In my last blog you will remember that I had the humans MADLY working hard at getting everything ready for our Pacific crossing. Before they can do any Ocean crossing, they had to get to that ocean first. One of the fastest and easiest ways to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean is to transit the Panama Canal.
I gave you a little outline of the Panama Canal transit in the last blog, so I will not go through all of that again with you. I am also writing this with no access to the internet, so I will not be ‘throwing’ any great facts at you either. If you want to learn more about the Panama Canal there are lots of books, TV programs and movies about the interesting history and fascinating engineering. What I will do is share a few pictures with you and some of the personal highlights and low points of the transit.
Deadline for Canal Transit looming, the humans went into full on work and PANIC mode. You work hard, I guess you have to play hard. The humans managed to fit a few parties in there. At least the human’s did not have to worry about who would be the line handlers for the transit. Two other couples were mad enough to volunteer their services. Bill and JoAnne from the sailing trimaran Ultra. And Chris and Caroline from the sailing vessel Four Seasons. They really did make it all fun!
Time for preparations quickly ended and time to say farewells replaced it. After living and working in Shelter Bay Marina for 2 years it was hard to say goodbye.
Off we went, avoiding the Shelter Bay Marina entrance reef. A tiny spit of coral that has claimed lots of insurance money off of ill prepared sailors. The winds were light, the day hot but thankfully overcast. We motored across the walled harbour to the docks of the city of Colon. Yes, the city is named after a unslightly body part. Despite many efforts to improve the city, the name still suits the place, as all have failed. Thankfully we did not need to go near the town, but instead ‘hung out’ off the docks awaiting a ‘duely appointed member of the canal authority’ our advisor to arrive by boat.
It is ‘kind of’ scarry when the advisor arrives on one of their big metal canal authority boats, as you are sure they are going to come crashing into you. But the helms men do this all the time, and the advisors are expert at jumping aboard.
Crew ready, advisor aboard, the next thing you need is a companion ‘big’ ship. Despite the fact we paid $984 to transit the canal. $1875 intially, but get a deposit back of $891 if you do not break down or hamper commercial traffic at the end. We are told, this does not even cover the costs. To make ‘ends meet’ the canal authority put a ship through with personal craft. To make it even more effiecient they try and raft up a few pleasure craft together. We were rafted up to another mono hull just outside the canal, turning us into a ‘sort of’ catamaran.
Once we motored together into the Canal, a lock staff throws down light tracer lines to our boats. The humans catch these lines. All avoided the heavy rope balls on the ends, except me. The humans tied these onto our big 150 ft mooring lines so they could be dragged up the deep steep walls of the canal and hooked onto giant bullards. It was now up to the crew of Spirit of Argo, on one side, and the crew of Capri, on the other side, to pull on the lines as the boats rose up on a flood of rising water.
Sounds easy, but I heard a few curses and just a few grunts from the humans. In the end we got through all three locks, and a rise of 26m, to Lake Gatun with no problems. Unfortunately it had gotten very late in the night, very fast. We tied up to a giant mooring ball in the Lake and said goodbye to our advisor at 10pm at night. The human’s proceeded to eat and drink and almost fall asleep where they sat.
Late night, early start. We were woken early to the sound of howler monkeys on the beautiful Lake Gatun. This was also joined by the mobile phones going off that my tired crew forgot to turn then off the night before. Our new advisor, Hyme, was dropped off to us a little late, 9am. We headed off across Lake Gatun listening to the facinating stories he had to tell. When not advising he worked in the information centre at Mira Flores locks. He had written two books on facts concerning the Panama Canal. Lots of fun and dog friendly!
The crew of Spirit of Argo spent the long motor across Lake Gatun and through the Cullebra Cut sight seeing, eating, socialising and snoozing. It had been a late one last night!
Unfortunately there was a queue for a companion ‘big’ ship just before the series of three locks meant to bring us back down to the Pacific Ocean. On the way up to the Lake Gatun we had followed behind the big ships. On the way down to the Pacific ocean the big ships come in behind you. It is very ‘disconcerting’ to see these big monsters being towed in right behind you. They look down on you like you are the tiny paper boats we made as kids in water drains. Don’t crush us!
These big ships are beautifully controlled by the canal’s tow trains. It is us, controlled by humans, that are the weak link in the effiecient of the canal. The last locks are called Mira Flores locks and there is a video camera on the top of the information centre. Waving at family and friends, watching the video on line at home, the visitors to the centre think you are waving to them. They get very excited and cheer you on. Here is where, having an advisor who works in the information centre helps. We got some extra special previledges. Hyme had a friend zoom in on us all aboard and sent us snap shots. How lucky were we!
The humans were terribly silly and the visitors to the information centre at Mia Floris loved it. We got lots of silly pictures of the crew aboard. Little did the happy sods aboard know that danger awaited them at the next and final lock in the series through the Panama Canal.
That is right folks. There is always danger just around the corner, and the last lock in the Panama Canal has claimed it’s fair share of victoms. It is the last drop of 8m to the Pacific Ocean. Add in a drop of tides over 5m, some days it is a serious drop. The humans had been warned that the mix of Lake Gatuns fresh water and the Pacifics salt could create turbulance when the gates were opened but, with the tide out, they had not expected such a strong current dragging them to the ‘presipice’ of the last closed canal doors ahead. A bit of reverse, requested of our neighbours, and the fast responses of the crew aboard Spirit of Argo and all was safe and sound.
Poor Hyme struggled to give my naughty crew instructions are they focused more on celebrating their success with champagne. Very naughty crew. It had been a while since my humans had helmed a boat at night with so many shore lights from the busy docks this end of the canal. But the bouyage is pretty clear and they had Hyme to keep them on track. Tthe well lit long pere of Balboa Yacht Club’s fuel pontoon led us to our final destination. We had booked a night on one of the Yacht Clubs mooring balls.
Hyme leaped across to a canal authority launch, one of the Yacht Club taxi boats grabbed a mooring and handed it up to my crew and we all settled into a ‘bit more’ of the bubbles to celebrate. Thankfully there was one level head aboard. ‘What time do they stop cooking food at the Yacht Cub?’ JoAnne, from Ultra, saved the day as we all jumped into a water taxi and raced off to solid terra ferma for cold beer and greasey food.
The end a journey is always sad. In the morning light we were not only saying goodbye to good friends who helped us transit the canal, but also good friends we may or may not see again as our travels bring us further and further apart. It is one of the hardest parts of cruising. Falling in love with people only to have to say goodbye. But we have learned to say ‘JUST FOR NOW’ as many we have met up with again, even when we thought the chances were low.
As a final note, Bill and JoAnne took all the video on the passage. My humans tried, but they are rubbish at technology. They are going to put something together and we will add a link here to their YouTube site so you can see this and some of their other adventures.
