Aboard Independence of the Seas

The first few days of December we spent exploring the Perlas Islands, aiming to get back to Balboa for my flight to David to inspect the progress of the Panama house. It was very strange to find ourselves back in the land of tides and current, given in the Caribbean our tides maxxed out at about 18 inches, and at the Perlas it was as much as 12 feet. Have to break out the Chapman’s and relearn the rule of 12s, for sure. And it made for some interesting perceptions, anchoring with a view of one landscape and six hours later seeing rocks and islands that weren’t there when we dropped the hook.

That last few days onboard prior to joining Independence were a bit stressful, with the generator conking out AGAIN, and Ole having to special order another actuator and related parts to be flown in and cleared through Customs the very morning we were to leave for Ft. Lauderdale. I don’t know how many hours he and Dale worked on it, but it didn’t help that we might have had to leave the boat with the Bixlers with a non-functional and vital piece of machinery. Dale has nicknamed it the “Westerbeast.”

On December 11, we flew up to Ft. Lauderdale, staying overnight at the Marriott Biscayne Bay, right next door to where we used to live. We had a great sushi dinner and caught up with Svein and Lise before boarding Independence on December 12, and reconnecting with shipboard friends.

The Flats, Anchorage “F” in Puerto Cristobal, Colon

After a brief 4-hour nap, we awoke to the parade of ships coming and going through Gatun Locks, and definitely had a “look where we are!” moment. The Panama Canal Authority (PCA) Admeasurer came aboard about 2:00 pm to gather information for our eventual Canal transit some time in the third week of November. Our 49’8” vessel admeasured to 51 feet for Canal transit purposes (and an additional $250 transit fee). Ole spent the day puttering, finding that the generator starter battery was boiling over, the alternator wasn’t putting out what it should, and the tachometer for the port engine crapped out on us. I spent the day reading, fetching and helping as needed. Had a much-needed martini at the usual cocktail hour, threw together a teriyaki salmon dinner, and tried to watch a movie but the 5-6 hours of sleep we had in the last 36 hours took its toll – both of us conked out before 9:00.