Panama Canal Transit 14.07.2011
Up at 04.00 (yes really) in the dark, we went to our dock to
pick up our line handlers at 04.30. Of course they were late. Then to meet the
advisor 'near buoys 2 and 4'. We manage to arrive early and wait for our
advisor. For entertainment we listened to Flamenco Control trying to avoid
losing his temper with a submarine which is encroaching the channel. The
conversation went round in circles:
Tower, 'Sir, you are not authorised to enter the channel, you do
not have a pilot, please clear the channel immediately'.
Submarine, 'I have a pilot boat here.'
'Sir, you do not have a pilot, leave the channel imediately. I
have not allocated you a pilot, you do not have a pilot.'
etc, etc
Eventually the submarine left, so our hopes of a really cool
transit with a sub were sunk.
Our advisor turns up and we are off. We later found out that the
day we left several boats dragged their anchors and even moorings in 50 knot
winds. The whole day was quite windy, which sometimes worked quite well for us.
We were glad to be on an inland waterway.
We started the locks rafted to a canal launch, which was rafted
to a tug against the wall. At one point we tied up directly to the wall while we
waited for a ship to join us. In the last lock we were held centrally by our 4
ropes, so we have now experienced all 4 methods. The water in the first locks
gave the appearance of boiling as the water rushed in.
We hoped to be able to transit the canal in one day and we were
approaching the final lock, when the advisor mentioned that if we didn't get in
within 5 minutes we would be out of time. We coaxed a few more revs out of the
engine and the advisor called up the waiting panamax ship to ask if they would
wait for us. They agreed, so we slipped in front of 65,000 tons! As the ship
entered behind us the shore line handlers were making jokes in spanish. We asked
our guys what the joke was and it was about the ship, well, entering behind
us!
Caroline took the helm for most of the transit, so Murray did
the cooking (Warship 51's Chilli) and acted as 4th line handler, but
even so, the line handlers said 'Good-bye Caroline, good-bye el
Capitano'.
We had arranged for Salamander to be lifted out the next day, so
with just one night in the marina we expected a quiet evening. Within half an
hour of tying up we met Ed and Val and their daughter Sarah, who invited us for
dinner, so we took the rest of the chilli!
In the morning, we zipped round to the haul out, which had
brought the staff in specially, were lifted out and spent the day cleaning and
packing. The barman doubled as a taxi driver, so the lift to the airport was
sorted. Gary is picking up the engine parts and bringing them to Shelter Bay and
themarina is putting de-humidifiers in for us, so all we have to do is get to
the airport on time and catch the flight home - 'simples'.
