If I Could Only Read Their Minds

Last night when I went to bed, the Palembang was sitting at the west end of the first lock of the Panama Canal. It had been sitting there for a couple of hours. My assumption was that by morning it would be though the canal and motoring its way into the Pacific.

This morning when I checked VesselTracker before I left for the office, the Palembang was indeed through the canal, but had anchored in the Balboa anchorage just to the west of the canal.

Why did it stop and not just continue on? Karen and I have a lot of theories speculating on the reason why they stopped. Was it to manage timing to get to the next port at a particular time for a reservation they had? Was their paperwork they needed to clear up from their Panama Passage? It’s the end of the month, is there a crew change? And so it went until we decided that it was probably none of the above and we would never fathom the real reason why.

Then about 10:30am our time I get the following message from VesselTracker.com.

Name: PALEMBANG http://www.vesseltracker.com/en/Ships/Palembang-I336843.html

IMO: 9501887

Time: 31-01-2012 15:24:26 UTC

ETA: The vessel PALEMBANG has changed its ETA  at region Golfo de Panamá. Old: 02-02-2012 08:00:00 New: 02-02-2012 08:00:00 (Dest: Corinto)

DESTINATION: The vessel PALEMBANG has changed its destination  at region Golfo de Panamá : Old: Balboa, New: Corinto (ETA: Thu Feb 02 08:00:00 CET 2012)

MOVEMENT: Vessel moved.

PORT: The vessel PALEMBANG has left the berth. ( Port: Balboa   Berth: Balboa Anchorage )

The only surprise was the destination of Corinto, Nicaragua. That was not the next port we have on the list from YachtPath. Are they stopped here for fuel, another cargo stop? If only I could read their minds.