Talaria line handles for s/v Blue

Maureen is an excellent helmsman(woman)

Dick gets water for the advisor

consultation between the captains and our advisor

Dredging equipment under the Bridge of the Americas

Canadian flag waving goodbye to the bridge

Rick and Pierre waiting for the 'buddy ship' to get into place in front of us.

This is the big rubber mooring buoy that you tie off to either before the locks when you wait for the vessels to get into position or in Lake Gatun for the night. Usually you tie off with a line from the bow and the stern of the boat so that the buoy is positioned in the middle of your boat and then 2 boats can tie to one buoy. In Lake Gatun we were the only boat so we tied off the bow so that we could get the breezes into the hatches for a cooler night of sleep. They are soft rubber that doesn' mar the boat and you can walk on them.

construction site for the new Pacific canal, huge operation to open in 2014

construction of the new canal

waiting for our position in the lock at Miraflores

moving up to the locks, we tied off to the 2 power boats for the up lockage