The clock is Thicking! Excuse me, ticking! Forgive Mel.  She has just learned the word, “transisthmian”, and she is giddy with how hard this new marvelous word is to pronounce! Try pronouncing it when you are 75% of the way to heat stroke!  If you Google this word, you learn that it refers to “anything extending, traveling, or situated across an isthmus, most commonly referencing routes, canals, or pipelines connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Isthmus of Panama.” 

Jerry can’t wait to be “transisthmian”!

The Burnetts are making progress to this goal.  Jerry’s crew, which now includes helpful Jeremy, have met with their smiley Panama canal agent Roy who, via carefully placed iPhones on the cockpit table, has demonstrated the various configurations Jerry may assume during his canal transit on March 22. It turns out that the most likely arrangement involves rafting Jerry up to other boats, be they sailboats or tugboat.  The precise schedule, which is revealed quite dramatically the day before transit, is either a passage through Panama all in one long day that begins with awakening at 3 AM, or a two-day experience with a night spent on a mooring in a lake inhabited with crocodiles.  Of course, Mel prefers the croc lake to a 3 AM start.  As quartermaster and cook, Mel was informed of the importance of providing three HOT meals to her 2 line handlers and 1 advisor guests during the transit. HOT? Seriously? Mel is writing this with no less than three layers of sweat on her face, prompting her Neutrogena SPF 70 to trickle into her burning eyes.  She is therefore open to hot lunch suggestions from her good readers, as typically all she wants for lunch these days is a cold ham and cheese sandwich. And gelato.

This whole rafting-up scenario is an awfully social configuration for Jerry.  They say that when it becomes clear that boats are headed to the same destination, it becomes a race. Of course, rafting up to other boats breaks this rule. But there is a race in there somewhere.  A hospitality race! A food race! A luxury accommodation race!

Jerry WILL win.

In the meantime, Jerry’s crew took a break from exciting projects, such as re-caulking the bathroom countertops and shower doors to stop water from festering underneath the sink, to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Fort San Lorenzo.  Oh, forgive me, the Castillo de San Lorenzo el Real de Chagres, its official name, as we were instructed multiple times.  Not only did Mel get marvelous photos out of this visit, skillfully obtained as you will see below, but she also learned new, fantastic words from the placards, such as “transisthmian”, and “hornworks”. 

Why do we travel? To learn about weird things like “hornworks”! Gotta love Italian design!