Before leaving the Chagres, we took advantage of its quiet waters to transfer SuAn's name made of vinyl lettering onto the hull..a difficult job for Gabi and Heiner as some of the lettering were almost 10 years old!!! But the result was great! It was important to affix the boat's name on the hull so that the Canal Pilots would be able to spot it easily!

That evening, back in Colon, the preparation for the transit continued with Gabi and Lutz looking for a fourth line handler and working at updating their blog to inform their friends and relatives about the schedule of the canal transit. Heiner and Marleyne went shopping: we were going to have an extra crew member for the next 36 hours as well as 2 pilots ( a different one each day) who would take their meals with us!  Lutz has hired an agent - Eric - for managing the Canal transit; this agent was looking after getting us tires and lines as well as the coordination of pilots. That same evening, we were to go anchor at the flats where a pilot would board our boat to commence the first stretch of the Canal.