Transiting the Panama Canal
31 October 2016 | Linton Bay Marina
Bert - Warm and humid
From the day we planned to visit Panama we had one wish on top of our list of things that we would like to do: To be line-handlers on a sailing vessel transiting the Panama Canal. For that purpose we registered on a website for line-handlers and on October 25, 2016 we received an e-mail from Chris the Captain of S/V Ohana a 50 ft. Catamaran arriving from New Zealand on its way to the Caribbean. The transit was planned for Saturday, but we wanted to do some shopping for boat parts in Panama City so we left on Thursday October 27, 2016 at 6:30 in the morning and arrived in Panama City at noon after a long bus ride. We had a great 2 days in this overwhelming city and found most of the parts we needed. Since the transit was planned to start on Saturday at 4:15 AM we reported on Friday night in the La Playita Marina where Chris picked us up with his dinghy.
As was evident how efficiently the Panama Canal operations run our advisor was dropped off on Ohana at 4:20 and we started to follow our transition partner. Our partner is called “Navios Venus” and is a Bulk carrier registered in Panama. The ship was built in 2015 has a deadweight of 61339 tons and the gross tonnage is 34,777. The length of the ship is 199 meters it is 32 meters wide and has a draft of 13.6 meters. This ship is built for the older locks and it fit just perfect in the locks (see the pictures). In the locks on the Pacific side we went in the locks after the “Navios Venus” and that makes the water in the lock very rough especially when it is needed that the ship uses his engine.
It is the task of the line-handler to keep the lines to the lock walls tight the entire time so that the boat is not moving. The lines are long, thick and heavy and the water in the locks goes remarkably fast up or down. So the line-handler has to respond fast and make sure the lines are laying on the deck in a figure of 8 so they donot get entangled. We were assigned to be moored on the wall and not in the middle of the lock and so only 2 line-handlers are needed, but the task is more difficult since the boat goes up and down along the rough over 100 year old concrete wall.
When we came to the first lock called “Mira Flores” two large super PanaMax container ships went in the new locks opened on June 26, 2016 (see our pictures).
The transit through the canal was exciting and the part that the transit goes through Gatun Lake is overwhelmingly beautiful. The canal has continued improvements and on many places we saw big construction projects. We had a wonderful experience and passed the last lock on the Caribbean side at 2:30 PM. In the morning we had breakfast after passing the locks on the Pacific side and a delicious lunch while sailing on Gatun Lake and snacks with ice cream after we passed the last lock. Chris dropped us off at Shelter Bay Marina from where we took a taxi to Colon for a well-deserved good night rest in the Radisson Hotel.