After a morning finishing tidying up the boat we went ashore with Bill, Edward, Bruce, Chris, Russ, Brenda and Ray to get the bus back to Colon to line handle for the others. After a stop for lunch we arrived at the yacht club about 3pm. Jonny headed off to Balu and i went to Redwood Coast.
Redwood Coast - Redwood Coast is a 44ft trimaran with Don and Anne. Don linehandled for us on Newt. After some tea we waited for our pilot who arrived over an hour after we had been told to expect him. As we were heading down the channel to the first set of locks we could see a military ship ahead of us with no nav lights on as we got closer we were approached by a launch who told us to turn round and not get any closer until the USA military ship was in the lock. Finally we got rafted to Zephyr and Honeymoon was rafted to a tug. The up locks went well and we had dropped anchor (we couldnt tie to the buoy with the others because we were too wide) by 11pm.
Balu - A 40ft Steel Van De Stadt designed Irish boat. We have been with them since the San Blas, and I was line handling with Bill and Edward off Vagabond Heart. We had an earlier start from Colon than Kate and we rafted with Lucy Blue (Catamaran) and Red Herring so it was good to know everyone in the raft. We had a great transit pretty much what I'd come to expect after doing it twice already! We were on the bouy in the lake by 8:30pm in time for a few beers in the best Irish tradition!
Sun 22nd
Redwood Coast - Our pilot boarded at the same time as the others and we set off across the lake. The pilots daughter was involved in a dug out canoe race across the lake in a couple of weeks and was on the lake practising today so he was keen for us to try and catch them up. When we finally caught them they were doing 6 knots across the lake - 4 girls in a dug out canoe. All 6 boats were in the locks together going down - we were rafted to Zephyr, Balu and Lucey Blue were rafted and Honeymoon and Red Herring were rafted to a passenger ferry. All went well in the down locks and we were all anchored by 3pm.
Balu - Our pilot boarded on time and we had a good motor sail across the lake. It was good to be back in the Pacific (the water is cooler but the seas calmer) and see Newtsville sat happily on her anchor despite 25knot winds.
Two very tired people arrived back at Newtsville - Jonny suffering with the snuffles and Kate with a sore throat - caused by thr air con on the bus. We had an early tea and watched a dvd before an early night.
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