Transitting the Canal - A Trial Run

Ripple2
Mon 17 Apr 2006 01:12
Well we are still in Colon waiting to transit the Canal - our engine is in a million pieces and is getting a complete overhaul as we discovered that the piston rings have to be replaced. That's what we get for buying a 30 year old vessel with a 20 year old engine. Still - at least it is able to be rejuvenated as it is an ever faithful Perkins, at least we have that going for us...
 
Here is the story of our first transit of the Canal - we linehandled for our Norwegian friends Benjamin and Henretta on their 40 ft boat "Uterus" - so called because they say it is small, damp and cramped and will give birth to their dream (a circumnavigation)!
 
 
Benjamin and Henretta                                             Our first lock
 
 
The whole transit took 2 days, we started out at about 6.30pm and were in the first lock, rafted to 2 other boats by 8.30ish. We were on the ouside so there was some linehandling fore and aft to be done. Monkey Fists (knotted rope the size of a cricket ball and about as heavy) tied to thin line are thrown on board from about fifty feet up, these are attached to our thick 150 foot lines on board and used to scure the boat to the walls of the lock. Then as the waters rise ( the first 3 locks are 'uphill') we pull on the lines to keep them taut. This is the strenuous part of the job, and if you make a mistake or don't pull up fast enough all the boats skew around - not good. Anyway we managed to get through without any hitches but it took 2 hours to get through the first 3 locks. Then we were in Gatun Lake and tied up to a big buoy for the night.
 
The Lake is bordered by basically jungle and first thing the next morning we are woken by the Howler Monkeys which sound like a cross between Chewbacca and pteredactyls (think Jurassic Park meets Star Wars) quite an alarm clock. Anyway the Pilot hops on not long after - you have to have an official Pilot and 4 linehandlers plus the captain. It then took 4 hours to motor through the lake which is quite scenic, we saw several Howler Monkeys up in the high branches. It's a bit like koala spotting. We also passed several SuperTankers coming the other way - the biggest we saw was 976 feet here's a picture.
 
 
 
The biggest tanker that day                                                     Girls up front getting ready for the locks
 
The last 3 locks are 'down hill' - so we entered them, tied up to the sides then gradually let the lines out as the water levels went down, not quite as heavy work as the previous night but you still had to have your wits about you. Here are some pics inside the locks to give you an idea.
 
 
 
 
 
So there you have it  - after the final lock at the Pacific side it is about an hour to Balboa where we tied up to a buoy and left the boat to catch a Taxi back to Colon - a mere 2 hour drive away.
 
We will try to take some pictures of our own transit in a couple of weeks time but there is so much going on that it is hard to 'focus' on picture-taking.
 
Hope you all had a Happy Easter - and we'll hopefully be posting more blogs soon, the next one might be an engine rebuild one for all the mechanically minded web fans out there...