Panama 3.0 “Journey to Panama”

Panama phase 2.0 “operation provision ship” is complete. Tomorrow morning we head down river to a “hull cleaning” station with hopes of hitting blue water by the afternoon. Thus launching Panama phase 3.0 “Journey to Panama”.

I’ve rejoined the crew in Jacksonville, am onboard the Pacific Provider tonight and will start blogging daily so stay tuned as this will be an adventure! I flew in yesterday from Vancouver via Dallas…

It looked like we missed the airport but fortunately the captain woke up and swerved back to land. I was travelling with the Pacific Provider’s newest resident Lindsay Davis (beloved NIL housekeeper, bartender, gift shop and hostess with the mostess). She’s heading down to Panama for an indefinite amount of time to use her Spanish and help instill WCFC service standards in our new operation. Her first thrill was this Texas fashion statement…

…a cowboy hat with Wrangler jeans tucked into cowboy boots. Other than a smile she kept her opinions to herself because she was warned…

We know Lindsay will be missed up north but if you’re a loyal NIL fan and want to see her call the office and book a trip to PANAMA today! Speaking of our northern staff the princess of Langara has been down helping add that WCFC touch to the Pacific Provider…

Stephanie Beachy from the Clubhouse took time from her busy schedule to make sure this operation is “Stephanie approved”. After a week of purchasing and fine tuning she had to fly back to Vancouver today to oversee the pre-season Clubhouse preparations. Hopefully we’ll convince Terry to let her fly down and help out for the ship’s welcoming party in Panama city on May 4th. Either way you’ll be able to talk to her about the ship this summer and in the fall she’s invited to come down and land a billfish or two for her contributions.

Today we also said goodbye to Tom (who helped ready the ship for departure) who is posing with (from left to right): Engineer Neil, Tom and first mate Chris…

Here are a few of the WCFCers down on the dock…

From left to right; Ken (me), Chris, Pierre Morel (Outpost Head Guide), Bud Stafford (Clubhouse Guide), Brian Legge (WCFC President), Screamer (Mike Tonnesen, Clubhouse Head Guide) and Neil. Not pictured here are Tobey & Michael, Frank (the new engineer) and Captain Larry…stay tuned for some of their photos and profiles.

Here are some of the photo highlights from the last 48 hours of loading and preping the ship for departure…

The ship has a built in crane that makes the back-breaking work a little less strenuous. In this shot Screamer waits to unhook another load as Chris works the controls. The first of our 4 strike yachts was loaded the same way onto the deck…

Brian Legge chats on the upper deck…

The Pacific Provider is AMAZING, its comfortable, attractive and well designed. After 2 months of preparation the boat is loaded and ready for the 1900 mile, 10 day voyage from Florida to Panama. We’ll have satellite internet and phones so I’ll post daily. After 3 years of dreaming and planning we’ll be underway at 6am tomorrow morning.

Ken Beatty

WCFC Panama