Maggie Crossing to Colon in Style
What fabulous weather- another “silver box” crossing! We fueled up, paid up, and left Bocas at 1100, planning to arrive in Colon by daylight. Given the following current of 2.5 knots, mirror calm swells with light and variable winds of less than 10 knots, even the cats had a good time – Maggie sacked out on the couch for the entire 15 hours, and Barclay found a spot on our bed. We made great time, arriving in radio range of the Cristobal Signal Station by about 0300. The Signal Station controls all vessels in the Canal Zone, and you can barely visit the head without radioing ahead for their permission. We made ourselves known as we glided past about 15 ships waiting their turn, and were directed right into the approach channel with a 90-minute window between ships. As we made the turn, the red and green lights lined up like airport runway lights – and we could see the Gatun Locks rising uphill. It was quite a stunning sight, in spite of our weariness and lack of sleep. We had the anchor dropped in about 35 feet, shot back our mandatory “anchor dram” of iced Stoli, and crashed.
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