Going through the Panama Canal

I spent 10 days in Panama City waiting for my slot. The anchorage was pretty rolly but I got a lot of stuff done, including replacing the windlass gypsy (Lewmar has maybe some of the best support I’ve seen from a company, let alone a marine one), changing the coolant, oil and putting an undamaged seal on the water pump and a bunch of other small things.

I then test ran the engine and found it was overheating now. Wonderful. After some troubleshooting I figured that the raw water strainer I had emptied was now sucking air. I had a spare one I’d been meaning to install for ages so I did and then it worked. Phew!!!

I took some time to go to a little nature park where I saw all kinds of cool things like tree frogs, butterflies and a lot of sloths (maybe my fav animal)

Anyway, the time slipped away and it was canal day! You need 4 linehandlers + the panama canal advisor on the boat, which is a lot of people for someone used to sailing solo. I hired one professional line handler and had 3 people off other boats (people often go through as a line handler on someone elses boat before doing it themselves), so four strangers. I did have a friend fly down to help, but my date was so far in the future she couldn’t stay for it and ended up going on someone elses boat!

The day started at 4am, with me grabbing 2 of the line handlers off the marina dock (the other 2 had slept over). By 5am we were waiting in position for the pilot boat to drop off the advisor, which was done with minimum fuss and then it was onwards!

The canal is about 40miles or so long, with 6 locks organised into 3 sets (2 sets on the pacific side and 1 on the Atlantic). A large portion of the middle of the canal is through a large manmade lake, which was created by damming up a river. It took an hour or so to reach the first lock, which we then hung around waiting for as it apparently had jammed. Great start. Eventually we were able to go in, and followed a container ship in.

The first lock was a centre tie – we were by ourselves behind the ship, and were tied with 4 ropes, one to each quadrant of the boat. The lines were attached by people on the dock walls throwing throwlines with monkey fists (small, hard weights) across the distance. 3 of the dock ppl made the throw perfectly, the 4th missed the boat entirely, and on the 2nd attempt it smacked into the solar arch, obliterating one of the panels!

That aside, the lines were pulled through, and we ascended without too much drama.

The webcam on this lock is the best positioned one, unfortunately (of course) it was out of order for most of the time i was in the lock, just coming online again right at the end after the container ship left, but before we moved.

We got walked to the second lock, and the procedure repeated.

We then had to motor to the third lock, where we were tied off to a tug which was a lot easier. The hard part came when we had to move out of the way of the tug, the canal is pretty narrow, there was a lot of current and propwash from the boat ahead of us and Sooner does NOT really like to turn… after almost bumping off the opposite wall I got her under control and off we went.

This next section for me was the most challenging, as it was hours and hours of motoring, following a series of green buoys. It’s probably the longest I’ve ever hand steered, and as I’d had very little sleep the night before, it was rouuuugh.

Eventually we got to the end of the man made lake and the last set of three locks. All 3 of these we were tied to the wall and it was pretty drama free – had to pole off a bit, but nothing terrible.

By this time it was after dark, and then another couple of hours motoring following yet more buoys to drop off the pilot (which in 25 knot winds and choppy seas was an…. experience)

Finally got to the shelter bay anchorage around 9pm, and then… had to assemble the porta-bote.

Finally got everyone offloaded and cracked a well deserved beer at 10pm, and then passed out and fell fast asleep