3-25-2015 Panama Canal—Day 1



Wow! What an exciting experience that was—taking our own sailboat through the Panama Canal. We had contacted an agent called Erick Galavez before we left Colombia and when we arrived at Shelter Bay Marina we gave him a call. He came down to our boat the next day and talked us through the steps for going through the canal. Erick handled everything from our clearing in/out of Panama, providing eight large fenders, 150 ft 1.5 inch mooring lines, scheduling the admeasurement and transit times, and providing the four line handelers. Some cruisers do some of these steps themselves, but we thought it was easier and safer to pay Erick to arrange everything for us. We talked to Erick on Thursday and the earliest that we could get the admeasurement done was on the next Monday. Once we got measured we were scheduled to transit the canal on Wednesday. On the big day Erick showed up around 1030 and introduced our four line handlers-- Juan, Felix, Edgar, and Albedo. The guys were around 18-30 years old and had hundreds of transits experience. We had been approached by a couple of people offering to handle our lines for free—but they did not have any experience. We decided to pay for professional line handlers as we did not want any mistakes that might end up with damage to our boat.
Erick told us the guys would be waiting up by the little store and when we were ready to shove off we just had to let them know.
Around 1130 I checked us out of the marina and told the guys to come down to the boat as Sherry had made lunch for them—hot dogs and buns, fresh carrots and celery, mac and cheese, and cookies for desert, they loved it. At 1245 the guys helped us to cast off our dock lines and we motored to the small boat anchorage in Cristobal Harbor called 'the flats' where we anchored and waited for our canal 'adviser'.
The adviser is a pilot that stays on our boat and guides us through the canal and after a short delay Roy, our adviser, was brought out to our boat. Roy had worked for the canal authority for years and only had three more years to go until reirement. As we waited, Roy told us about himself and his family and about the canal and it's history. Roy also told us about the invasion of Panama by the U.S.A.--he said it was not much of a war as the Panamanian soldiers tore off their uniforms, threw away their guns, and hid when the first bombs were dropped. There was another sailboat called Jaccata from South Africa that was transiting with us and our two boats waited at the flats for a big container ship called Fauma that we were going to 'lock up' with.
We soon saw Fauma coming down the fairway and Roy told us to lift anchor. With Jaccata we followed the container ship to the first gates of the Gatun Locks. By now it was around 2000, 8:00 pm, and the sun had set—but the lights at the locks make it seem like day. Fauma slowly moved into the first chamber guided by the small locomotives called mules. Then, under Roys expert guidance, we rafted (tied lines to each other) to Jacatta and moved into the entrance. As Serenity was larger than Jaccata and had a bow thruster we were the contolling boat. We also had the more senior adviser on board—and Roy called the shots.
As we moved into the first lock the monkey fists started to fly. Monkey fists are lead balls about the size of a tennis ball wrapped in rope and attached to a thin line. The guys caught the thin lines and tied our big mooring lines to them. The canal workers hauled in on the big lines and dropped the loop at the end over bollards, which are metal posts. Once all four lines were attached to the walls, two from Serenity and two from Jacatta, then I could relax and come out of the cockpit. The chamber is then filled rapidly with fresh water which is gravity fed from lake Gatun—the water boiled and roiled. As the boat rose up about thirty feet the line handlers took in the slack on the lines keeping the boats centered in the chamber. When the chamber was filled Roy gave a shout and the side lines were released and we motored forward following the big ship into the next chamber. There are three chambers in the Gatun locks and we made it through all three without an incident. We let the big ship clear the last chamber then we were in Gatun Lake—a huge man-made lake made just to fill the Gatun locks. Roy told the guys to cast off the rafting lines and we motored around a corner to a large mooring buoy where the guys moved our fenders around and tied us off—it was around 2120 and very dark. A pilot boat was right there to take Roy home and Sherry fed the guys home-made beef stew, rolls with butter, green salad, and puddings for desert—they loved it, again. Lake Gutan was glassy calm and quiet as we hit the sack after an exciting day and an incedible adventure.