Panama city
Tuesday May 16, 2017
17.00 After five days of feverish preparations, we untie Filizi from the Balboa yacht club buy (a very rolly spot indeed but the magnificent view of the  ships coming to and fro the Panama canal and the Bridge of the Americas was worth it). We head to the Las Brisas anchorage,  east of the Causeway. The minute we pass La Playita marina and enter the bay the sea becomes calm, like we are in another world.
Motoring slowly we are trying to locate where the boat of our Brazilian friend Marco, is anchored. We have an appointment with him tonight, we’ll make dinner with Greek salad and he’ll give us a brand new Hitachi Alternator for our Yanmar engine thet he doesn’t need!! What an amazing gift this is, only a seafarer can understand. I take the binoculars to search for Utopia, Marco’s boat.
Then Yorgos says with excitement:
-Karina look! There’s  Odadis, the yacht of Stefanos. Unbelievable!
We go closer and take pictures of the old steel boat. It was the pride and joy of a `Greek named Stefanos, an experienced sailor,  until bad luck , bad fate stiked. The boat run aground a reef and he had to sell the boat for the price of one US dollar. We had seen the pictures of the boat, when she was shinny, freshly painted and neatly maintained. Now, rusty and forgotten , she floate on the calm waters.
-“Look how neglected she looks, Karina.  Even so this is an amazing coinsidence to run on the boat we’ve been hearing about.
-‘There’s Utopia, Marco’s boat! I say.
We drop our anchor on 8 meters, knowing that we are on hight tide right now. After approximately six hours, the water will drop 4 meters and we’ll be at 4 meters depth. How strange, there is no tide at the  Atlantic coast of Panama where there are 4 and more meters tide at the Pacific coast of Panama. It is always the eastern coasts of the Oceans that take the tides, a phenomenon caused by  Earth’s rotation.
18.00 The sun is setting over the sky scrapers of Panama cit, under heavy clouds. The glass buildings shine like gold and the sight is magnicicent. Panama city, a city of great contrasts, where the neighbourhoods of the extremely poor are side by side with those of the extemely rich. I reluctantly leave the cockpit and the view of the breathtaking sunset to start cooking. Marco should arrive soon
Wednesday, May 17, 2017, Las Brisas anchorage
08.00 Yorgos checks the weather  grib files once more. We are leaving today, we set sail for Pedro Gonzales, a small island in the Las Perlas Archipelago. There we can check if our hull is clean, and clean Filizi’s waterline that is already dirty  Filizi is so heavy right now, that the waterline is almost submerged. We have arranged to make the passage to Galapagos with one more boat, a Danish 43 feet   racing cruiser made in 1992, called Freja. On board is a family we like a lot, a couple and their three kids. We hope they finish their preparations soon. We need to be in Galapagos  the latest Sunday May 28 as our friend Vasso comes to visit us.
-“We’ll have mild to moderate head winds throughout the passage. In Saturday and Sunday we may have heavy rain but I don’t worry about that. The possibility of thunderstorms is what worries me”, captain Yorgos says.
09.00 We weigh our anchor , salute Marco and Panama sity. The wind is  SSE  about 9 kts.  The day is  sunny with some clouds. We hoist the main and motor with  low revs. The distance to the island Pedro Gonzales, in Las Perlas is 40 NM (nautical miles).
10.00 We  could never imagine to see so much garbage floating.  Bags, plastic bottles of all kinds, flip flops, buckets you name it.  And not only that, but the worst are the floating tree trunks and logs! We have been hit by two of them, because even though we keep a sharp eye , it’s dificult to see them as they are half submerged. We are really worried about this
12.00 It’s so great to be out in the sea again and we are so excited! It’s raining now and as I’m standing at the bow looking out for those dangerous wood logs, wearing a new totally water proof jacket, I’m so happy that a new song comes in my head: Let’s sail west, lets’s sail to the west to the Pacific, see distant places, new horizons, make new friends..  with an epic music, matching my mood. I smile deeply happy and content. We are finally here, after so much work, so many preparations. We are sailing, again. Nobody can understand, what a difficult job is to keep a boat floating and prepare it for such a long voyage. Nobody, except one who has done it
16.00 We are approaching the island and a pod of dolphins  surrounds us. We both go to the bow and we suddenly see the huge sea turtle, a few meters ahead.
-“Yorgo! I say and point to the turtle. He hurries back, turns off the auto pilot and takes the helm and makes a sharp turn. The turtle startled, dives in the deep. After a moment calls me. He’s pointing ahead, and then I see the jumping sting rays. For the next thirty minutes we are surounded by small playful rays. We’ve never seen anything like it.
19.00 We have anchored in the small bay west from the small village. There’s a wonderful peacefulness here and we need it. I take cold a cola from the refrigerator, lay on the new soft cocpit cushion and open my book about the construction of the Panama Canal, The passage between the seas . This is a moment I dreamed of for a long time.
Thursday May 18, 2017
18.00 As Freja approaches Filizi, all three kids go on her bow and shout happily
-FILIZI!! FILIZI!!
They are excited, not only because they see us but also because we’ll have dinner together and Yorgos and I,  have cooked a delicious food for them: Greek pastitsio, a food they have eaten in Greece and they are all crazy about .
Anders and Merete drop the anchor and with the help of their kids they prepare the dinghy. The soon come rawing to Filizi.  The food smells great and we are all so hungry.  After dinner, the kids, like all kids, take the tablets and start playing, like most kids  their age would do . But tomorrow these kids will become seafarers, will start to cross the 890 nautical miles to  the Galpagos islands.
And we’ll do the same. Oh, captain my captain.