Panama Canal

Location:  Isla Montuoso (Panama, Pacific Ocean)

We’re through the Panama Canal and now cruising in the Pacific Ocean.  After arriving at Shelter Bay Marina late October, we took some time to do some minor maintenance and to prepare for our canal transit.  The boat was admeasured shortly after we arrived at the marina and we scheduled our transit date for November 20 and 21.  Dave did a quick trip to Aberdeen, Scotland while I met some of the other cruisers at the marina, went for walks, went to happy hour and re-provisioned.  To get to town (Colon) from the marina, you had to take a 40 minute shuttle bus ride and cross over the canal on a one lane swing bridge.  The canal expansion construction was very visible. 

Heron at Shelter Bay Marina

Old military buildings near Shelter Bay



Panama Canal Expansion Project

Here is some basic information on the Panama Canal.  She opened to traffic on August 15, 1914.  The first ship to transit was the S.S. Ancon.  The canal runs mostly north/south and each lock has an east and west side.  There are three locks on each side of the canal.  The Gatun Locks, on the Atlantic side, are physically connected to each other.  The change in elevation (rise, in order to cross the continental divide) from first entering the locks to Gatun Lake is 26 meters (84 feet) via three chambers.  The three locks on the Pacific side are separated.  The first lock coming from Gatun Lake is the Pedro Miguel Lock which lowers each vessel 9 meters (29.5 feet).  After exiting the Pedro Miguel lock, you cross Miraflores Lake to the Miraflores Locks where vessels are lowered to sea level.  The canal is now under expansion with a third set of larger locks being added.

In order to transit, along with all the required paperwork, the boat must be equipped with four 125’ lines, enough fenders (or tires) to prevent damage, the captain (Dave) and four line handlers.  Our agent, Roy Bravo, arranged everything for the transit including providing lines and tires, doing all the paperwork and providing one line handler (Rick).  We asked around the marina to see if any other cruisers were interested in transiting with us and Debbie and Carl volunteered for the trip.  They have been cruising in Panama for about 3 years and transiting the canal was on their bucket list. 



Rick and Dave on the bow

Debbie and Carl and their boat Diva

The day prior to transit, Roy delivered eight tires, so we tied them along the sides of the boat.  We hung some of our heavy duty fenders near the flopper-stoppers to give them some extra protection. Roy also sent us our transit schedule and let us know that our advisor was scheduled to board at ~4:30 p.m. so we should plan on leaving the marina about 3:30 p.m. 


Seabiscuit dressed up for transit

Seabiscuit ready for transit

On the morning of the 20^th, Roy stopped by with Rick and let us know that our advisor boarding time was changed to 5:00 p.m.  We finished our final preparations, iced down the cooler and left the marina at 4:00 p.m.  Another boat in the marina, Batai (length of ~125 feet), was also transiting on the same day, so we followed them out to the Flats Anchorage.



Following Batai out of Shelter Bay

Our advisor, Francisco, boarded at about 5:30 p.m. and informed us that there was an issue with going center chamber as they didn’t have enough canal side handline crew to handle both us and Batai. 

Francisco, our advisor for the
Gatun Locks, in the pilot house

Sizing up Batai

Our options were to go side wall, which we had specifically requested to not do because of the flopper-stoppers, to raft up to Batai and go through together, which neither boat wanted to do because of the difference in size of the vessels, or maybe we would get lucky and have a tug to tie up to.  We cruised up alongside Batai to assess the possibility of rafting up with them.  Both vessel captains and the advisor and pilot decided it wasn’t a good idea (For vessels less than 65 feet, an advisor accompanies you through the canal.  For vessels greater than 65 feet, a pilot accompanies you through the canal).  So Batai proceeded towards the Gatun locks to go center chamber and we stayed back and waited to see what our method of transit would be. 

While we were waiting, we dropped anchor for about 30 minutes and had our supper, King Ranch Chicken Casserole, Jalapeno cornbread and a green salad.  At 6:30, we heaved up the anchor and proceeded towards the locks.  We moved up slowly with Francisco guiding us through twilight and darkness towards the lights of the canal.  “Move ahead at about 6 knots”.  “Slow down to 3 knots”.  “Minimum speed”, “Stay to the right to give that ship room” etc.

Entering Gatun Locks

Gatun Lock gate

Gatun Lock, looking forward,
notice the tug on the right



Tied up to the Panama Canal Tug

Top of the lock

As we were getting closer to the Gatun Locks, Francisco gave us the good news that we were going to go through with a tug boat.  They would tie up to the lock wall and we would tie alongside them.  For the Gatun Locks, there are three chambers so we would tie alongside after entering the chamber, rise up, untie and move under our own power to the next chamber, tie up and repeat through the second and third chambers.  We exited the third chamber into Gatun Lake at about 9:30 and were tied up to our mooring for the night by 10:30.  Everyone relaxed, had a cocktail and then retired for a short sleep.

 

On Thursday morning at 6:30, Guillermo, our advisor for the day, boarded.  We got underway for the 28 mile trek from the Gatun Lake mooring to the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks. 

Guillermo, our advisor for the
Miraflores locks, in the pilot house

Capt. Dave looking ahead

We passed some interesting sites, including a crane that was confiscated from Germany during WWII and some of the original terracing that was done during the original canal construction.  About 2/3 of the way to the locks, we passed our friend Batai, tied on to a mooring.  They were supposed to complete their transit through the entire canal on the night before, but it was foggy so they weren’t able to transit the second set of locks.  We ended up transiting the Miraflores locks with them.

