Heading East through the Panama Canal
22 February 2013
Carole
OK, this is a little late for sure!
We transitted the canal on February 22nd, 2013....wow! Mike and Doug were with us along with a hired line handler and also John from Contento. We had a smooth passage, the advisor was great. We were all very excited to be able to transit through the canal, one of the worlds wonders. The Advisor came onboard around 9:30am and off we went, first through the Miraflores locks which consists of 3 locks and then the Pedro Miguel lock, these locks were uphill. After we got through these locks it was a transit through the canal to Gatun Lake where we would stay for the night on the "cheeseball", seriously it does look like a cheeseball. This part was kind of boring after a while. We were rafted to our friends on "August Moon" for the transit of the locks and then we were separated for the trip to Gatun Lake. Once at Gatun Lake which is a fresh water lake, we all jumped in the lake to cool off but not before checking to make sure there were no Crocodiles around. Ken also ran the water maker which of course gave the membrane a good flush. Mike, Doug and John got the buckets and a mop and cleaned the boat, again because we had fresh water. Nice!
The next morning we were picked up about 9:30am by the advisor and off we went to transit the remainder of the locks, Gatun locks have 3 chambers, by about 1pm we were at Shelter Bay Marina and ready for a drink and some food. We all really enjoyed transitting the canal. Sometimes they do it in 1 day and sometimes 2 days, it is up to the canal Port Captain we are told.