06 October 2012; At Sea.

 Although it is the rainy season, we had thus far only sunny days since we passed Cabo San Lucas. This morning we found out why. Mother Nature had decided to make it one delivery and drop all that missed rain on us in one hour. We sailed into one wide curtain of rain and for one hour we had torrential rains. Visibility was less than a mile and a deluge of rain swirled around the ship. I had to close all the exits to the outside decks as it was simply dangerous to be out in the open.

By noon time the clouds started to clear and we were only seeing lighting and thunder in the distance. By late afternoon the sun came out and the weather forecast for tomorrow promises dry and overcast weather with a local shower around 04.00. If we could have that, then we would have a perfect day in the canal. After making up the books for Corinto we found that our fund still had $ 400,– in there, courtesy of last minute donations. That is a nice start again for next year May. Apart from the regular school supplies, we are looking at getting two new steel poles for the volley ball net, a new volleyball net, and repaint the faded lines of the volleyball court in the courtyard. What we can do for painting is wait and see, as I am hoping that with the paint we left behind, the parents of the children will tackle the rest of the school, or at least most of it. 5 class rooms still have to be done, plus the office of the head school teacher. Once again I would like to thank you all for your kind donations. I know that there are still more donations coming in and they will be kept until our next call in May. On the schedule of the ship there are several calls planned, spring & autumn 2013, but also January 2014, so plenty of opportunity to continue our work, even if it would mean that we would miss a call due to the swell that can run there. This time we had no problems at all, but last time we just made it. Another foot of swell and it might have been cancellation time for that first call. 

Late evening we started to get the first opposing traffic coming from the Panama Canal. Up the coast past Nicaragua you do not see that many ships, but under the west side from Panama (near the border with Costa Rica) is an area where all ships have to sail East or West, when turning into the Golfo de Panama or coming out. So we are on the same or opposing course. We normally solve the problem of close encounters by going a little bit further to the south and make a “wide turn” into the bay. It only costs one or two miles of extra distance, but it saves a lot of headaches in trying to figure out if the other ship will conform to the rules of the road.

We are aiming for 05.30 sea-buoy outside Panama, where we will pick up the pilot and the whole Panama Canal circus will commence. According to the Panama Canal authority we should be out of the canal by 17.00 hrs but that is always subject to extremely much change. So we will see; I will know when I will get on the bridge by 04.30 tomorrow morning if the weather is in synch with the forecast.