Transiting the Panama Canal on 2nd Tri

Thursday, March 7, 2002

009-20.940 N
079-54.000 W

One of the highlights of this trip was helping Jack & Joyce move their trimaran through the Panama Canal. My first memory of meeting Jack and Joyce was in Margarita where Jack, like I, was trying to find parts to repair his boat. Ever since then Stormy Petrel and BlueJacket have been more or less on the same track, which has been great as Jack would give daily reports via the SSB of what they liked or didn't like. It was kind of like having an advance scout! In any event, they needed to get to Colon before us so that Joyce could fly home & do taxes before heading to the South Pacific.

Transiting the canal is not like most canals where you can just pull up and go through. There's way too much traffic and it can be a rather dangerous journey. At least a week beforehand you need to get your boat measured so that they can schedule a date & arrange for an advisor to accompany you. They also check to make sure that you have the appropriate equipment and lines. Jack had this done 2 weeks in advance and made several transits to learn what it's all about. You're required to have 4 line handlers as well as a captain, so between Stormy Petrel & BlueJacket, we were all set...that is until Bonnie canceled out at the last minute feigning not feeling well. Jack had to scramble to find someone else and found Frank who would be transiting 2 days later.

Normally you begin your transit EARLY in the morning...about 4:30. It's a long trip and they want you to make it in 1 day. Things started going down hill when we were told that the advisor would show up at 7:30, and then didn't show up until 9:30. Our advisor, "Crash" Cooper, decided as we were heading to the locks, that he didn't like the dock lines. He wanted the old fashioned 3/4" braided Nylon lines that he was accustomed to, not the much stronger double braided lines that Jack had. This was despite the fact that they had already been approved by the person who measured the boat & inspected the lines. Luckily another boat in the anchorage who was going to transit 2 days later came to our rescue & brought a set of lines to us via dinghy.

Now we're finally on our way again...at 10 AM. As we approached the locks I began realize how big the locks were and how small we were. We were center-locked, which means that our 4 dock lines attach to the bollards and are used to center the boat. Sometimes they raft up to 3 boats, which makes life interesting, or you can tie up to a tug and then release. Tying to a tug is the simplest and safest followed by center-lock.

There are 6 locks in total. You go up 85' in the first 3 locks to the level of the Gatun Lake, cross 31 miles across the Gatun Lake, and then drop down 85' to the level of the Pacific ocean via another 3 locks. The locks are 1000' long and 110' wide. We were behind a ship that was about 100' wide and 800' long. That's a BIG ship. The ships are centered via 4 locomotives with cables.

We got ourselves into the lock and were nicely centered. They closed the HUGE lock doors and began filling the lock. Let me tell you, filling those locks generates a lot of very strong currents. We were twisted all over the place. As the lock fills you need to keep tightening the lines as you're going to rise about 29' in a few minutes. Keeping those lines tight when you're fighting strong currents can be tough.

When the lock is filled they open the connecting door and you're in a double lock that's almost 1/2 of a mile long. That's an impressive sight! The ship in front of us moved forward under its own power, creating quite a prop wash. We moved into position, and just before the stern lines were secured, the ship, for some reason, applied a lot of power and created a HUGE prop wash. We twisted to starboard badly and I watched my port bow line tighten and stretch tremendously. I was very afraid that it would break, so I started backing away. The screw heads on the line chock started flying off, and chock suddenly bent in half. Luckily the ship had reduced power and the pressure backed off. That was a very close call, because if my line had broken or the cleat had pulled out, we would have been smashed into the side of the lock. Phew!

After that Crash Cooper requested that the ship be moved via the locomotives, which is something that he should have requested from the start. Hum, now just how did he get his nickname? Anyhow, we made it through the remaining up-locks without incident and then began steaming through the Gatun Lake. There's a shortcut that you can take which takes off about 1/2 of a hour of time. Ships can't go that way, but it's fine for smaller vessels. However, Crash nixed that plan, so we followed the main channel. Note that the sailboat in the lock next to us went that way...

At about 2:30 as we approached first down-lock, Crash informed us that we were too late to continue through the locks today and that we'd have to anchor and spend the night. Needless to say this didn't go over well. Crash said that he would be back at 9:30 the next day. So we just relaxed and Joyce cooked a great meal before we all retired early.

As the new day dawned and we were getting ready to set our watches by Crash's arrival, we started a pool to guess what time he would really arrive. Well, 9:30 turned into 10:00 which turn into 11:00 and when we saw a set of boats that had departed that morning pass us, tempers really flared. Slightly after 11:00 Crash pulled up in the pilot boat waving his hands and asking why the anchor wasn't up! That generated a few choice words, and Crash threatened to get off the boat & leave us there for another day. Tempers cooled and we kept moving. I kept my distance and kept my mouth closed, but let me tell you, Crash is an arrogant SOB who doesn't know his stuff and certainly doesn't understand how to deal with people.

The down-locking went very smoothly as draining is very smooth. The boats that passed us while we were anchored were rafted together, which made moving and centering the boats an interesting operation. At about 2:30 we departed 2nd Tri and headed to the busses which would take us back Colon. Jack and Joyce are planning on departing for the South Pacific sometime soon. We wish them a lot of luck & who knows, maybe sometime our paths will cross again.

If you're interested in more information on the Panama Canal, visit the www.pancanal.com web site.

Log ID: 191