Panamá Canal

Our day started at 0245. That is 2:45 in the morning!  We needed to meet our four line handlers at the gate at 0330.  They were right on time. Once they were  with our rented fenders and lines, we left the dock to wait by the #4 bouy to pick up our advisor.  It was pretty dark at 0345.  Good thing we had line handlers on board.  The jetty entrance had no lights.  I might have put us on the rocks without their guidance.

Our line handlers were Nick, Botte, Jose, and Kaleb.  We were expecting one canal advisor to join us at 0445 via a pilot boat.  Two advisors joined us.  The junior advisor was due for his check-ride from his boss.  Now we had eight souls on board – one more mouth for us to feed!

The challenges were lining up.  Dave injured his foot the day before.  We had a potential meltdown of our freezer.  We barely avoided rocks in the dark.  And we had an extra unexpected hungry Panamanian aboard.  Once we started motoring, we noticed that our boat speed was way lower than expected.  We wanted to complete this in one day, but we had to be fast.

The first leg got us from our marina to the lower Mireflores locks.  We were behind the container ship Mandalay, 620 feet long, 98 feet wide.  It was big too look at from our little boat, and very close!  We were tied to a tug boat in the lock.  The sun was finally starting to rise.  We could see out little boat on the Mireflores webcam.

After the gates behind us closed, we rose 9 meters to the second level.  When the forward gates opened, we all slowly moved into the upper Mireflores lock. We re-tied to the tug behind Mandalay for the second 9-meter raise.

We left Mireflores and motored to the Pedro Miguel lock 1.5 miles ahead.  We had the same lock configuration for this lock also.  Although more confident in our position, we still felt very small.

It turns out that our canal designation was “North 9”.  We were the ninth boat to go north this day.  North 10 and 11 were the last two northbound boats for the day.  We could only go through the locks with a ship.  They could not waste the water in the locks on just one little sailboat.  We had to get to Gatún fast.  The Mandaly was not going to wait around for us at Gatún.

North 10 was the Evergreen Mach.  It was 1200 feet long and 167 feet wide, and way too tall for us to measure.  We were not going to even be allowed to go into the locks with that beast.

North 11 was another container ship, the BBC Rheiderland, small enough (only 586 feet by 85 feet) for us to lock up with, but coming up behind us at ten knots to our seven.  The race was on.  If North 11 got to the locks before us.  We would have to camp out overnight on the lake with our line handlers.

Our food stores and holding tanks would be stressed!  There was really no time for sightseeing.  We were on a mission.  We could not even stop to retrieve either of the two hats that were lost overboard in Gatún Lake.

The behemoth Evergreen Mach passed us around three miles before the Gatún locks.  Rheiderland was right behind and still coming up quickly.  But then Rheiderland stopped to pick up a pilot.  We were saved!  We got into the first of the three locks around 1PM and waited patiently for our new lock mate to join us for the trip from the lake down to the Caribbean.

We scooted quickly through the locks and out into the last channel to the Sea.  Our pilots were transferred off to a pilot boat.  Our line handlers stayed with us to Shelter Bay marina where they unloaded the rented fenders and lines, then headed for home.

We met up our friends Don and Roz from our marina in San Francisco for some refreshing pool time and dinner.  And with that and a hot shower (our first marina hot shower in a year!), we collapsed into bed.

We made it!  Out of one slip before 4AM and into the next 13 hour later.  Tired but happy!