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Land Ho? Not yet. The wind has died completely! Last night we sighted a single red light in front of us out about 4 miles. It turned out to be a 40 foot sail boat with one red light showing on the top of his mast. He never showed up on our radar. 20 meter or less sail boats under sail do this to save electricity, use one tricolor running light on the top of their mast. With one light bulb it sends three colors of light; red for facing port side, green for starboard side and white for stern side. It was confusing because the boat seemed to be standing still with the wind was so light. Should we pass in front of his bow or behind his stern? The answer is behind his stern.

We try are approaching the south side of the Panama Canal. The water is only 180 feet deep so we try fishing again. We catch no fish. The morning is cool with a clear blue sky. When the big fire ball rises in the sky I am sure it will be hot. We enter the breakwater and wander towards Shelter Bay Marina, www.shelterbaymarina.com, to check in and get in line to transit the canal. We are told that a man will be here tomorrow to measure the Bella Donna. He will not believe anything we tell him and his measurement is final for figuring cost to us. It is noon and hot, hot hot.

It seems there is a riot going on in Colon today as some area of Panama is unhappy because they are not getting enough fresh water. The highway to the local town is closed to traffic, so we are here, but can't go anywhere. The second richest man in Canada is here on his boat and wanted to take guests to Colon to take tours. He is trapped on his boat as well. You know they use fresh water from Gatun Lake to fill the locks on the canal and whenever a ship is let down to sea level the fresh water escapes out to sea. I hope they do not have to suspend canal operations to free up some fresh water. I guess they could use salt water but the pumping up hill would be too costly and, more importantly, too slow.

Well we got docked and spent all afternoon trying to catch up on email and finding the best place to get the wifi signal on shore; it turns out to be on the boat, not on shore. So here I am having a 99% SODA and 1% scotch drink in the cool of the afternoon in the cockpit because I can't drink much alcohol after the dry passage. I guess I need to get this blog post out so someone can read it. More tomorrow.

God bless Bella Donna.