The Panama Canal

Panama City, on the Pacific Ocean side, has about a million inhabitants, yet for the past 7 years it has been listed as on of the top 5 international retirement areas. It was founded in 1519 then sacked by pirate Henry Morgan in 1671 but subsequently rebuilt. For years it has been an international banking center. One day we rented a car and visited Panama City, the Fort Lauderdale of Central America. At a mall, all five boys were able to go rock-climbing on an artificial wall.

This is at Flamenco Marina on an island next to Panama City. The boat next to us is called Utopia and is listed as one of the 100 largest American boats.

Wills and Henry had fun eyeing all the fishing lures at Abernathy's, a Panama City boat store.

Warren turned 10 on March first.

Who are these characters? While in Colon, William and I served as line handlers for a German boat, Otis. Here are Steve, Leo, and owner Andreas.

William actually did most of the steering during our 48 mile canal transit. The French started the construction in the 1880s and by the time it was finished in 1914 around 27,000 workers had died of yellow fever and malaria.

This is a car transport vessel. Only about 40 vessels transit per day, paying an average fee of about $55,000 and it takes around 9 hours. The most expensive transit was a Norwegian cruise ship which paid over $300,000. The least expensive transit fee was 36 cents paid by Richard Halliburton in 1928 when he swam through the canal. The average sailboat pays around $500.

Sailing vessel Jezebel prepares for a canal transit. There are three sets of locks which measure roughly 110' by 1000'. Aside from a lot of digging, the canal was also formed by damming the Chagras river and creating 17 artificial lakes.

A great book on the canal is "The Path Between the Seas" (1977) by David McCullough.

These boats have just locked down about 25 feet. Each time the locks are used for a transit, some 52 million gallons of fresh water are flushed out to sea. In Panama it rains around 9 months of the year. Fortunately, we're here in the dry season.

Warren picks up a hitch-hiker on his scooter.

There are lots of howler monkeys in the forest next to Shelter Bay Marina where we spent a couple of enjoyable weeks during the making of a James Bond film. We also saw many parrots and toucans.

We've seen a lot of mega-yachts coming in and out of Shelter Bay Marina. This one is called Time for Us.

Their dinghy is this 29' run-about.

Their other tender is an airplane.

At Church Easter Sunday in Colon.