Line handling in the Panama Canal
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Sun 28 Feb 2010 11:25
Exciting stuff (well, not too exciting fortunately).
Got a slightly panic-stricken call from Kilkea on Fri morning, their
transit time had been brought forward and the Canal Authorities wanted
them anchored in the Flats (an area for yachts to wait before going
through the Canal) by 3pm. They were just approaching the marina (it was
about 1pm) and wanted all the transit line-handlers to be ready in 20
minutes if possible, a mere two hours earlier than planned! I rounded up
Simon who was helping some Swedes with an engine problem, then found Mark
& Dana, an American couple who were hitching a lift to Panama City, to
catch a flight to LA to get married, their own boat had just been lifted
out.
Anyway, we all got on-board Kilkea (inc about 200lbs of American luggage,
nothing like traveling light!) and off we went. Had about an hour or so to
wait in the Flats, which allowed us time to rig the tire-fenders supplied
by the handling agent, put three foot bowlines in the 125ft 'canal lines'
and put additional fenders around the boat 'just in case'. The adviser
arrived more or less on schedule, then we set off for the canal lock. Just
before entering the lock, we rafted up with two other boats and had our
only mishap of the trip. The smaller boat on the starboard side wasn't,
shall we say, too good at this sort of thing and the upshot was Kilkea had
a cleat pulled out when a passing canal tug kicked up a ridiculous amount
of wake. Poor Marion (Admiral Kilkea) was very upset, but David took it
philosophically). So, into the lock, the dockside line-handlers threw the
thin 'messenger lines' to us with a weight at the end, called a monkey's
fist, we attached the 125ft lines and were walked into position. As the
water rose in the lock we had to take up the slack, which wasn't too bad.
We had three 'up steps' to take in the Gatun locks, then moored for the
night against a large mooring buoy (the technique being to actually step
onto the buoy, it was so large, and attach the mooring lines). The only
'lock incident' was when our adviser told Simon to let out a little line
to give a bit of slack and the adviser on the other boat shouted at him to
take slack in, then got upset when Si asked for one set of instructions
from one person only. There followed a discussion between the advisers
about seniority and I presume parentage, but as it was conducted in
Spanish we only knew it was a little heated at times! 'Our man' Oswaldo I
think won the argument because there were no further occurrences.
After a reasonable night's sleep, well OK, after about three hours sleep,
we were up and ready to go by 0600. We actually got under way by 0630,
this time with a very affable adviser called Carlton. Our transit through
the Pacific locks was scheduled for 1200 so we had 5.30 hours to cover 25
miles, quite a relaxed pace. All went well on this transit (apart from 30
minutes of torrential rain as we went through the last locks), Carlton
phoned the lock-keeper and arranged for the web-cam to be aimed at Kilkea
and after a quick phone call to Canada, Marion & David's family were able
to watch us 'live' going through the lock. Wonderful stuff, I'll put my
transit schedule on the blog 9which is subject to change, of course) so
any 'interested parties' can watch Troutbridge go through and hopefully
lift a photo off the web cam as well.
We arrived off the Balboa yacht club at 1430, Si & I helped Dana/Mark
ashore with their luggage, then got a taxi to the bus terminal, bus back
to Colon, taxi to Shelter Bay and were having a beer on-board Lady Meg by
1830. Lady Meg is an Aussie boat Pam and Jim (Delicado) know, so the
'Pacific Fleet' is well and truly assembled.