BURNS NIGHT AND CANAL TRANSIT

My Honey

The excitement was on again for the annual Burns Night, hosted by Jim and Heather “Charmer” at Binnie’s. This event has become so popular that the guest count from last year went from 36 to 52. Not just were there more guest but also volunteers to set up the party. I will not bore you again with what this Scottish tradition is but for those who haven’t seen my reports from the last two Burns Celebrations we participated you can check it out on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns

The ladies all brought some delicious appetizers, everybody was dressed to the hilt and kilt. Charlie made sure that we all had a professional photo session with him to remember this splendid evening. Jim did a wonderful job piping the Haggis which Heather proudly carried. After the Haggis poem and a blessing from Owen everybody enjoyed a wonderful Scottish dinner: Tomato soup, Shepherd Pie, Cabbage, Carrots and Nips.

The ceremony was again huge fun. Jim did such a wonderful job explaining Robert Burns and his poem or songs. Bill and Sarah were acting out a beautiful and romantic poem. Right after that Jim introduced one of Burns famous song Green Grow the Rashes O. This was my deal, for the first time I played my guitar in front of sooo many people. I guess it went fairly well even though my fingers screwed up a couple of time, but it seemed nobody had noticed but all loved the song. Tom and Pete did each again a poem. Pete did “The Mouse” last year and this year he did “The Louse”, again very funny. This Burns guy was quite something, having seen a louse climbing up this woman’s hat in church and writing a poem about it. Binnie’s Sid did the toast to the lassies while Pat did the reply that was hilarious; she did an incredible job.

Everybody had fun learning the Scottish line dances and I am sure some had sore feet for days to come.

Jim and Heather outdid themselves again, this was a huge success and we all can’t wait until next year’s Burns Celebration.

Pete and Renee 

Tom and Julie

Katrin

Here comes the Haggis

Not having fun at all

Reg and Deb

Anita and Ida

I woke up early on Sunday, got dressed and headed up to the where the party was to clean up. Nobody was there but someone had already done the clean up. Then I saw a familiar red dress heading my way. It was Renee in the same beautiful dress she wore for the party, hmmmm. “Renee did you go home last night” I asked her, she started grinning and said,” On our way to walk down to your house and out the gate, Pete fell twice, so I decided there was no way to get him into the dinghy and home and went back up and we both slept on the patio’s wood floor.” Although she woke up in the middle of the night (party ended at 2:30) and Pete was not laying next to her, she went looking for him. She said she tippy toed by our house and noticed our dinghy listing on its side; she walked towards it and heard the loud snoring of Pete’s. He was sleeping inside our garaged dinghy. Renee let him sleep and went back up to the patio, wrapped herself into a table cloth and slept the on the hard wood floor until the sun came up. This is when she realized that their dinghy was gone. Pete got up and left his wife behind, went to the boat and hit the bed. Renee cleaned up the patio while trying to get in touch with her hubby. Someone finally went and knocked on his boat to let him know that he forgot his wife. Too funny.

Was not going to bring this up but we have been asked to move out and limited time was given to us to get out of the house and off the mooring, so we are scrambling to get back on the boat by the end of the month, which is really impossible. Even if we worked 24/7 it’s impossible. Our friends Steve and Kim on North Star have invited us a while back to join them through the canal. The transit date was on Burns night, when they found out that we were committed to that they went out of their way and changed the canal transit to Feb first.

 We are short on time but we were not going to let our friends down and did the transit with them.

 This was again an incredible experience. 14 years ago when we came through you had to be on the other side by 2pm to be able to go down the last locks. If not there at 2 you had to spend the night. Now what they do is they get you up the locks into Lake Gatun where you spend the night. We were told to be in the Flats by one o’clock while all the other boats that were transiting with us were told at four thirty.

Kim making sure there is enough Beer and Sodas for everyone

A bit rough for Kim

Sid in his element

Captain Steve

Sid having fun with the balls, sorry bumpers 

The advisers didn’t show up until 5 and around 6 we headed for the locks.

We were side tide to a catamaran and as we headed into the locks it was now dark. It was an interesting experience. Since we were tied to the catamaran we needed only 2 of the 4 line handlers which gave me time to just take photos. Thanks to technology I added data to my android and I took film and photo which I sent via What’sApp, to our friends and family who were watching us going up the Gatun Lock. Sid was with Dillon on the bow. The bow people on our neighbor boat had no clue what they were doing; they did not pull the line in when the water filled up the chamber. The water looked like it was boiling under our boats and there was quite a bit of turbulence.

The line handlers on the back of the cat whenever they pulled the line in they took it off the winch which compromised the boats. We knew that we’d be anchoring as soon as we get out of the canal so Kim put her lasagna in the oven. I tell you the smell of the baking lasagna filled the chamber, the Panama Canal never smelled any better. Then I realized I was sitting next to the open hatch and I got the full whiff of the lasagna. We finally headed out of the Canal and towards the buoys where all four boats were rafted two and two and at 21:30 we finally satisfied our hungry tummies. The lasagna was wonderful. We hit the sack early as we were told that the advisor will arrive anytime between 6 and 8. We figured 8 and were dead on.

Sunrise in the Panama Canal

We pretty much left as soon as the adviser arrived. We had wonderful weather and the trip was uneventful as we crossed the canal at 7 knots.

Dillon chilling

Marker 78B

Famous part of the Gaillard Cut

the new Centennial Bridge

Approaching Pedro Miguel Lock

We were told that our lock down time was at 2 then it was at 1 which I was able to keep our friends and family informed. The down lock we were tied to another catamaran and then had to be side tide to a big power boat Discovery we know from Portobelo (you may remember the story when this big boat waked the whole anchorage, boats loosing parts over board, this was Discovery).

The adviser did not like this so the last lock down we were center tide with just the catamaran. This is when the excitement really started heading into the last lock the Miraflores Lock as we all knew that our families and friends were excitedly sitting in front of their computers watching us and sending What’sApp texts. It was huge fun.

North Star heading into Miraflores lake rafted next to Catamaran

 All I can say is that we had a wonderful time crossing the canal, Sid’s 6^th and my 5^th time. After the other two line handlers Dillon and Hans left we headed into the anchorage in Flamingo where I spoiled everybody with a Swiss Meal. We spent the night on North Star and took the bus home the following day.

Adviser stepped on my classes = the new Caribbean Pirate Sunglasses

And on our way into the Pacific

The bridge of the America, once the only bridge connection North and South America

Now we’re scrambling to get the boat back together to continue our life’s in and on Paradise. We can’t wait to be back onboard but we are afraid the due date will not happen. There is still lots to do, I have to finish the dodger windows plus some other sewing projects, Sid installed the new solar panels after we had the davits extended by 15 inches. Wind generator needs to be moved, so does the BBQ. Galley stove needs some work, sails need to be brought back on the boat and the water maker needs a service. Also we still need to haul out Paradise for a bottom paint and as you fix or change things you have to undo unrelated things so it’s just a can of worms, so much more work needs to be done plus moving everything back out on the boat. So if you don’t hear from us for a while it’s because we are very, very busy catching worms.