The 2nd day has a very long stretch to cover under engines. Currently we are on that stretch.
Today’s advisor, Carlos, wanted to take the helm so he is not bored. This he is on the helm right now and I can write.

Yesterday, Laurence, our advisor came at 1530 and we lifted the hook and went with 2 monohulls towards the Gatun lock. Time was dragging because one of the other boats was not able to move at a constant speed towards the lock.

This boat, the longest of the 3 boats became the center of a 3 boat nest (boats tied against each other). Just outside the lock, while the tug boats pushed the commercial vessel “CHEM STELLAR” into the lock, we tied up. MaRe was on PRT side.

The center boats helmsman did not look to the 2 other helmsmen at his side. Only thought about his own boat. Fortunately the advisors had good understanding. Only by this we could avoid hitting the wall. Fortunately my 2 engines deliver enough power for me to push the nest towards STB.

We made it safely through the 3 chambers – each a height of 9 m – of Gatun Lock.

When we left the last chamber of was dark. The advisor guided is to a buoy at which we could tie up for the night. And we had to tie up with the center boat of our nest. I felt that only sure to the advisors on both boats the other boat let us tie up.

The tieing up was the strangest thing I ever saw. But it worked.

Now as I’m writing this we are at Punta Frioles, which you might see in Google Maps (should Google still show something where they don’t make money with commercial which are often won’t). Give it a try or look at OpenStreet maps.