On Sat & Sun I served as line handler for Clickitat's transit of the Panama Canal. We had met Bill & Katie last year in the San Blas and then known them in Bocas. It turned out that they needed one more line handler and I was available.

After several confusing and conflicting instructions from the ACP (Panama Canal Authority) regarding exactly when we were actually going, we finally left the dock at Shelter Bay Marina on noon Sat and motored over to 'The Flats', an anchorage within the canal breakwaters where little boats waited for their advisors. We were transiting with 2 other boats, Sunflower & Corraborra. This is not something you have a choice about - it is assigned by the ACP. Since Sunflower was the largest, she took center position with the smaller boats on each side. We ended up on the port side which meant we only needed 2 line handlers - bow and stern. Corraborra did the same on the starboard and Sunflower just sat in the middle - no line handlers, but responsible for powering the three of us to keep us centered.

When the advisors arrived, we weighed anchor and - after waiting for one of the 'New Panamax' container ships that hold more than double the containers of the old 'Panamax' ships - we motored to just outside the first lock and rafted there. We entered the lock behind an old Panamax ship - he cleared the walls of the lock by ~10' but had 180' behind him for us. As we entered, the canal line handlers threw monkey fists to the boat line handlers (A monkey fist is like a lead filled macrame ball attached to 1/4" line. We tied the loop of our 1" line to the monkey fist and paid it out as the canal handler pulled it in. When we were in position, he placed the loop over a bollard on the top of the wall of the lock and we took up the slack. A line handler's job is to keep the line taught at all times such the the raft stays in center channel. And a job it is. I had the bow line for our boat. The water comes boiling in - millions of gallons in 3 minutes - and up we go. The roiling water tries to push the boats this way and that and the 4 lines are what prevents that from happening. At one point, one of the stern lines got away from the handler and we started to go sideways in the lock. My line was as tight as a bow string and I was beginning to worry about the Samson post on our boat. But then the water stopped and all was well. We got straightened out, the gates swung open, and we proceeded to the next lock with the canal line handlers picking up the loops and walking them to the next bollard. The big ships are controlled by 6 electric 'mules' that travel along a specially made track on top of the locks.

Once out of the final lock (there are 3 together on the Caribbean side), we broke up the raft and motored into Lake Gatun created by the damming of the Rio Chagres where we had been only a few days ago. It was interesting to see the dam from this side. For the night they had us raft to one of the big ship mooring balls (~10' diam) two on one side and one on the other. I'm not sure why we couldn't just anchor, but we did what we were told. As soon as all were secured, the tequila and rum flowed and everyone partied.

Our advisors arrived Sunday morning at 7:00 - before the coffee was even done! They had said, "7:00-7:30" but no one believed them as rumor had it that they were always late. Not today. We stumbled through breaking up the raft and headed out across the lake. By then Katie had not only coffee, but also breakfast burritos and the world was happy again. It was a gorgeous day and the lake was flat and calm. (Sailing is not allowed anywhere in the canal.) At one point we had to pull far to the side of the channel and wait while a 'New Panamax' LNG tanker went by. Apparently LNG & LPG have become a major use of the new locks and ACP is taking security very seriously so that they want no traffic anywhere near these ships. I can understand. One of them going 'boom' could certainly ruin your day.

At the end of Lake Gatun is the infamous Culebre Cut (now renamed the Guilliard Cut). This is where the Army Corp of Engineers cut through the continental divide to join the two oceans. It was actually less impressive than I expected. Due to the constant threat of landslides, the land has been terraced back at about 45*. The cut has also been widened to allow two of the New Panamax ships to pass. As a result it is no longer "the snake through the mountains" with towering cliffs on each side. But it is much safer.

At the end of the Guillard Cut is the Pedro Miguel lock. We rafted up again and entered the lock. This time ahead of the ship we would be sharing it with. The ship had a bit of difficulty entering as it scraped along its port side almost all the way in. We were very happy when it finally stopped. Given how big it was and how small we were, it looked like it was only 3' behind us, but it was probably nearer 50' - still VERY close. Our masts didn't even begin to reach half way to its bow. Going down was much calmer then going up. We repeated the monkey fist, loop, bollard, etc. but this time I just had to pay out line slowly as we sunk down into the lock. No whirlpools or drama. The only real danger is a line getting jammed because the boat is going to continue going down and something will probably break, but that didn't happen. The gates opened on to Miraflores Lake ~2 nm to the final two locks before the Pacific. We stayed rafted for the brief crossing.

The Miraflores locks (2 of them) is where the visitors' center is and there are web cams on the corners of the building broadcasting live pictures of the locks. We all waved at the cameras, but later found out they were not working for some reason, so we were not on TV. As we started our descent in the final lock, we looked out over the Pacific and finally saw the cayugas racing. They race cayugas (dug out canoes) from the Caribbean to the Pacific once a year and it happened to be this weekend. We had hoped to catch up to them, but at least we saw them from a distance. The cayugas used to go through the locks, but now they have to portage around them as it wasted too much water and water is very precious with the second set of locks no on line.

As the gates opened onto the Pacific, we broke up the raft for the final time and each boat motored over to the Balboa Yacht Club to take a mooring for the night. It turned out that there were 4 other line handlers who wanted to go back to Shelter Bay Sunday night, so earlier in the day, I had contacted Luis (the taxi driver we always use in Panama City) and he was available so took us all back right to our boats for less than the bus and associated taxis would have been on Monday. Deb & Goldie were happy to see me a day early and we got to show Luis our boat and offer him some supper.

It was a great transit and truly a unique experience. Thanks to Bill & Katie for giving me the opportunity. I will set up a dropbox with some of the pics and videos as I collect them from all the photographers, so if you are interested, let me know.