Panama Canal

Well what an experience!!

We actually left Shelter Bay Marina a day early so arrived here in La Playita on the Pacific side of Panama yesterday and anchored outside the Marina which was full.

The transit started with us leaving the Marina just before 4pm and motoring out to an anchorage called the Flats which is just across the bay from Shelter Bay. We had to wait here until our Adviser for the canal transit boarded at around 5.30pm. We had a guy called Moses who was really good and helpful. Peter then motored towards Gatun Locks which is the start of the canal. This took around 30 minutes so just enough tim for me to cook some spaghetti to feed Moses to go with the mince I had already cooked. Apparently you always have to provide a hot meal and drinks for the Adviser!! Anyway he loved the spaghetti bolognaise and even Peter who is not a big pasta fan said it was good!

The boat arrived just outside Gatun Locks around 7ish and this is where we had to raft up alongside another yacht called Sapphire a larger monohull 67 feet in length who was the centre boat. Trompeta was on the port side and another HR 42 called Matilda was on the starboard side. The centre boat had a Pilot on board as they were over 65 feet in length. It appeared that the Advisers on the two outside boats were giving advice to the pilot on the centre boat as to how lines should be tied. When we entered the first lock chamber a line was thrown from the wall to our stern and bow, you have to watch out as there is a monkey fist on the end of each line!! Dave then attached our bow line ( an extra long one lent to us ) to the line thrown by the line handler and the line handler then pulled his throwing line back to fasten our line to a large concrete bollard at th top of the wall. The stern line was actually given to Sapphire as they were a longer and heavier boat they controlled the stern lines on both sides of the chamber. Both side boats had big tyres attached to the side with ropes tied to the stanchions in case of any impact but we did not come anywhere near the wall at any time. We were probably fortunate that the Skipper on Sapphire was a professional who used to work on a 100 feet yacht so was very competent, a New Zealander called Scott. So Sapphire motored
through to the lock chamber pulling both side boats through using his engine. We had to keep
running our engines as when Sapphire was far enough into the chamber both side boats had to engage reverse to help stop the nest! So then we sat and waited for the two rafts(nests) to
form behind us so we ended up with three rafts inside th lock. The gates closed and we were
then lifted upwards as the chamber filled with water, and the line handlers on the boats
adjusted our lines as needed taking up th slack. Once the lock was full of water the gates
opened again and we proceeded to the next lock chamber and the lines were released back to the
line handlers on the walls to throw to us again once inside the next lock. The whole process
was repeated again for the next lock. There are three locks in total so it was quite late by
the time we got through to Gatun lake on the other side. We then had to anchor the boat here
overnight and our Adviser was picked up by th launch boat at 10 pm.

So day 2 a new Adviser called Oscar joined us just after 7am for the second part of the
Transit. Peter then motored for 28 miles along the lake to the next set of locks. Along the
way there was a lot of dredging taking place so the water was a rather muddy colour instead of being clear/greeny as it was fresh water. The final set of locks are Pedro Miguel with one chamber and Miraflores with two chambers. This was going down so water was drained from the
lock chambers whilst we were inside but the process was the same as for going up Gatun Locks. There was only a mile between these two locks so Scott motored the nest forward to Miraflores
with us still attached. At Miraflores there is a web cam and everyone on the yachts waved at
the cameras just in case anyone back at home was watching!! There were hundreds of spectators
watching us go through standing in the control tower.

After Miraflores second lock (which is a mixture of sea water from the Pacific and fresh
water from the lake) we then entered into the Pacific Ocean!!

So.....we are now on the Pacific side of Panama. Unfortunately the La Playita Marina is full
so we are anchored outside which is OK except when big boats or large tenders drive fast past
us and we get lots of wash and a very rolly boat!!

So whilst here we have a trip to the Ember Indian village and a tour of Panama City. should be able to update you again before we leave to be in Las Perlas islands by 6th Feb.