An Excerpt from "Sailing to Jessica"
Chapter 11: Transiting the Panama Canal Twice
Ropes, suspended over the water and tied between trees on adjacent islands, connected the islands together like a giant daisy chain. The Canal Captain explained that when the valley had been flooded (to form Gatun Lake which is sandwiched between the Panama Canal's locks), the hill tops had been transformed into the islands that we now saw. The monkeys, who had once been able to roam the valley, had been stranded on these little islands. The ropes allowed the monkeys to swing from island to island.
By noon, we were approaching Gaillard Cut at the far end of Gatun Lake. Paul and I were sitting on Scott Free’s deck, trying to spot alligators in the water, when we motored by an anchored Coogee. We were astonished to see the boat.
The crew was overjoyed to see us...