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Location: Panama Canal - Colon, Republic of Panama Throughout night the traffic increased. At any one moment of time there might be 3 to 5 returns on the radar's 24-mile range large enough to indicate freighter. But only occasionally would we actually see one. They have to be within 6 miles to make out the lights, but at 4 miles away their size is unimaginable. And at two miles it seems as if they could jump out and grab you. The first thing you see on the horizon is a twinkling of lights. They are so faint that you think it was just a trick of the night so you look away. Then from the corner of your eye, the lights appear again. But they are gone before you can look back. You have done this enough night on the open sea to know that there is something there. Lights just don't appear from nowhere and stars are never visible on edge of the horizon. Still you doubt what you saw because only one of ten times do you actually get to see the ship that the lights belong to. Only if you traveling on a closing course will the lights turn into a ship. Still it haunts you. If you ignore the lights, you could be in real danger. Sailing at 9 knots against a freighter that is powering at 25 knots makes for a closure rate of almost 35 knots. At 35 knots that 6-mile range will close in a little under 6 minutes. While it almost seem laughable to think that you could not get out of the way of something that takes 6 minutes to reach you. And it is laughable. But that is where the problem starts. Because of the relatively slow moving rate of boats, people relax, lower their guard, read a book, study the chart, everything but watch the endless horizon for a flicker of light that might be a freighter, which might be on a closing course. We play of odds and sometimes we lose. But mostly the odds are in the favor two ships almost meeting the night. Or as they say in the air traffic control business a "close miss" We arrived in the Republic of Panama at 8:22 local time after a downwind run of 1010 nautical miles. We weaved and dodged our way to Colon. At one point the radar was so filled with strong returns that it was looking if we were about to meet the Pacific Fleet coming out of the locks. As we got closer it became obvious that none of the 25 freighters was moving. They were at anchorage waiting their turn to run the Panama Canal. Finally we drop the spinnaker and started the motors and entered the breakwater that protects the entrance to the Panama Canal and the port of Colon. The Panama Yacht Club was full, so we anchor in the "flats", among the 25 other boats waiting passage through the canal. A few minor boat jobs are done before Dean takes the tender to the yacht club to start our arrival procedures. After deciding that it's noon somewhere in the world Chris and K2 start to finish off what left of the Sapphire Gin and I have Captain Morgan and Rum cocktail to celebrate our safe arrival. Dean returns an hour later with the news that the government has gone home for the weekend so our check-in will not be complete till Monday. Interesting Statistics from the Passage
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