We spent a day last week transiting the Panama Canal again, this time from the Atlantic side to the Pacific. The other day in the chow line, we chatted with a lady who was incredulous that we would be going through the Canal for the second time within a few weeks. Jay tried to explain to her that the second transit would be completely different since we would now be going from north to south, instead of our previous transit south to north. She politely moved on, no doubt convinced that we were totally insane, as we progressed to the salad bar.

This post is dedicated to our friends Chip and Kit, who transited the Canal in 1975 in their 65’ sailboat. Chip had sent us excerpts from his log of that trip before we made transit #2 and we continually marveled at how the two of them, along with their young son, made that trip. They had to enter the locks in front of a huge freighter, sharing the lock space, and narrowly avoiding being squished as their engine failed toward the end of exiting the last lock. Watching the huge cargo ships going through the Canal and imagining our friends negotiating this in a sailboat over 40 years ago made this an experience we will never forget. We’re pretty sure it’s one they won’t either.