Through the canal today
06 April 2010
If you want to watch Meander going through the Panama canal you can do so at this link....http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html...at around 5-5.30pm Panama time (+15 hours for Australian time) and then on the miraflores locks webcam tomorrow morning early ...around 6am. Check it out!!! Due to a complete lack of information on the procedure for going through I have copied Ghosts blog which outllines their transit through the canal on 4 April 2010....
"D-day finally dawned and after a last minute stock up at Reys supermarket (yes we do need 40 packs of tortillas and 5 more slabs of beer) we prepared the boat to go. Al and Luke (aka baby Bon Jovi due to physical resemblance) joined us from Sunboy to fulfil the criteria of 1 pilot + 4 line handlers. Stanley our agent, who up to this point had been very reliable, forgot to tell us what time we were supposed to pick up our agent. Luckily a quick radio call to the signal station set us straight and around 2pm we headed out to the anchorage near the Atlantic end of the canal where they drop off the agent. After a 30-minute wait the pilot boat turned up and pulled a skilful drop off manoeuvre which luckily avoided any boat to boat contact, and dropped off our advisor for the day - a very friendly man called George.
Then we were off, motoring the short distance to the entrance to the Gatun locks, the first set of 3 locks that raise boats up a total of 26m from sea level to Gatun Lake. Before you enter the locks the yachts raft up together and we found ourselves in a group of 3 on the starboard side of a large French cat, all of us tucked in the lock behind a large container ship. This meant we only had to man two lines on the starboard side and we formed into teams - Babi Bon and Jay on the bow line and Al and Chris at the stern, whereas I seemed to spend most of the transit cooking for our enlarged crew. Apparently if the pilot is not happy with the food you provide he can order meals to be delivered at a cost of US$300!
Once we were in the locks the line handlers at the side threw down "monkey fists", weighted balls that carry lightweight lines. You tie your heavyweight lines to these and then the line handlers pull them up and hook them over bollards when the boat is in position. The upward locks are supposed to be more tricky as the filling water creates substantial turbulence, but under the guidance of our adviser we took in the lines as required as the boat gradually raised and it was all relatively simple. By now it was starting to get dark and George guided us into Gatun Lake where we all rafted up to large bollards for a peaceful night with pork casserole and beers.
The following morning we met the pilot boat at 6am to greet our new advisor for the day, Mesa. As soon as he was on board we set off to transit Gatun Lake. The lake was formed by flooding the existing landscape with a big dam and apparently the drowned buildings and even a train sitting on its tracks are still down there in almost perfect condition. The total canal length is around 80km, most of which consists of the Gatun Lake so it was quite a long time before we crossed the lake and reached the Gaillard Cut, the final 12km stretch forming the narrowest part of the canal that leads to the final locks. For the final locks we rafted up as a 2 with JP on Kali - the procedure is the same as before but the water is much calmer so it's even easier and before we knew it we were through the Miraflores locks and in the Pacific! We dropped off our hired lines and extra fenders and our pilot Mesa and headed out to anchor in La Playita for a few days to explore Panama."