Miraflores 15:45 Panama local time, 21st of June 2009. This is how it was at Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal. I am back on the Pacific! Miraflores Locks Movie

I also saw some glow-worms, they look beautiful at night. It turned out that my climbing equipment somehow ‘disappeared’ from Tanasza (when we stayed on St. Lucia) – I wanted to climb the mast and check the standing rigging, and I got really furious. Actually, I’m still angry. Today, I’m going to pass the canal – 6 locks, between which there is a sweet lake with crocodiles.

Saturday, 20th of June If you’d like to see me crossing Panama Channel I invite you to take a look at the fallowing webcam links to Gatun and Miraflores Locks. These are high resolution cameras so it may take a while to upload picture, so be patient. At Gatun Lock I shall be around 18:00 on Saturday local Panama time. Then I will spend a night anchoring on Gatun Lake, with crocodiles and monkeys keeping me company. And the fallowing day after 5:00 in the morning I shall be approaching Miraflores Locks    http://www.pancanal.com/common/multimedia/webcams/viewer-flash/cam-gatun-hi.html http://www.pancanal.com/common/multimedia/webcams/viewer-flash/cam-gatun.html  

Imagine that some 20 miles from the port, I came across a yacht and it turned out that the owner’s wife was a doctor, a laryngologist . I’m really lucky. She had an instrument to examine my ear and she prescribed me proper ear drops. It’s better now. Shelter Bay Marina is wonderfully quiet but there are huge storms everyday, sometimes with rain. The owner of the marine Mr. Carlos Vanlencia received Tanasza as a form of support and cooperation, so we’re a guest at his marina (www.shelterbaymarina.com). Thank you very much!  I met Jas, who is the youngest person that reached Mount Blanc. When he was 2 years old, his father took him there but the authorities got to know about it and they took him down in a helicopter. When he was 4, he got to the top... congrats.

done :) I’m here

the next day: thanks to the painkillers, I could have a nap at night. I woke up when they started wearing off just to take another dose. I think the best remedy for me and my ear now would be fresh Polish strawberries. and in the meantime my little Tanasza reaches even 2 knots :) congrats. it’s night, I can see the glow of the Colon city lights and so many boats that I think I’ve had enough for the whole next cruise around the world  :)

well, I didn’t expect that, I haven’t read about it anywhere and nobody has told me that I’d be going against the current at the speed of more than 3 knots and that it would be pushing me to the coast... that the engine would overheat and that the wind would blow right in my face. Slightly disadvantageous, isn’t it? I think I even got worried, really worried. I’m trying to reach the open sea but it’s really hard, sometimes the speed falls down to 0.5 knot... if it weren’t enough, there’s something going on with my ear, it’s been aching for a long time, but today it’s even difficult to drink water because my whole jaw has been almost paralysed. I’ve got nothing else to do but to forget about the ache (or take the painkiller for the invincible;), pray that the engine makes it and try to escape from it all safe and sound. After the night: what a night it was! There was so much lightening that it felt as if all gods were having a huge fight just above me, and...

geeeez, there were real thunders and lots of lightening  and it rained heavily! At least the barometer is higher again so my knees, both after surgery, stopped aching. They’re my extra barometers. As soon as it started pouring with rain, the aching stopped. Logs of wood appear on water, I’ve even seen a map swimming and twice some dolphins...  Just now, when I got used to water and I start to like it again, I’ll have to enter the port. And I’ll have to get dressed and I won’t be allowed to sing out of tune at the top of my voice dancing on the deck... and I’ll have to stop talking to myself... tough luck....  

The barometer is falling down drastically... I got this philosophical mood, I’m thinking about many things... I guess when a man is on a solitary cruise, he/she has too much time for their own thoughts. Staring at the waves, looking at the stars and admiring the sunsets encourage contemplation...

08 - 06 - 2009 It looks like I’m entering one of the most “boated” harbours in the world... At night!!! As far as my fresh stock is concerned, I have one grapefruit left. I’m looking at it, and looking... and just when I have enough of looking at it...  When I lie down to sleep, I try to cover myself up with a bed sheet to make at least a substitute of normality... on the other hand, what does normality mean? I’m going so near Columbia – 40miles, and I’ve never been there... what a pity my cruise is supposed to be so short and I won’t manage to reach so many great places... I regret that this cruise has to finish one day...

 Do you know what I found out? The old, beautiful sailing ship, next to which Robert and myself had our photo taken, is the famous “Black Pearl” from The Pirates of the Caribbean. Huh, now you know. If you want to see the photo, it is available in gallery at my website! Before I sailed out, I managed to get a nasty sunburn on my back while I was loading the pontoon onto my yacht... Now, I am suffering from shivers and I think I have a fever...I’m leaving without my favourite tool – a super tool. I hope someone needed it more. Usually it was Elvis, to whom I was moored, who took care of mine and Tanasza’s safety (he was especially helpful when Robert was staying with me: he would bring yachts close to each other so that Robert could cross over safely, he would close our “windows” when rain came and we were absent...), but he sometimes left the boat too, of course. I think I must...

On Sunday, May the 31st, Natasza sailed out of St. Lucia. She started her 13th (penultimate) stage of the journey, which is to conclude in Panama in about 14 days. Can you remember the plate I got from Agata Sadza of Translateria Translation Agency? For months, it has been attached to “Tanasza”, decorating its interior. Every day, when I read words engraved onto it, I feel the wisdom of life flowing into me: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Mark Twain (www.translateria.pl)    

Had it not been for the few things I had to do, I’d probably have set off on Thursday night... but it’s good to think some things over before going to the ocean. On Friday, Tanasza doesn’t set sail so I’m going to Panama on Saturday morning.  Curiously enough, there is always something to do on the yacht. You can work, work and work all the time and perhaps even a year wouldn’t be enough to do everything. I found a solution to that – you have to be able to choose the most important things that need to be done, although it’s not that easy. P.S. when I was writing postcards, a dog shambled over to me. I wanted it to help me lick the stamps, but it ate them :(  

Yesterday, I had dinner with Elvis, J.J.’s brother. We went to a genuinely local bar in the open air. It was homely and cheap. As the chicken was my first meal that day – I was so busy since the morning that I didn’t have a chance to grab anything to eat - I devoured it before I sat down at the table. Then, I quickly fell asleep on Tanasza, and Clyde, our rain forest guide, woke me up in the morning. He came to say goodbye and he brought me a beautiful pineapple, which smelled really appetising, for the journey. We borrowed a car from a native lady and we carried the chain from the yacht to the car (I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone). We packed the canisters and went by car to take the parcel with my new camera – it’ll probably take me a year to learn how to use it :) It’s really nice and, what’s more, red! We stopped on our way at a bakery and we bought a loaf of bread with manioc - Manihot esculenta Crantz: