IMAGE: Team Ednbal
FRIDAY 27TH FEBRUARY Canal transit day. We were up early to packup the boat to leave her for 5 days. Our sailmaker neighbour gave us a lift into town at 8am in his dingy and we caught a local bus into the 4 Alto supermarket with plenty of time to spare.

As arranged we caught the Shelter Bay Marina bus from the shopping centre to the Marina. It was great to arrive and see Ednbal with her transit tires & 4 mooring lines of 125ft long and 2.5cm diameter- all ready for the off.

We had a few hours until we had to depart the Marina so James made the most of the opportunity to get our water pump fixed and we had a quick chat with Andrew and Claire from Eye Candy - we have not seen them in person since November last year, but speak regularly on our SSB net.

TEAM EDNBAL (Roger & Sasha, Graham & Roz and James & I - the all conquering and all capable Aussie crew were off. A final photo opportunity and a horn send-off from Eye Candy was appreciated as we departed the Marina at 4pm.

We motored across the commercial Cristobal basin to the pre-arranged 5pm meeting with the Canal Authority Advisor to come onboard to assist us through the process. This busy Manzanillo Container terminal is Latin American largest commercial port .

We motored around circling until 5.30pm and just on dark our Advisor Gabriel arrived onboard . Each advisor arrived via an official launch. Gabriel said to Roger 'hurry-up'- we are late and we need to get to the lock entrance as soon as possible!! This Canal entrance was carved through one of the narrowest and lowest saddles in the long isthmus that joins the north and south American continents .From the Atlantic side all three locks are collectively called the Gatun Locks. The 3 Gatun locks are a total of 26 meters / 84 feet in 3 steps or chambers - all connected. Each chamber is 110ft wide and 1000ft long. The approach walls are 2 kilometres long.

The advisor also informed us that our navigation lights were not showing the required red(port) and green(starboard). This really put things onboard out of sink, and Sasha became very concerned that the authorities would make us abort our transit. After a few stressful moments we arranged makeshift lights to be tired to our forward pulpit. The red came from James headtorch and the green came from Ednbals green plastic frog mascot with a white light shining through it - wow the things you do to make it happen when it all matters!

Just before the lock entrance we needed to 'nest' (raft alongside) with 2 other yachts. A large 50ft Panamanian yacht with a Chilean family onboard were the centre yacht, we were on the right and a French yacht was on the left. It was hard to get the nesting just right - the dark and the non-english spoken had its challenges. It became obvious that the father and uncle onboard on centre and leader yacht were the only ones with any skills - all the other crew -2 ladies, 2 other younger men and one little girl (granddaughter) of about 8 years of age - did not know how to correctly secure a line around a cleat, tie a bowline or secure fenders to the guardrails!!! Every time we had wash from tugboats and passing ships we really gave the centre fenders and tyres a tight squeeze, with everyone on fend-off duty.

Tonight we had 3 locks to take us up from the Caribbean water level to the height of Lake Gatun. A large container ship was 1st to enter the lock, then us 3 behind him in our nest. In theory the centre yacht was the mother-ship responsible for all movements and our wheel would be in the centre and our engine would just be in idle - but on several occasions this was not the case. Also in theory the official language of the locks is English - but again on most occasions this was not the case. As our centre yacht owners spoke Spanish, this language took priority - and at times the only English instructions we received were just a 'go this way'... or a 'back,back' shouted by their skipper or their advisor! - all very confusing and not at all in a seaman-like fashion.

To prepare for the lock tie-up we had two of our rented mooring lines coiled and prepared on our deck - one forward and one aft. Graham and Roz had responsibility for the forward line, and James and I with the assistance of Roger had the aft line. A canal worker high above us was to throw us a light coir feeder line with a monkey fist made in its end to help with direction and weight as we entered the lock and then we tied our line to this feeder line for him to then pull our mooring line to the lockside and take it around a shoreside large bollard with our prepared large bowline. Again in theory this was the system - but.... the shoreside guys were not good throwers and therefore on a few occasions their feeder lines landed short of our yacht - usually only one of our two lines then became possible to secure and then confusion set in with which line this was now to become either -the forward or aft line? - for guys that do this is allday everyday their 'skills' - or lack of skills in line handling and communication were a big disappointment. When the lines we tied off shoreside to the lock bollards and secure to our yacht, the huge metal lock gates began to close. There were some strong flood lights illuminating the lock - but daylight would have been so much better to see exactly what was going on.

