great to be back in the Pacific now and getting ready for the final leg of the trip.

We have been doing some last minute repairs and talking about routes northwards. I have also been interviewing quite a bit which has kept me very busy.

The trip through the canal went very well. I ended up rafting up with some friends of mine on a catamaran called Pura Vida - it means something like pure life.

Anyway, we motored toward the first locks (the Gatun Locks) just as the sun was setting and by the time we reached the first set of locks it was dark. The canal operates 24/7 so we got raised through the first set of locks which consisted of three chambers each raising the boat about 20 feet.

The way we went through was with Intrepid tied alongside Pura Vida and Pura Vida rafted to a tug. The tug eventually lashed alongside the wall of the canal and as the water rose the tug would pull their lines in keeping the themselves tight to the wall. After the water rose we untied from the tug. As the tug revved their huge engines, their prop wash spun us toward the wall and with some creative steering and a slight bump of the wall while still rafted up to Pura Vida we motored in to the next lock.

The next two lock passages went smoothly and when we were finally raised to the level of the lake we untied from Pura Vida and motored over to a mooring. We hooked up to the same mooring as Pura Vida and went over to their boat for dinner and a great evening. At about 2:00am everyone just kinda found a flat surface and crashed. I was up at 5:00am the next morning. I was woken up by the howler monkeys just in time to see the boat with the adviser coming out.

Well I've gotta run but I'll try to finish up with day two tomorrow.

Cheers,

Zac



















Link to Ventura County Star Article:

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/may/19/thousand-oaks-teen-enters-final-leg-of-around/