The Crossing of the Panama Canal - Tuesday 15th to Wednesday the 16th of April

We left Shelter Bay Marina On Tuesday at 17:00. As we drive out, waving good bye to our lovely new made friends from Shelter Bay, Bev (south africa), Vivien and Oliver (thailand and france) and Rei (another aussie who had already left the day before). (Had a great  girlie night with Bev and Vivien at the bar one night, just maybe a few too many wines...)

To go through the Canal you need four line handlers (more about their duties later). So there is Pete on our boat as the captain and Ben, Jack and I were line handlers. Lisa was too young, she was very relieved to have been taken this responsibility off her... (She was named media lady for the crossing then!) So we needed a fourth person. To go through the canal, you are best off to use an agent. Ours was Emmanuel Agencies (emamanuelagencies@emmanuelagenciessa.com if you ever should need one..), Roy Bravo, who did an excellent efficient job to get  us through the canal and organise everything. So he also organised our fourth line handler, Marcus, who was a lovely young man, staying with us on the boat until the next day until we were through. We were glad to have somebody on board who knew what to do with the lines...

From the marina we went to the'flats' (an anchoring area where all boats wait to go through the locks)  to anchor and wait for our adviser to board our boat. Every boat gets an adviser or pilot on board to help you get through the canal. So fantastic organised!  Well, we ended up with two! We had besides the normal adviser a learner. Ricardo and Ricardo. Both were so nice again!! (Thank god, I had put two chickens in the oven for dinner and lots of potatoes and salad, as it is custom to feed your helpers well!) Before we left for the locks, we had a briefing on what is going to happen and what we had to do as line handlers. There are three ways of going through the locks: You go alone through the center chamber, you will get attached to a tug boat or you nest with other yachts. We were told we will go through by ourselves in the center chamber. We were given four really long thick lines. When you get in the locks the canal workers throw you from the side the 'monkey lines' (thin lines) with ball ends (watch your head!) so you can tie the thick lines to these thinner lines. They then pull the thick lines up and when you are up in the locks, they put them around a bollard. As the water rises the line handlers then have to tighten the lines equally to hold the boat in the middle of the chamber. This is hard work, as there is lots of turbulence and you are stuck behind a massive big tanker or car ferry in our case. This goes three times until you are in Gatun Lake. We got to the lake at about 22:00 to 22:30. There again is an area, where everybody stays the night. A few big moorings, but not enough for all the sailing boats, so we had to raft up to another yacht. Ricardo and Ricardo left us, but Marcus stayed for the night. Exhausted we had a 'save arrival' drink of beer and fell to bed. I think we were more exhausted from all the anticipation then the actual physical work. But it went really well and it was really exciting!

 Waiting in the 'flats'

Approaching the locks

 In the Locks

Our Media Lady

 Marcus and me attaching the big lines to the monkey lines

In the locks

 Ricardo and Jack hard at work

 Close behind the big ship

 Ben on line duty

 Captain Pete and Media lady Lisa

 The chamber is full, soon the locks open and into the next chamber

Jack at work with the lines

 Old lady with a sore back from pulling on the lines....

Bright an early our adviser was back at about 7:00 in the morning. Ricardo the learner was back, but the other Ricardo was replaced by Verden, also so nice! We left our anchorage an drove through the lake to the Miraflora locks on the other side. It is a very scenic and interesting sail through the lake. Before the lake was flooded (it took three years until it was full of water), there were trees and villages everywhere. In some places you see the dead tree stumps coming out of the water. So you need to stay in the canal. On the way we had a lovely big breakfast of bacon and eggs and Ricardo even brought a jar of vegimite (he was married for two years to an Australian girl). We had a great day. At lunch time we came near the locks and were told, this time we were nesting with two other yachts. This means, us as a catamaran goes in the middle and a mono hull gets tight to us on either side. This also means, easy job for us line handlers, as only the outer side boats had to do this, but hard work for Pete to steer the three boats together through the locks and trying to keep them in the middle! Because when there are three boats together, there is not so much room on either side of the boats to the chamber walls. But of course he did a fantastic job!!! And on the way down into the pacific you go in front of the big ships through the locks. They get so close.....

 The next morning

 Tree stumps in the water

 Big breakfast with Marcus and Verben

 Ricardo

Ricardo having breakfast - with vegimite!

 Skipper Ben

 Traffic in the canal

 Rafting up with the yachts on either side

 Approaching the Miraflora locks

 Catching the monkey lines

 Skippy was allowed out too for the crossing

Germans nested with us on this side

 Water going down in the chamber

Ben and I preparing lunch

 Water all down now in the locks

In the chamber

 Opening of the first locks at Miraflora

 One hundred years of the Panama Canal

 We were a tourist attraction! Pete and Ben were trying to get a mexican wave going, didn't catch on.

Lunch

The local  pelicans

 The locks turn into pedestrian bridges when they are closed

 Water all up in the locks

 Last lock to the Pacific is opening!

The crew! Well done!

Pacific, here we come!

And then.... We are back in our ocean!!! Back in the Pacific! So strange! What an experience and what an amazing piece of human engineering this canal is! We made out way to the closest mooring place, Balboa Yacht Club and had a nice celebratory dinner at the club! lisa is the best!

Photos coming....