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Showing posts from October, 2020

100 years of the Panama Canal Pilots Association, the passing on of a legacy

100 years of the PCPA (a family concept), and the passing on of a legacy. I never thought that by 2020 we would still have Captains Welch, Robbins, ( Robbins admitted the same too) or any other of the U.S. pilots with us. Neither did I think that Captain Jeremías De León, the first Panamanian Canal Pilot would be "sitting" next to them, patiently listening and ready to answer whatever we wanted to ask him.  I said "sitting" (in quotation marks) since the Pandemic prevents us from gathering at the Union hall, or anywhere else for that matter. It was a "Zoom" meeting, a virtual version of a real meeting. A collateral cause of the Pandemic. Thanks to technology I was able to enjoy the meeting from the comfort of the driver's seat of my vehicle, while parked in front of one of Felipe Motta's wine stores. The place could not have been more appropriate for the occasion given the current circumstances; this wasn't a regular meeting, it was the first e