After leaving the San Blas we were all sad, not only leaving the beautiful Islands and people but the memories of great friends who we won’t see again for at least a year.  It was a full days sail to Porto Linton where the wild monkeys live and allow you to photograph them as well as play.  We were greeted at the dock by the older mail taking our dinghy line and pulling the dinghy in to the dock—no lie!  —The female took my gift of cut up oranges and stole the Tupperware and all to gorge herself on fruit while the younger male grabbed my hand and attempted to climb into my arms. It was all so overwhelming for all of us that when the female all of a sudden lunged at me with teeth gnashing we were astonished.  Immediately we backed up with the younger male holding on to my hand not wanting to let go.  I managed to push him away and she seemed content until he tried to approach me again.  After taking some video and photos, we chose to “exit left” and leave her to her domain.  She obviously didn’t want me near her family and even though we brought the pepper spray for defense we didn’t want to put ourselves in a situation where we had to use it—especially when it was so obvious that she did not want long-term visitors!

January 27, 2002 - Colon Panama

We have been here in Colon at the Caribbean mouth of the Panama Canal for the past two days after a short stay in Porto Bello to pick up our new crewmember, Isabel who is from Belgium.  In Porto Bello, we enjoyed filming the forts the Spanish built in the 1750’s as well as talking to the crew who recently found one of the last ships scuppered by Christopher Columbus.  In addition, we spent some time meeting up with several of our friends who are killing time waiting for the proper time to cross the canal depending upon their destinations.  We needed to get to Colon in order to have our new Bimini finally made as ours is in tatters.  I also met up with a previous acquaintance from the San Blas who is from Vail.  She has decided to purchase some of my earrings to resell in Vail so we are very excited to have a “dealer” now in Vale.  Anyhow, back to Colon.  ---

It’s not too exciting here other than we have fresh veggies and fruit, not to mention ice cream, which the boys are very excited about!  Every one is converging here who we have been acquaintances for months but the tension in the air is thick!  It seems everyone has an engine or transmission to be rebuilt or has to order a part for something major, which is broken on their boat before transiting the canal and the three-week crossing of the Pacific.  We are knocking on wood, as all is well with everything on our boat except one of our engines needs to be serviced and we are hoping not anything more!  Isabel and I are spending the three weeks we will be here cleaning the boat literally from top to bottom.  Polishing everything spotless.  It is wonderful to have another woman on board!  She speaks fluent French as well as Spanish so we are all picking up words here and there until formal lessons start after our canal transit.  I think she will be a wonderful asset to the family, as she loves to explore and learn details from people about their culture.  We originally thought we would do the Pacific crossing with out crew but when we met Isabel Jim and I agreed that she would be a great asset to the family as well as a great help for the crossing as we will have to have some one up 24 hours a day for the whole three weeks.  She will also be a great asset with diving as she can run the dinghy and pick us up from drift dives so we can dive as a family unit.  —Off to cook dinner—I found some great eggplant today along with other fresh veggies---MMMMMM….