Tagish's Panama Canal Transit

     Our canal transit date was coming up soon, but first we were to go thru the canal with the Mojombo's.  Way back in Trinidad we had agreed to help each other through the canal so that we could avoid hiring line handlers. But in Cartagena the Mojombo's met an Alaskan couple who were really keen on going through the canal, so in the end it was decided that Brian would still go along to help and observe the process. Dorothy had a cold so was relieved she could stay abroad Tagish.

     The transit did not go as planned, unfortunately as we approached the first lock gates Mojombo's transmission failed and would not go out of neutral.   We had to be towed back to the flats anchorage.  From there they sailed back to Shelter bay so we could get back to our boats.  The next day they sailed back to Portobello to fix their transmission.

      The Mojombo's needed time to work on repairing their boat and the Alaskan cruising couple with a friend on board, still wanted to experience the canal so they became our Plan B, line handlers.

 Jan 16 arrived, our transit date, and we motored out to the flats anchorage to await our advisor.  They were late and then it was pushed back an hour to 1700 hours.  Finally he arrived and we motored slowly up to the canal entrance as we waited for the ship we were to follow in go by.  

    With the ship in the lock we then entered the lock, and then monkey fists with small lines attached were thrown onto our boat.  These were attached to the big 120ft lines on board and these were pulled up to the lock walls where they were put over a bollard. (a 2ft bowline loop should be tied in the end that goes to wall) We now had four lines going out from each corner of the boat to hold us in the centre of the lock.  We were the only yacht locking thru.  Then the water started coming in and it was fairly turbulent.    But it was not a problem, and as the boat went up, our line handlers would pull in a bit of line whenever there was some slack and then put a couple wraps around the cleat. 

     It took about 10-15 minutes to get raised to the top of the lock and then we motored slowly forward at 3 knots.  Any faster and the lock guys up on the wall would get mad, as they don't want to run.  These guys would carry the ends of the lines forward to the next lock chamber rather than re-throw all the monkey fists. Some times they would ask you to pull in all your heavy rope to boat but leave monkey fist tied, because it is easier for them to walk with their light monkey fist line rather than the heavy mooring ropes.  Then the whole process was repeated twice more for the next two locks.  There are delays as you wait for the ship to move forward and lock gates to open.

    After about two hours we were out of the locks and into the canal.  It was now fully dark and we had about a mile to motor over to a buoy where we would spent the night. Dorothy got dinner ready for the advisor as he wanted it as soon as we tied up, so it is good to have something pre-made that you can heat up quickly.

     Just as we were arriving at the buoy a small but intense rain squall came over head and dumped a bunch of rain, making it almost impossible to see the buoy.  No lights in this area.  I missed the first buoy as was too far out for our crew to reach and so kept going to the second buoy.  This one I did not miss, but hit it dead centre with a good thump, just after the crew yelled STOP!   Luckily it was made of rubber.  It is gigantic and Brad could step off our boat and stand on it to attach our lines.  

     We spent a quiet night here and in the morning we could hear many Howler monkeys close by.  There were no bugs thankfully, as I slept out in the cockpit.   We were told an advisor would come at 0630 but when I phoned the scheduler in the morning he said 0930.  He did arrive at 0930 and we got under way and now had to motor about 25 miles thru the lakes and canal system.  Along the way we had our lunch and also gave our advisor his required lunch.

      

     With a good tail wind most of the way, we easily stayed over the required 5 knots and arrived at the next set of locks about 1430 hours, in time to meet the ship we were to lock thru with.  We had to motor around in circles for about 15 minutes as we waited for a cruise ship to lock thru ahead of us.  We could not just sit still as the wind would blow us down on the lock.   

    This time we were to go in the lock first and the ship would come up behind us.  This ship was a huge car carrier and after we were positioned in the front of the lock with our 4 lines out (same procedure as previous locks) it crept right up on our stern.  It would squash us like a bug if it could not stop.   The ships have small locomotives on tracks that hold the ship in place with cables.    Locking down was easier as the water is just drained out of locks by gravity and there was no turbulence.  Tagish's line handlers just slowly let out a bit of line when ever they got tight and then cleated them off again.  It took about 15 minutes to go down.  This procedure was repeated for the next locks as well.

     When the locks were done we were happy as all the hard stuff where things could go wrong were done.  The only issue we had was a couple of times the Panamanian line handlers on the walls were a bit slow releasing or attaching our lines to the bollards making for some anxious moments and once we started to twist around as we waited for a line to be attached to a bollard so we could pull it in and hold the boat.   It was now just about 4 miles to the Balboa yacht club.

  

    We used this time to coil up our lines and our American friends got ready to depart. Our line handlers all did a great job and made it a fun transit.  We grabbed an empty mooring at the Balboa yacht club and then flagged down a water taxi.  The yacht club does not allow people to use their own dinghies here, you must use the free water taxi service provided.  Our line handlers departed along with our rental lines and tires and we could finally relax.  The water taxi charges $10 to take all your lines and tires.

INFO

-Balboa Yacht club mooring we used is at 08 56.33N   79 33.43W  In our opinion it is not nearly as bouncy as we have read.  It is reasonably comfortable on the mooring. Though we get airplane noise as we are right under the flight path to the airport.

-  We arrived at Balboa yacht club on Friday Jan 17 and there was at least 6 empty moorings around and there could have been more as I did not look real hard and could not see every where.     The office is actually right on the dock where you are dropped off  by water taxi and we filled out a form there the next morning.  We did not inform anyone the previous night, just grabbed a empty mooring. 

-The canal transit is described in the above writeup and was no problem, the advisor tells you what you need to know.  Both advisors had us handle our own boats and we did all steering.

Note:  When getting ready to go down in the first set of down locks.  Make sure you do the rear lines first as there is a lot of current pushing from behind for a bit.
       Another thought is while we were alone in the lock it was easy, I can see that with 3 boats rafted together, you would have to be much more careful as the locks are not that wide.  You would have to make sure handlers on one side of boat did not take in or let out more rope than the other side to keep boats centred and straight.

-While locking, My sister up in Whitehorse was trying to get pictures off the Panama Canal web cams.  She found it difficult at times, because the cameras sometimes moved away, I guess people can make requests for the cameras to be moved.  This also happened as we went under the Centennial bridge where there is a camera.