Seven on the Seas:: 03/23

Ian Fleming penned his first James Bond novel, "Casino Royale," in 1953, but it wasn't until after President Kennedy mentioned that Fleming's "From Russia with Love" was one of his favorite books that a spy-craze was born. The surprising but resounding success of the first Bond film, "Dr. No" in 1962 launched the longest and most successful film franchise in history (at least until the Harry Potter films surpassed Bond in gross revenue). Over the years the 21 007 films have grossed around $11 billion.

For two weeks our boat "Boisterous" was part of an ad-hoc anchorage serving as background for some on-the-water chase scenes during the filming of the 22nd James Bond movie: "Quantum of Solace" due out in November 2008.

Here, Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko (former Ukrainian super-model) jet by "Boisterous." Craig is reportedly being paid 15 million pounds for doing three films, and has an option for two additional films.

Bond's boat has "Gardien des Etoiles" written on the side. It's painted to look like an old wooden run-about, but it's actually a 21' aluminum jet boat build by Doug Riddle of Idaho. It sports a Chevy short-block 350.

These bad boys, Harris and Frosty, chase 007 in an 18' Avon rigid inflatable.

Their guns look less menacing sitting on the dock at Shelter Bay Marina.

In the movie these guys are supposed to be Colombian drug dealers.

A view of a couple of military vessels that were used in one scene.

Here 007 is chased by drug lords who are followed by one of the camera boats. Daniel Craig's first Bond film was Casino Royale (2006) which cost around $150 million to make, but grossed almost $600 million.

One of the streets scenes. The seedy city of Colon is supposed to stand-in for Haiti.

The ketch behind the Bond boat is called the "Independence." For scale, the other sailboat to the right is actually 50'.

Another view of the 174' Independenceketch built by Perini Navi in 1998 and hailing from Georgetown Cayman Islands. Someone is standing on the upper deck just forward of the mizzen mast.

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.