After the lock gates closed water began to rush in to flood the lock to enable us to rise to the next level- the was considerable violent water turbulence and propwash from the container ship ahead of us. This water really did 'rush' in with a strong flow that slewed the yachts around and put an extreme amount of pressure on our forward and aft mooring lines. When the lock was 'full' it was now time to release our lines and all 3 yachts to motor forward to enter the next lock. Again in theory the centre yacht would be in control of this procedure to make sure all 3 yachts were positioned in the centre of the lock with no motoring or assistance from either of the nested yachts - if only this could have been achieved without the yelling in Spanish and the shouting at us to go this way or back,back!

Now into the 2nd lock - well you would have had thought that we knew what was going on and secondtime around it would all have been more controlled. But this time our shoreside aft linehandler did not control his coir line and it got caught on the top of the lockside entrance. It took him ages to even notice that it was caught and only after we had paid-out all our 125ft line did he finally re-appeared but all too late - his line broke under the pressure and we were left with no aft line to secure us and the yachts all started to slew around due to the backwash from the large container ship ahead of us. Finally another line was thrown to us, pulled up and secured - but again we could all have done without this additional stressful situation.

Lots of water flooding the lock had both James & Roger trying to steady our aft line - we used the large winch, rather than the cleat to keep constant pressure on this line until we reached the top and it was time to release. We needed to get our lines back onboard and prepared for the 3rd and final lock in this evening process.

All went OK in the 3rd lock and we waited, rocking and rolling with the wash from the container ship as he poweredup and motored out of the lock before we could make our way out into Gatun Lake. Once clear of the lock gates we were told to separate from our nest and make our way to a mooring buoy to tie to for the night. Our advisor did not know where the buoy was, and couldn't give us a lat, long to head to- again they do this every day but it was all so poorly arranged. Our knowledgeable advise told Roger to head to the flashing yellow light - following his instructions after a little while we realised we were heading for a truck working on the shoreside of the lake - what a b...s up! In the dark of the night we had all eyes on lookout... finally the advisor asked if we had a strong lamp to help in our search. The outline of some yachts appeared and we kept looking for a vacant buoy.

When it came into sight the Chilean yacht made a fast approach - they had obviously decided that they would make themselves comfortable first and not bother about anyone else!! We decided that the best approach would be to tie to the buoy between us in the middle and go nose to tail - but again tying up next to these people with little skills, in the dark and in a 2nd language was all very stressful. On our final approach our Advisor finally told us that the buoy was not a heavy commercial big ships buoy but instead it had rubber sides and we would have no damage tying to it - info better late than never! In the confusion of tying off to our mooring for the night our advisor got off - but not before telling us to be ready to be off again at 6.30am tomorrow morning. It was 10.30 - 11pm ish before we had tied off and all able to sit in the cockpit and take a deep breath to take in just what we had done over the past few hours.

A few cold beers and a lovely hot dinner that Sasha had prepared went down very well indeed. We all hit the sack about midnight, with just 6 hours before we had to be up and at it all again.

SATURDAY 28TH FEB - day 2 of our Canal Transit.
Like all good sailors we had an alarm set for 6am and Skipper was up and got the kettle on.

The passage today would (should) go something like - Advisor onboard, then 25 miles motoring to the first of 3 locks to take us from this highwater level of Gatun Lake down to the Pacific. After dispatching our Advisor and our transit fenders and lines, we were hoping to get a mooring buoy at the Balboa Yacht Club - and if not then to anchor off the Flamingo Marina for the night.

We decided not to rush breakfast as we had several hours of boring motoring ahead at the beginning of the day - so we waited and waited over coffee for our advisor - who finally arrived at 8am.

Raphael arrived, introduced himself and advised us that today we would be rafting together with only the Chilean yacht - so just 2 of us and that the lockmaster at the 1st lock had us scheduled for a 1pm entry. He informed us that the Chilean yacht would again be 'incharge' of the locking and that their Advisor was to take the lead with instructions etc AND he had a whistle to attract everyones attention! We were informed that we were to be the 1st shipping going southbound today. We were to be in the locks with a tourist boat with no passengers onboard, us two yachts and a further 2 yachts behind us - all together in the same lock - so plenty of room, less wash as we didn't have a large container ship, and all in daylight.

