" A LADY TRIP " Sailing around the World and avoiding the recession,, ( presently in Shelter bay, Panama )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Tue 26 Jan 2010 16:09
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SUNDAY 24th January 2010 (
Shelter Bay marina)
On Board for the panama transit :- Stephen
and Aileen Hyde, Donal Mc Clement, Kevin Dwyer, Grattan and Richard
Roberts,
07.00hrs All up and about, and as there was
no wind, Donal and Grattan opened or oufurreled the mainsail,
The end of the Mainsail where it is attached to the furling gear had been
causing concern for a while. ( too many shackles in there)
After
mighty work,and Grattan the one sitting on the boom to carry out the work, it
all seemed to fit much more snugly.
09.00hrs The Skipper went to the Marina office and
joined the Que to sort out the docking fees and arrangments.Boy o boy, was this
slow.
However the marina was excellent, fingers were a little short, ( longest being
53feet) but it was modern and made of concrete
and very solid, with all the facilities, even 120v or 220v
11.00hrs, We moved the boat to the A marina, which
suited us fine. Lots of other World A.R.C. boats here also. and the berth we
were on belonged
to a fishing launch , which was returning to port later in the day.
13.00 A light lunch.
14.30hrs We all travelled by taxi to the
Panama Canal itself , to see first hand what the whole scene was
like.
You know, everyone has an openion on what its going to be like,,, and it was
certainly different to our openions
OPINIONS by Dick Gibson ( Opinions are like ARSEHOLES , everyone has
one)
24,000 ships travel through the canal every year,
at a cost of $100,000 + in charges per ship
Each Lock has a rise and fall of 8m ( 1000ft
long by 100ft wide ) and can be emptied (lowered) in 8 minutes ( 3.5
million gallons) Wow !
We watched some massive Cruise Liners and Container
ships go through while we were there, with only 2feet to spare on either side.
Wow !
The Locks were in the middle of the country side ,
so you can just imagine comming around a bend in the road ,and to see a massive
ship in the middle
of a field in front of you, Spectacular
!
19.00hrs We had Dinner ashore.
21.00 we watched some of Donalds " R.A.F. " video's
on the ships telly, ( reminding ourselves of Biggles, when we were kids
)
Bunkszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Kevin slept on deck
P.S. We love to get emails on the boat, But No
Photo's or attachments, so dont be shy ..
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