Transiting the Panama Canal
Bamboozle
Jamie and Lucy Telfer
Mon 3 Apr 2006 18:20
if we would be ready to transit the following day, five days before our
original date. We grabbed the chance giving only 24 hours to prepare
ourselves. Each yacht is required to have 4 linehandlers on board in
addition to the skipper and 4 heavy duty lines all of which have to be
over 125 feet. In addition to our number one line handler (Lucy) the other
guys who had planned to join us were still in the San Blas islands along
the coast but fortunately Mark and David from the yacht Blitz offered to
come with us at short notice. In addition we took a huge Panamanian called
Bolivar who lives locally and regularly makes the trip with visiting
yachts. We borrowed lines and tied 12 tires along our sides to protect
Savoir Vivre from the rigours of the canal and other boats and we felt
ready to go.
The drama started about half an hour before our pilot was due to arrive.
In order to be ready to make a quick getaway I had taken the snubber off
the anchor chain and taken up some of the slack on the chain. Whilst I
went ashore to fetch Bolivar and the guys from Blitz the wind started to
get up and Lucy found herself dragging gently backwards through the
anchorage... A this stage it was not a problem so Lucy started the engine
and motored gently forwards to take the pressure off the chain and to wait
for my return with the rest of the crew. The real problem started a few
minutes later when for some inexplicable reason the prop shaft dropped out
of the back of the transmission. She now started going backwards again,
but now with no control at all over the situation. Normaly at this stage
you would either let out more chain or drop a second anchor to stop the
boat but there was by now another yacht right behind her and almost
nothing Lucy could do to stop her in time. Miraculously the two boats
missed each other but passed close enough for Lucy to pass a line across
to the anchored yacht which at least slowed things down for long enough to
give her a chance to solve the anchor situation. The engine problem, while
clearly serious, was quickly fixable (especially as our line handler David
was an extremely handy mechanic!) and at 16.30 when our pilot was due on
board I was busy topping up the transmission fluid and we had the kettle
on for his arrival. In a way we had been very lucky. If the problem had
occurred with the pilot onboard he would have cancelled our transit
straight away. Worse still if it had happened in the locks or the canal we
could have done some serious damage to ourselves or our beloved Savoir
Vivre and it might have cost us a fortune. If you breakdown you
immediately forfeit a $450 deposit and if you are in the way (which you
probably will be) they will send in a tug (the sort that normally tows
ships!) and tow you out. Apparently the best bit is when they present you
with the bill for hiring the tug, the crew and the diesel for a 3000hp
engine.
After all that excitement the actual transit went very smoothly. The canal
built almost a century ago and is still the most incredible feat of
engineering. It was dark by the time we approached the three huge Gatun
locks 1000 feet long and 110 feet wide. We were rafted up with a similar
sized French boat and went into the lock immediately behind an 800 foot
container ship that towered over our bow. The water then floods in to the
lock and you are lifted up a level before the gates open and you move
straight into the next chamber. After the third lock you have reached the
level of Lake Gatun, a huge man made freshwater lake that floods all the
valleys of this narrow part of Panama.
We spent the night moored on the lake and then having been woken by the
surreal cries of the howler monkeys in the surrounding jungle we set off
at about 7am across the lake towards the next set of locks 29 miles away.
The lake is unexpectedly beautiful and more like a cruise through a
wildlife park than the industrial canal than the industrial canal I had
pictured. One minute all you can see is jungle covered hills and alligator
invested lake and then suddenly a huge oil tanker pulls into view.
By not long after midday we were waiting in the baking sun to start our
decent at the Pedro Miguel locks. Again there was no problems on the way
down. Our linehandlers were all competent and concentrated, all our cleats
and fairleads proved up to the job, the pilot even looked a little bored
and we found ourselves wondering had we really spent so long worrying over
all the details of a transit. Still, you can probably imagine our
excitement as the final gates started to open and we moved out into the
salt waters of the Pacific.
Having gone under the Bridge of the Americas we stopped briefly on the
fuel dock at Balboa Yacht Club to drop off our linehandlers, and to top up
with freshwater and diesel. The next fuel station may be quite some way
ahead and this leg takes us across the potentially windless equatorial
zone. Suddenly it was just the two of us again and we made our way on to
an anchorage at Flamenco Island where we collapsed, knackered but very
very happy.
We will now spend a day or two looking around Panama City and buying a
mountain of fresh provisions and by Wednesday or Thursday we hope to be
heading across the Bay of Panama towards the Islands of Las Perlas, our
last stop before turning towards the Galapagos.