Category Archives: Location

Categories by location. A general catch all for anything involving a certain area.

Flying Back to Panama and the Ocean Posse Party

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On Saturday, January 25, we all woke up before 0600 PST, despite going to bed so late. Even though we were in San Diego for a week, our body clocks never fully adjusted to the time change, and we felt off-kilter all week. We mostly focused on taking care of “life chores,” the most exciting of which was getting Keith’s braces removed.

On Friday, January 31, we flew back to Panama via a red-eye through Miami. We had been warned that Panama will not allow people with a one-way plane ticket to fly into the country. Like many countries, they welcome tourists, but they want proof that the visitors don’t intend to overstay their welcome. We were told that we’d likely be forced to purchase a ticket back to the US prior to boarding the plane. 

Prior to leaving Panama, we’d gotten a letter from the marina stating that Kosmos was docked there. Eric attached it to our US Coast Guard vessel documentation showing that Eric and Christi owned Kosmos, along with a crew list with Keith on it. 

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Keith’s Perspective on Panama City/Shelter Bay Marina/Le point de vue de Keith sur Panama City/la marina de Shelter Bay

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This week has been fun. On Saturday we went sightseeing, then went to the grocery store.

Pedro Miguel lock

Cette semaine était amusante. Samedi on a été faire du tourisme, puis nous sommes allés au supermarché. 

construction of tunnel to left, container port in the middle — just south of the Bridge of the Americas.

On Sunday we crossed the Panama Canal (see my other post for details). On Monday we went on a hike in the jungle with our friends, then we all had breakfast at the marina restaurant. Then we all went to the pool. After that our friends left. After that the craziest thing happened. We went up to the lounge to see if there were any kids there, and some of them were setting up a D&D campaign. Dad volunteered to DM, so I played D&D with them. 

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The Howler Monkeys and Gatun Bridge

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On the morning of Wednesday, February 22, we went for another walk along the loop to the old officer’s housing. As we got closer to the abandoned barracks, we could hear the howler monkeys screaming, which sounded otherworldly. We found them near the entrance to the barracks. 

When we first walked up, the monkeys went silent and stopped moving. After a couple minutes of watching us watching them, a few of them resumed moving around through the trees. After a few more minutes, they started screaming again, and many more moved around. At the end of the video, Eric zoomed in on the monkeys, and you can see how small the monkeys are. It’s hard to believe such small creatures can make such loud, scary sounds. 

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Underwater Rescue

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Dawn on Tuesday, January 21

We began the day with a minor crisis. Christi’s normal routine is to make a cup of coffee, grab some rags, and go out on deck. She wipes down the exterior of the boat while watching the sunrise and drinking her coffee. She normally finishes her coffee while she’s outside.

Today, for some unknown reason, Christi didn’t drink her coffee. When she went to open the starboard pilot house door to go inside after the sunrise, she had her phone and the rags in one hand and the full cup of coffee in the other. She needed a hand to open the door, so she gingerly transferred the coffee to the hand with the phone and rags — and lost her grip on the phone. The phone dropped onto the walkway and slid into the water! 

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Exploring the Jungle/Ruins of Ft. Sherman

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Sunrise on Monday, January 20, taken from Mike and Kim’s hotel room:

Shelter Marina Bay is situated on the western side of the Panama Canal in what used to be an American military base called Fort Sherman. The City of Colon is on the eastern side of the canal. 

Fort Sherman was constructed in 1911 to be the primary defensive base for the Caribbean sector of the Canal. It was 23,100 acres (93 km2). Only about half of the land was developed; the other half remained jungle. Ft. Sherman was one of the primary military training centers for jungle combat training, particularly during the Vietnam era. It was abandoned in December 1999 along with all the other American military bases in Panama. The Panamanian government turned the undeveloped jungle into the San Lorenzo National Park and deemed the developed portions as protected lands. 

On Monday morning we were all up early to go for a walk in the jungle to see some of the ruins from the Ft. Sherman days, and hopefully, some jungle animals. As we were getting ready to go, our friend Teal stopped by to welcome us to the marina. It was wonderful to see him again!

Just outside the entrance to the marina, there was a fork with three roads. We took the road to the right, which we knew would lead us to what used to be the officer’s housing. 

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