Our barque Picton Castle was sailed off the hook at Saint Martin and made her was SW towards Republic Del Panama. Something over a thousand miles ago. After a nine-day boisterous passage from that Dutch/French tradewind island of the eastern Caribbean in the tropical sun, with light winds and gale force days and big nasty squalls towards the end, Picton Castle is at anchor near Shelter Bay opposite Colon, in the north end of the zone for this famous bypass, the Panama Canal.
We are now rigging the ship for this canal transit. This means nothing must stick out. Fortunately, we were thinking about this many years ago when rigging the ship up. Outboard hanging boats need to be hoisted in on deck, boat davits then swung in, the big old stocked port anchor must get hauled out of the way, brace bumpkins in, yards braced sharp enough so as not as to hit lock walls, lower yards cockbilled inboard, nice awnings rigged for pilot on the bridge deck and for the helm back aft. A long day in a steaming jungle.
At some point there will be an 0330 wake up call for pilot and then head for the first lock to pick up line handlers to handle the wires that keep us in the centre of the locks. When, or what day will this be? Not sure. Hot and steamy here. But we are all looking forward to getting on the Pacific side. By the way, it is to our south, not the west.