Another day, another ocean - Seaduced transits the Panama Canal
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Sat 25 Jan 2014 14:21
The 'nest' meeting
After that, the final two members of the crew arrived, David and Suzanne, and all we had to do was wait until we were told to leave. Despite the usual confusion between rally control and the marina, we slipped the lines and left the dock at 2pm to head to anchor at The Flats. We would wait here for an hour or two until the pilot arrived.
Team Discovery heads to The Flats
The issue of the advisor was also one which created much confusion. These are basically canal employees who have a day job and who do yacht advising as overtime. We were told that feeding them a hot meal was a crucial part of the transit. They would also only drink sealed bottled water, and as I said previously, the heads and galley had to be inspected for cleanliness before they would board the boat. Needless to say, we passed that test!
Franklin arrived about 4pm. When we told him we had arranged the nesting etc, he just gave us some advice on final preparations and fender placements, and then we sat and waited again for the call from Transit Control to tell the nests to form up. It was anchors up at 5pm and we were off. The first 'nest' came together perfectly and once all secured we made our way to the lock.
The pilot boat pulls up...
Franklin comes aboard
At this stage the advisor on the middle boat controls the whole raft, and the other two the line handling, with the use of whistles and signals. Oddly, this advisor used the middle boat to steer the raft which we weren't expecting. We entered the first lock and the weighted lines were thrown. The first line (bow line), missed the boat, the second (stern line), bounced off the spinnaker pole and landed on deck, on the third attempt the stern line went over us and landed in Brizos cockpit!
Once secured, we waited for the water to rise. As we were small yachts, the water was let in from the bottom to reduce the force against the boats.
Safely in the lock
The chart picture of the lock
The nest behind us
20 minutes later the chamber was full, the gate opened and we headed to the next lock. This time all went well until the end. When it was time to release the lines, the line handler from the port bow side had disappeared, so by the time the stern chap had realised what was happening, the whole raft had swung wildy and we were heading for the wall fast! Fortunately, we all managed to grab fenders and keep us off the wall, we had about 2 inches between the dinghy engine and probable disaster!
Following that, the stress levels on board Seaduced were at an all time high as we entered the last lock, but we proceeded without incident and then anchored in Gatun Lake for the night. Franklin left us and told us that our transit the next day had been delayed, so he would be back at 8.30am. After well earned beer and an emergency dinner of store cupboard spaghetti, as the chilli I had made the day before had gone rancid - good job Franklin was happy with a sandwich - we headed to bed.
John had decided to get up early and see the sun rise over the lake, which was a good idea as The pilots arrived at 6.30am. After a rush round getting the crew up, we upped anchor and set off across Gatun Lake towards the Pacific locks.
The journey across the lake is about 25 miles and on the way Franklin pointed out various places of interest such as the prison currently housing General Noriega, and the mountains making up the Continental Divide between North and South America. We also passed through the areas where they are widening the lake to make the journey through straighter and quicker rather than the winding route it currently takes.
Work being done to widen the canal
General Noriegas current abode
The Continental Divide to the right, and Centennial Bridge ahead
Then it was time to nest again for Pedro Miguel lock. This all passed without incident - we are old hands now! The lake between Pedro Miguel and Miraflores lock is small so the nest stayed together. It was hugely exciting when we arrived at Miraflores on account of the webcam and brilliant to speak to people at home and know they could all see us standing on deck waving like idiots. The folk at the visitor centre must have thought we were bonkers!
The nest behind us again
After that we had one more lock, the one where the current flows fastest at 4-6 knots, care was needed here to make sure the lines went through quickly, and then we had our first glance of the Pacific Ocean.
The first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean
BriZo passes under the Bridge of the Americas
Franklin disembarks - all over, time to relax!
Hopefully we will have some good photos of Seaduced going through the locks from the nest in front and these will follow. Also, there was a professional photo journalist placed on the nest in front so video links and photos from him will be available which I will post when I can.
Sent from my iPad