Except for his late arrival - this advisor and better communication was a better start for our 'into the pacific' day. Roger had registered that he could constantly achieve 5 knots boat speed so we were told to proceed at this speed to make sure we met our allotted time. The long motoring allowed time to chat with our advisor, nap in the cockpit, repair our nav lights which needed a new globe and generally enjoy the ride through the countryside and take in the experience. The Caribbean bound commercial ships were constantly passing us - all with a tug in tow.

Sasha prepared sushi for lunch which we enjoyed before we entered the Giallard Cut. We could now see and begin to fully appreciate the great achievement of engineering achieved 100 years ago to make this Canal possible. Giallard Cut is carved through rock and shale is it 13.7 kilometres long and has been widened over the years. Originally 300ft wide to 500ft wide currently being widened to 630ft on the straights and 788t on the curves. By next year this will allow for traffic of the largest commercial ships to passing safely and allow for traffic both ways.

As 1pm approached , and we had pushed the engine for the past 5 hours we were told that the lockmaster had decided to change the schedule and put 1 extra commercial ship through in the northbound slot - so now were just had to wait and go round and around in circles for the next 45 mins!!

Finally we were told to raftup alongside the Chilean yacht and prepare to enter the lock. We watched as the advisor gave the Chilean crew a bowline tying lesson and explained the job role of the line handler with the lockside handler - they didn't have to do this task last night as they were in the middle of the nest. So much for the requirement of having either professional or experienced crew on every yacht as a requirement to pass through this locking system! Again the language returned to Spanish as the lead skipper now had to control both yachts and assist his inexperienced crew too - so were we back to yelling and go this way/ back,back commands again.

On this Pacific Side there are 3 lock chambers - all separate. The 1st chamber is called Pedro Miguel lock, which would lower us 9meters/ 29.5 ft . Once we were in the first lock for today and the water started to reduce its level it became evident that the going-down water pressure was much less and indeed a slow and enjoyable experience. The lock doors opened to allow us to motor across the 1 mile long Milaflores Lake to the next two locks - collectively called Miraflores locks to sea level on the Pacific side. Due to the extreme tidal range on the Pacific side Miraflores are the tallest lock gates in the whole system. At Milifloras Lock all the action was happening shoreside at the viewing centre with a cultural musical and dancing event going on.

All went well with the shoreside linehandlers today and no broken lines - but again they throwing skills were not 100%. We came to understand that the commercial big ships are tied each side to 6 small railroad trains - so none of this throwing lines etc. to them. They use all electric locomotives called mules with steel cable attached to the commercial ships.

It did appear that us yachts were an inconvenience to all the staff and we were just tolerated within the system. Finally at about 3pm, the final lock opened and Ednbal was out into the Pacific... and she was on her way home to Australia!



We parted from our Chilean neighbours and proceeded to pass through the commercial port of Balboa. Both Rodger and Sasha had tried to make contact with Balboa Yacht Club by phone and VHF with no success - amazingly when our advisor called on his phone or used his official VHF they answered - how annoying and frustrating!! Our lines and tyres had been hired from Tito, and it had been arranged for him to collect them at Balbo Yacht Club - but due to our late arrival there was no sign of him. Roger tried to make contact by phone with no reply - amazingly when the advisor phoned from his phone he managed to speak with him... yachts, they are such an inconvenience, was the attitude we got.

Our advisor departed by launch and we carried on to the Flamingo Marina anchorage. We were greeted into the Pacific by so many pelicans and other seabirds diving into a continual bait fish stream along the shallow shore - an amazing sight to watch. As we approached the anchorage we saw some familiar yachts and were welcomed warmly - all knowing the experience we had just completed. Anchor down - a little problem at 1st as Roger had done some repairs to the windlass whilst in the marina. It was time for a cooldown shower for all 6 of us before we could sit back and relax for the evening.

Skipper opened the 1st bottle of Champagne just on sunset and we all sat back to toast our successful adventure.

FROM 1ST MARCH; James & I said our best wishes to Roger & Sasha - farewell to Ednbal and headed into Panama City for 3 days and two nights to do the odd boat sourcing and play tourist - all very successful and enjoyable. We caught a bus back to La Aventura on the Caribbean side still in Portobelo.