After our experience with Stuart and Anne on Time Bandit the prior week, we felt prepared for our own boat's Canal transit on February 7-8. We needed 4 line handlers and posted an note on the Marina bulletin board which yielded more people than we could use! We selected two couples to join us. Ken and Sally from Arizona were very experienced long distance cruisers some years ago and just wanted the "final" experience of transiting the canal. The second couple were from France, younger, backpacking on their vacation in Panama. Lucas and Cecile both had boating experience too. Lucas had his captain's license and had captained numerous vessels in the Caribbean. Cecile had experience with boats living in Marseille France. All 4 were delightful guests on board and did an excellent job of enthusiastic line handling.
Just as on the prior week when we transited with Time Bandit, we were instructed to wait for our advisor by anchoring near Colon. But this time the advisor did not arrive until nearly 4:30 pm.
We were rafted with another sail boat and placed behind a huge cruise ship into each Gatun Lock. This was different than the prior week with Time Bandit in which there were 15 boats in 5 rafts in the lock together. The benefit of being in the lock with a huge cruise ship was that the water filled more quickly and there were less boats to position with linehandlers. Therefore our transit of the 3 Gatun locks actually went quickly and once again we were safely rafted up at the Lake buoy just at sunset.
Thankfully there was a cool breeze for our night on the lake so sleeping was easier than the prior week.
Once again we were told that our second day advisor would arrive at 8:30 am. When that time came and went, we learned via radio that the advisors would come at 10:30 am. Hurry up and Wait again! However, when our advisor arrived we learned that he would allow us to use our genoa to sail down the Gatun Lake to the Pedro Miguel lock. This was a pleasant boost to our speed for the 28 miles down the lake.
Our placement for the second day of locks was alongside a day tour boat, so we were not tied to the wall of the lock at all but rather we would tie and untie from the tour boat. There was about 20 knots of wind from behind during these maneuvers so Dave was glad to have two engines to help in the positioning. In the lock next to us (there are two sets of parallel locks) was a giant Princess cruise ship full of passengers on all the decks watching the experience.
Because of the later start that morning, we didn't enter Pacific water until dusk. Ken and Sally explained the sea ritual we were to perform as the boat entered Pacific waters for the first time. We poured a glass of wine into the water for King Neptune and tossed a few coins in for Queen Neptune as well. Even though our registered home port for Purrrfect is Ventura CA, this was the first time that she had touched the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Dave also toasted Linda since it was her birthday!
To our delight, our Scottish friends on Time Bandit were still at anchor at La Playita and saw us on AIS, arriving in the now pitch dark to anchor. Thanks to their good directions we safely anchored near them and had a satisfied deep sleep.