Exploring Panama City

We spent yesterday in the city, beginning with a slightly hair-raising taxi ride through some distinctly-dodgy areas of the city. Panama City is a very polarised place - there are some huge, modern sky-scrapers at one side and some distinctly ghetto areas where the living conditions look distinctly tough. We eventually found an electric repair shop to have a look at our VHF radio which has become slightly selective as to when it will receive and transmit; we hope they'll be able to find the fault.

We then visited the huge Allbrook shopping mall, our last big retail outlet for some months (thankfully, says Graham) before returning to the anchorage to meet the crews of Stormvogel and Gallinago who arrived through the Canal during the afternoon.

We have a couple of days of final provisioning ahead of us here before we set off for the Las Perlas islands, a day's sail from here. There we'll wait and watch the wind forecasts with interest for a window to cross to the Galapagos islands; at the moment there's not a lot of breeze.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos from our Canal Transit - you can also read the great blog of one of our line-handlers, Bri, to hear her view of the journey.

 A well-fendered Maunie

 Rob and Bri at work in Gatun Locks

 Ongoing dredging work

 Paul and Canal Advisor Astro

 Salsa and Windhond behind us

 A morning visitor in La Playita anchorage

Maunie, alongside a catamaran, in Miraflores lock