I first met the "Field Trip"-ers in Cartagena. On the morning VHF cruisers net Mark had announced their arrival the previous day and, in the process, given their hailing port as "Castle Rock, Colorado". Needless to say, I found their beautiful Antares 44 catamaran later that day and introduced myself. Mark and Sarah had been cruising with their two children, Elizabeth (8) and Michael (6) for two years and would soon be embarking on the next leg of their "round the world" cruise by transiting the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean.

By the way, I love the "Field Trip" name. For Sarah, previously an elementary school teacher, and Elizabeth and Michael their cruise would be the ultimate field trip.

We reconnected a couple of times in the San Blas. However, it was only at our final meeting there - in Narganau for the Super Bowl (that's a story in itself - which I will perhaps tell in a future post) - that I mentioned that it was my goal to transit the canal as a line handler if I could find a berth. Mark still needed two line handlers and their proposed timing fit perfectly with my plans. We reached an accord.

So after sailing to Isla Linton a week ago last Friday and spending the weekend assuring that the boat would be safe and looked after (Thank you to Reg and Debbie on Runner), I boarded a Chicken Bus for the 1-1/2 hour ride to Colon (where I finally was able to re-stock my cash-oline supply) and went on to meet Field Trip at its berth in Shelter Bay Marina.

By 1:00 on Tuesday we were under way for the "Flats" anchorage where we would wait (and wait and wait) for our pilot to arrive and for our turn to climb using the Gatun Locks to the staggering elevation of 85' - the height of Gatun Lake. Delays in transiting are ubiquitous, I understand, and were certainly the rule in ours. We entered the first lock at around 7:30 (our scheduled time was 5:20) - after dark. While not conducive to photography, this created no navigational issues as the locks were well lit.

There are many stories in the cruising community of traumatic and destructive transits. Ours was neither.

The four line handlers each took over a corner - mine was the port bow. We were each responsible for the line handling on our corner and to keep an eye out for fender issues or other potential problems.

Before entering the first lock we rafted up with another catamaran, Mona-something. (I never wrote the name down and in the only pic that I have which shows the name it was obscured by fenders - my bad). Mona?? was an Australian boat, also a kid boat with 3 kids on board, that had traveled much with Field Trip. They were all great friends.) We rafted up their starboard to our port and stayed rafted for the transit of all three of the Gatun locks - so my line handling duties were completed (successfully) before we entered the first lock. I had much time to observe and to lend my starboard side bow-mate line handler, Carlos, an occasional hand. Carlos was very competent and needed little help. However, our raft of two was center tied (we shared the lock with a large ship but were behind it) meaning that long lines ran from each of our raft's corners to bollards on the towering concrete walls - placed on and removed from them as needed by canal line handlers. With the incredible turbulence while the locks were filling, our line handlers needed to be vigilant and capable - and all were.

The true challenge was faced (and ably met) by our captains - with guidance from the on-board advisors. It was up to them to drive this 45 foot long by nearly as wide (it seemed even wider) raft and keep it centered and under control into the first lock and then from lock to lock. Yes they had between them 4 engines spread across the full width of this monstrosity, but rudders were of no value and it was necessary to coordinate their application of forward and reverse thrust carefully. And, there was no time for a long learning curve! Both Lori (sp?) and Mark did an excellent job - talking loudly helm to helm as they engaged the engines. Both were undoubtedly seriously stressed (God knows I would have been!) but really didn't show it and certainly made no significant errors.

By 9:30 we were tied to a mooring (and re-rafted to Mona??) for the night.

I took a number of pictures of our ascent into Gatun Lake but with the poor light conditions was not entirely thrilled with the result. This picture was taken as we were preparing to descend in the last lock the following day, Mona?? and Field Trip again rafted together and a very large ship slowly entering behind us to share the ride down