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| Not a Howler monkey, but a Capucin I believe |
We had Brio hauled out so we could clean and antifoul her bottom and do some other ‘out-of-the-water’ jobs including the biggest head job I’ve done in my life. For those not familiar with nautical terms, the head is the toilet, so I will spare you the details of what the job actually involved.
To transit the Panama Canal several things are required: first you need to hand over your wallet! We used an agent, Erick, to make our transit arrangements which felt worth it to us so we didn’t have to run around to the various offices getting bits of paper copied, stamped and signed. They just love paperwork in Panama! Every boat needs to have a Skipper and four line handlers. John, our Canadian friend, and I (Louise) were two and we had a German couple with us as our other two line handlers. Dani and Jens had left their yacht in Cartegena, Columbia while waiting for a new tiller pilot to arrive and were seeking a transit to get some practice before they transit themselves. They were really great and it was a pleasure to have them aboard.I (Louise) did a transit as a line handler with another boat a few days before we did our own transit. This is recommended and I found it really beneficial to do. I went aboard Cornelia that is skippered by a lovely young Dutchman Marc, and his girlfriend Vanessa. Marc casually mentioned that when he was 28 he decided he wanted to do something ‘a bit special’ so he circumnavigated the globe solo, non-stop in Cornelia. It took him 7 ½ months. That’s what I call a bit special!
Every Canal transit is different it seems. Whether you raft up with other yachts in a lock, hug a sidewall or get put next to a huge sports fishing boat depends as much on the speed of your boat, as it does the weather and the frame of mind of your Advisor! Our transit began with us motoring from Shelter Bay Marina across the channel to an area called The Flats to wait for our Advisor to board. Every boat transiting the Canal must have an Advisor on board. Advisors know the Canal and lock procedures intimately. They issue instructions to the skipper and line handlers to ensure we manoeuvre correctly and quickly. Our Advisor (another Ivan!) boarded at 4.15pm and we upped anchor and motored off towards the Gatun locks – a series of 3 locks through which we would rise up 26 metres - about 2 miles away. Two other yachts followed us and we had a huge refrigerated cargo ship in front and other huge ships coming up behind. There is a constant stream of traffic in the Canal.
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| Waiting to go into the Gatun Locks |
We had quite a long wait before we could enter the locks which meant we had to keep motoring around in circles to make sure that we didn’t get ahead of the carrier in front of us. There is quite a current there and we had a breeze blowing from behind. It was a bonus to spot a crocodile on the shore. Finally we were instructed to raft up with the other two yachts – Brio on the port side, an enormous French catamaran in the middle and a large monohull on the starboard side. For protection (from each other and the lock walls) we all had a dozen or more car tyres hanging against our hulls as well as our own fenders. It all happens very quickly in the lock with men high up on the wall throwing lines down to our boat which we, the line handlers have to attach to our lines so they can be hoisted back up and placed on bollards. Then the gates closed behind us and the water started swelling in. Ivan was constantly instructed to motor forward and reverse in order to keep our raft of yachts straight while we line handlers had to bring in the lines as they slackened. All went well for the 3 locks.
We then motored as fast as our little Brio could across the 38 km (20 nm) of the man made Gatun Lake. By this time it was well and truly dark so mostly what we saw was a very pretty row of red and green lights marking the channel, and the occasional eerie looming black mass of a ship passing us. Yacht transits in the Canal have recently changed, so rather than spending the night moored in the Lake and then descending the locks into the Pacific the next day, pleasure craft are now required to complete the transit all in one go. It certainly takes the tourism element out of the transit as we don’t get to see the famed forests, sloths, birds and crocodiles of the Lake. On the plus side though, it’s not hot - a very good thing for Brio as our shade arrangements are not the best.
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| Well wouldn't we all love that! |
The Lake narrows into the Culebra (or Gaillard) Cut; arguably the most well known part of the Canal due to its black history of deaths through landslides and other accidents, malaria and yellow fever while its 14km (7 nm) length was being cut. Transiting here we passed a number of dredges in operation and caught glimpses of work proceeding on the excavation of the new Canal. At this point we knew we were going to be able to complete our transit (and not have to stay the night in the Lake and be fined a huge amount for doing so) because there was a bulk carrier somewhere behind us that we could go through the descending locks with. Being a relatively small vessel with a small engine, the other yachts had left us for dead in the Lake and we therefore needed to make sure there was at least one other vessel that we could go through the locks with as the canal authority will not open the locks for pleasure craft only.
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| entering the Miraflores Locks |
We entered the Pedro Miguel Lock ahead of the dry bulk carrier Sujitra Naree. As we were the only other vessel in this and the next 2 locks apart from the Sujitra Maree, we did what they call a ‘centre chamber’ which as you might imagine is where we are attached by all four of our lines to the lock sides so that we descended each lock in the centre of the lock chamber. We descended the 9 metres of the Pedro Miguel Lock and motored the mile or so to the Miraflores Locks. All went relatively smoothly apart from the last lock, known for its strong currents as the fresh water of the canal mixes with the salt water of the Pacific. John and I were at the bow dealing with our lines so we missed seeing the events that led up to Brio skewing to one side and thumping her starboard stern against the lock wall. According to skipper Ivan what happened was that the man on the stern port side of the wall was too slow to throw us his rope to attach to our line and then when he drew our line back to himself he attached it to the wrong bollard. Because the line was too slack there the currents pushed Brio to the side and her stern connected with the wall. The only damage done was some paint removal and once again we knew there was a good reason Ivan had insisted he wanted a steel boat.
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| Where will John fit on Sapphire all the new gear he bought? |
On exiting the last lock we did the fastest speed we had done all night due to the strong current – 8kts – for a couple of hundred metres anyway! It was then another hour or so of motoring, passing under the beautifully named Bridge of the Americas (which looks like a mini Sydney Harbour Bridge), before Ivan our advisor was spirited away by a speedy pilot boat and we finally dropped anchor at La Playita anchorage. It was 4.15am, exactly 12 hours since our transit began (or 15 if you want to count from when we left Shelter Bay Marina). We had a quick toast to the transit/canal/Pacific/good teamwork and great line handlers and then got some much needed shut eye.
John has now gone back to Sapphire in the San Blas Islands and Daniel, Ivan's son, has joined us for the trip to the Galapagos Islands.
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