Crane from WWII

Terracing from original canal construction

Carl and Debbie resting up for center
chamber duty

As we neared the first lock, Guillermo informed us that we would be going through center chamber and called a short meeting for the line handlers.  He gave us a brief overview of how center chamber would work and what we had to do.  Basically there would be one line handler and one line on each corner of the boat.  As we entered the first lock, we would ease over towards the port side and the canal side line handlers would throw down a monkey fist attached to a messenger line.  When the monkey fist landed on the boat, the port side line handlers would tie the messenger to their line.  Then we would ease over to starboard and repeat the process.  Then the canal side line handlers would walk us into the chamber  and on their signal we would feed them our lines. 

Canal side line handlers

 

Canal gate

They would attach the bowline at the end of our lines to a bollard on the canal wall and then the chamber would start to drain.  As the water went down, we each slacked our lines until we reached the bottom (about 30 feet elevation change).  After the first lock, Pedro Miguel, we had a short transit to reach the Miraflores locks, so the canal side line handlers would detach the messengers and we would pull our lines back onto the boat.  When we reached the Miraflores locks, the process was repeated with the monkey fists, etc.  Since the two Miraflores locks are next to each other, the canal side line handlers walked the lines from the first lock to the second.

Debbie and B line handling on the bow

After the second Miraflores lock, we were through.  A successful transit.  Guillermo disembarked after we passed under the Bridge of the Americas and we proceeded to Balboa Yacht Club where we would drop off Rick, our lines and tires and pick-up our zarpe (exit papers) and passports. 

Pilot boat pulling alongside to
pick-up Guillermo



Guillermo leaving via the pilot boat

From there, we headed to the Las Brisas anchorage for the night.  Carl and Debbie stayed on board another night so that they could do some shopping and provisioning in Panama City on Friday morning before heading back to Shelter Bay.  Thursday was Dave’s birthday so we celebrated with some rum drinks and a casual dinner of smoked salmon, chopped onions, chopped boiled eggs, capers and crackers.

Container ship passing under
the Bridge of the Americas



Roca San Jose, heading south
from the canal entrance



The Pacific

Marciano, grilling lunch on Isla Contadora

Varmint Tracks in the sand, Espiritu Santo

Bird Tracks in the sand, Espiritu Santo

Lizard tracks in the sand, Espiritu Santo



 



Friday morning we headed toward Flamenco Marina to pick up 650 gallons of fuel and to drop off Carl and Debbie.  After fueling, we headed south towards the Las Perlas islands and our first adventure in the Pacific Ocean.

 

We anchored on the north side of Isla Contadora Friday night.  Saturday we hailed a “water taxi” and went into town for lunch and a few things at the grocery store.  We had a quick swim off the stern that afternoon and a relaxing evening on the boat. 



Sunday morning, we heaved up anchor and moved about 15 miles to Espiritu Santo.  We took the dinghy and explored some of the beaches on the nearby islands.



Monday we were going to move to another island in the Las Perlas, but the weather was good and the seas were calm so we decided to make a long run to Punta Mala, about 115 miles or 15 hours.    After dark we turned on the radar and saw some ship traffic along the way.  Most vessels coming and going from the canal go around Punta Mala.  So it was good practice for identifying targets, recognizing lights and maneuvering to stay out of the paths of the big commercial ships.  We arrived at our anchor spot near Benao in the dark at about 10:00 p.m., dropped the hook and went to bed.  The anchorage was very rolly so we got up the next morning and travelled another 75 miles to the north side of Isla Cebaco near the village of Platanal.  We stayed for two nights, resting up and doing boat chores and maintenance.  From there, we headed south to Isla Jicaron, a uninhabited island, and anchored near the north shore.  The next day, we dinghyed to the island and walked along the beach.  We were lucky enough to see several capuchin monkeys in the trees near a fresh water stream, eating fruit from a soursop tree.  We did a little snorkeling near a reef closer to the boat and then called it a day.

A small bird and his friend hitched
a ride from the Las Perlas to Punta Mala



Capuchin Monkey, Isla Jicaron

Today we moved about 30 miles to the uninhabited Isla Montuoso, took the dinghy in and walked along the beach and did some snorkeling.  Another tough day on the water.



Last, but not least, we have been doing some boat maintenance.  Carl taught us a new maintenance term “wamdos” which stands for work-around and make-dos.  Prior to leaving Shelter Bay, our anchor light wasn’t working.  (You may remember that this was one of the maintenance things we did after leaving Bocas del Toro…).  The connection between the housing and the bulb kept coming loose, so Dave got creative with a “wamdo” and did some soldering.  So far, so good.  While we were fueling, one of the manhole cover gaskets, mid-hold port side, started leaking, so we did a temporary repair on it.  When the forward tanks get empty again, we’ll need to re-gasket all of the manhole covers.  Our stabilizer pump has been chewing up impellers and tripping the breaker.  While we were anchored near Platanal, Dave replaced the old pump with a new one and rewired the connections to the junction box.  We did a quick test and everything seemed fine.  As we were moving from Platanal to Isla Jicaron, we noticed that there was no cooling water being circulated by the new pump, so we shut it down.  Yesterday, Dave took apart the cooling water piping and the stabilizer heat exchanger to see if there was any blockage in the lines.  Sure enough, he found impeller pieces, shells and rocks inside the heat exchanger.  Now that those are cleaned out, the pump seems to be working fine and we had cooling water and stabilizers for the entire voyage today.

Next stop, Islas Secas.