After 2 days of travel, we arrived back at our boat. It had been hauled out and was on the hard the last 3 months. Shelter Bay Marina (now not very high on our list of Marinas) had closed its office by the time we got there and had not left a room key for our hotel and there was some trouble getting into a room. The marina had also told us our boat would be painted (anti-fouling) when we got back, but it turned out they hadn't even gotten the paint yet. There were some other snafus, such as them breaking the key we left with them to get into the boat; they made some very imperfect new keys and didn't let us know about it -- we could have had copies made of the other original when we were in the US. The marina also overcharged us for our paint (they quoted $200/gal and charged $240/gal) and our room was supposed to be $300/wk but they charged us almost $500 because we only stayed 6 days instead of a week (so no weekly rate!) and through their screw-ups had put us in a "nicer" room that we hadn't asked for but still charged us for. All-in-all, we don't recommend Shelter Bay... best to avoid the place.

It took us about a week to get the boat back in the water and ready for the canal transit. We did a few more provisioning runs. We managed to yank our propeller off and overhaul the bearings (one of the blades was shot), re-grease it, and finally coat it with special anti-fouling paint -- only to get rained on just as the painting was completing. We got our 8 bags of new stuff mostly stowed and were finally ready when our crew of line handlers showed up on Thursday.

We had contacted the International Maritime Academy in Panama City, which had a program where they would organize their cadets to come help sailboats going through the canal. Each boat transiting the canal needs 4 line handlers to control lines that keep the boat in the center of the lock as the water is raising/lowering. It is a win-win situation as the cadets get some time on the water and experience in the canal, and we get smart, eager people helping with our boat at the cost of their bus rides and some food.

We had scheduled several hours with the line handlers to review the boat, the canal procedures, basic skills they needed, and to get a chance to meet each other. They showed up on time and we had plenty of time to go through things with them. It was good we started early, because we were hailed earlier than expected and told to rush over to pick up our pilot.

As we approached the first set of locks, we found out that we were going to be rafting with another boat. This meant we would tie up with another boat and both of us would be in the center channel. We had hoped (and were told to expect) that we would be able to go through the canal without rafting. The problem with rafting is that two boats are much more awkward to manage than one, and also there is the risk that a mistake on the other boat could cause damage to yours. On our practice run through the canal, a mistake in tying up the boats for rafting had caused a cleat to be pulled out of our boat.

It turned out the other boat had a good captain and crew, so things worked well. We went through the 3 locks without any problems. Since our boat was a little larger than the other, it was mostly left in neutral and Mark was in charge of moving and steering the conglomeration. Not too easy, since the large mass tied onto the Northfork would drag it left or right and that had to be accommodated for.

Normally, small boats such as our go through the locks in the space behind a larger ship that does not fill up the locksl. We had the hone of being the only boats in the locks... something the pilot said had only happened twice in the years he had worked. Strangely, they also used the full lock for us; there is an extra set of lock doors that can be used to shorten the chamber size in order to reduce the amount of water used. But they elected to not use them.

After the 3 locks going up, we unrafted and pulled into Gatun lake and both boats tied onto a giant orange mooring ball. We then bbq'd some hamburgers for our crew, talked with them for a bit and met with the crew on the other boat. The next morning started early, with the pilot showing up at 6am.

We motored over to the other side of the lake and went through the Gaillard Cut and the two sets of locks going back down to sea level. This, and the previous time the boat came through the canal, was (literally) the high point of the Northfork's life as it will never go any higher than Gatun Lake.

On the way down, we shared the locks with a large tour boat and did use the short chamber doors, which made for a snugger fit though there was still plenty of room.

The fact that our transit went without a hitch owed alot to our pilots and the line handlers. They were all very attentive to keeping the boat in the center of the locks and making sure there were no problems. We had been nervous about some of the bad things that could happen to our boat in the canal and are quite relieved to have made it through in one piece.

We said our goodbyes and dropped off our line handlers before spending the rest of the day hunting around Panama City harbor for some diesel. We had wanted to get diesel and propane and be on our way, but the diesel took so long we ended up taking a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club and going to TGI Fridays for what will be our last American-style feast for some time.