We are now on a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club on the Pacific (south) side of the canal.  We will remain here for two nights in order to complete the last few jobs and collect the some fresh food from Panama City.  We depart on Friday for the 40 mile trip to the very beautiful Las Perlas islands where we will stay for a couple of days before finally setting off for the Galapagos Islands.

The journey through the Panama Canal was a truly great experience.  We had a very bouncy couple of hours at anchor amid some very big ships at the entrance waiting for our pilot.  He was great; extremely professional and safety conscious but very funny and encouraging at the same time.  Just before the first lock we rafted up to a another yacht of similar size; quite a lively twenty minutes passing lines across as the bouncing and rolling continued.  Duly rafted, very long lines ready for the lock team to take, life jackets on, harnesses on and fully briefed,  we proceeded towards the lock – and the heavens opened.  Torrential rain and strong wind but nothing for it other than to get very, very wet; we had work to do.

We were tucked in behind a big container ship which was moved through the locks by two trains pulling on cables fixed to the stern in addition to its’ own propeller.  Once the gates are closed the water pours in at tremendous speed creating a lot of turbulence which throws you around a bit.  The line handlers (Mike for us on the bow) shorten the ropes keeping pace as the water line rises to keep the two boats in position.  Then forward into the next two locks.  Rather than throw the lines across each time the guys on the sides walk alongside you to the next lock with thin ropes still attached.  They then pull your heavy ropes across and put them over the bollards while you shorten or lengthen them from the boat end.

After the third lock the yachts separated and then motored to a huge mooring buoy on Gatun lake where our pilot left us for the night.

Early start next day and a very beautiful journey through the lake to the descending locks.  This time in daylight and with just four yachts in the locks we could see more of what was going on around us and appreciate the incredible engineering that has worked continuously for nearly 100 years.   Frigate birds and pelicans were fishing around us as we left the last lock and untied from the other two yachts that we had gone through with.

First set of locks, around 9.30pm and soaking wet after the downpour.  A bit freaky being so close to such a big boat, especially once the propeller started to move.

Walking the lines......

Approaching our companion boats ready to raft up for the final locks.

Sea Topaz is closest to the lock wall.  This is one of a series of pictures on the canal webcam watched live by family and friends.  Our pilot having called the control room and asked for the camera to follow us through!