We got back last night after spending the previous 30 hours transiting the Panama Canal as line handlers. We had just taken down the mainsail on Wednesday around noon and we were heading to the pool to cool off when we were approached by a couple of other cruisers. The were going through the canal that afternoon and one of their line handlers cancelled on them at the last minute. We quickly worked things out with the other boat we were supposed to go with and within half an hour we were leaving the marina on a boat with people we had just met. Rolf who owns the boat is from the Netherlands along with his cousin Art, Maria a French Canadian as crew and Mattie a Brit who is also crew.

We headed to the flats and arrived at 3:00pm where we waited for the canal advisor to come on board. We were underway by 4:00pm and approached the first set of lock shortly after.

There are 3 set of locks on the Caribean side that take you up to Gatun Lake. You then motor about 40 miles across Gatun lake and a long channel before reaching the 3 locks that take you down to the Pacific ocean. The chambers in the locks are filled with gravity - no pumps involved. It is amazing how quickly the chambers filled up and the water is "boiling" all around you. In the first three locks we rafted up beside this large motor cat, so once you had the lines secure there was nothing to do but watch to ensure the fenders stayed in place. After getting through the first 3 locks, we picked up a mooring on Gatun lake. Our hosts treated us very well with great food and beverages. We also got a cabin to ourselves and even had air conditioning. It was a VERY nice sailboat.

The second day consisted of motoring for about 5 hours before reaching the 3 locks that tooks us down. The scenery is spectatular - Very greeyn and lush. We even saw a couple of crocodiles along the way. In the first lock going down, we had a last minute change of plans and instead of rafting up, we went center chamber - using four lines to hold us in the middle of the lock. The last two locks we rafted up to the Discovery.


They are building another channel and set of locks to handle even bigger ships and there is contruction going on everywhere. It supposed to be done by 2014. We saw numerous ships that only had inches to spare on either side of the canal.

It was an excellent experience and I think we will try to do it again before we leave Panama. Who know, maybe we will even take Five Islands through!

I have added a new album called Panama Canal