Pete Makes a Trial Canal Transit
We have been in Colon waiting to transit through the Panama Canal for a few days now. There are about 40 sailboats in the area either getting ready to transit to the Pacific side or have recently come through to this side, the Atlantic side. While waiting we have had the opportunity to meet many interesting people. As you might expect the Canal is the convergence area for two sides of the sailing world. Many Europeans and east coast Canadians and Americans are converging with west coast Canadian and American sailors along with the odd South American sailor. Many others are Aussies or Kiwis on their way home from circumnavigating the globe taking the east to west cruising route.Alan, the captain of Rhum Punch, which is the boat Karen and I are traveling on, met Don and Annette Belsher at the bar in the Panama Canal Yacht Club in Colon. The yacht club is the only marina on this side of the canal in Panama. The marina has four short piers and Rhum Punch is on pier one. The rest of the boats (about 25 to 30) are at a nearby anchorage in an area referred to as the "flats". Doug and Annette on Free Spirit, a 45-foot Canadian built boat, are a nice couple from Vancouver, Canada on their way home from circumnavigating the globe during the past 12 years. They need one more line handler for their transit to the Pacific side in a couple of days. Boats the size of Free Spirit require four line handlers each with 150 feet of line. It is Wednesday, March 21st, and unfortunately, Rhum Punch still has not been scheduled for its transit (that's another story).
Alan would like to go through the canal as a line handler so that he could get a feel for what the Canal is like for when he brings Rhum Punch through. But as a birthday present to me (my birthday is March 22nd) he asked me to fill in for him and report back the "ins and outs" of the transit. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go through and I did not have anything else better to do. Line handling is not a real paid position, but usually the captain of the boat will provide the food for the day. The locals charge about $40 - $50 USD for line handling, but yachties are traditionally looking for cheaper ways to do things. So finding another yachtie or a backpacker to help out is the tradition. For the most part the line handler either takes line in during the up locks or lets line out in the down locks. The start is supposed to be at 5 AM on Friday, March 23rd. At least that's what Doug and Annette thought on Wednesday evening when Alan introduced me to them. On Thursday, Doug sent word to me that the pilot would be joining Free Spirit at 8:30AM. Every boat transiting the Canal must have a local pilot on board. The pilot fee is included in the $500 fee to transit the canal for boats under 50 feet. "Great, I can sleep in", I thought to myself. Well, when Friday morning came around and Don, who would also be line handling on Free Spirit with me, brought his dinghy alongside Rhum Punch and rapped on the hull, it was 6:30 AM. Don came by to tell me that the time had been changed again and they needed me on Free Spirit by 7 AM.
Alan took me out to the flats where Free Spirit was anchored. Once Alan dropped me off he went out to Swagman to pick up Don and Gerra. Don and Gerra are Australians who have been cruising for the past eight years. The four line handlers on Free Spirit will be Annette, Don, Gerra, and me. Doug is the captain. All we need now is the pilot or "advisor" as they preferred to be called. At 7:20 AM, a pilot boat dropped off Manuel, our pilot for the day.
With all the necessary crew on board, we pull up anchor and Manuel takes the wheel and steers us towards the Canal. It is only a mile or two to the first lock. On the way Manuel, who is very professional, informs our captain that we will be transiting the first set of locks in the "center lock" position.
Sailboats can transit the canal in one of four ways: 1) "nested" meaning two or three sailboats are tied up together in the middle of the lock; 2) tied to the lock wall; 3) tied to a tugboat, which is tied to the lock wall; or 4) center locked meaning the sailboat transits alone in the middle of the lock. When the boats are nested, only two line handlers on each of the outside boats have any work to do. When the boat is tied to the lock wall only two line handlers will be doing any work. When a boat is tied to a tug, the tugboat is tied to the lock wall, which means the line handlers have nothing to do. When you are center locked all the line handlers are needed. So it appears that we will all be earning our pay today, if we transit "center lock."
The set of locks on the Atlantic side are called Gatun Locks and they are a set of three locks in a row. Each lock is large enough to hold one of those massive container ships with enough room left over to squeeze in a single row of small boats behind. The whole Panama Canal lock system is two locks wide. Meaning the locks are in pairs and are operated together to make the most efficient use of the water and the complicated pump system. Since noon December 31, 1999, Panama has had full authority and control of the Canal. Panama carries out its responsibilities for the Canal through the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).
As we get closer to the first Gatun lock, Manuel informs Doug that we will be tied to a tugboat with another yacht. Wahoo, no work in the Gatun Locks. The other yacht is Kialoa III. We are all excited. Kialoa III is a 30-year-old racing boat that held the Sydney-Hobart race record for 21 years until 1996. As we pull up to Kialoa III you can instantly see she is build for speed. She is about 60 feet with a very tall rig, flat deck with countless winches, and a steering wheel that has to be about 6 feet in diameter. After talking with the crew of Kialoa III we learn that she does not race anymore but can still do over 22 knots. An American, who is not on board, owns her. Kialoa III is on her way to New Zealand via the same route Karen and I are taking. We are sure to run into them again along the way.
Before we enter into the first lock we raft up to Kialoa III's port (left) side very tightly using winches. In front of us is a container ship with 13 containers across its beam. There is less than one foot between the container ship and the lock walls on each side. Behind the container ship is about 100 feet of length left for us (tugboat, Kialoa III and Free Spirit) to squeeze in behind. After we pull into the lock we tie up to the tug using Kialoa's starboard (right) side. The tug is already tied to the lock wall. As soon as we are in the lock and Kialoa starts to tie up to the tug, the lock doors begin to close. With nothing to do on Free Spirit we are all free (no pun intended) to be tourists. We all begin snapping pictures of every movement. Once the doors close, you can see the waterline on the lock walls begin to rise. The ride is smooth and is about 40 feet. Once we are at the top we need to wait for the container ship to move into the next lock. Oh boy! When the container ship turns its screws, it kicks out a huge prop wash. It creates havoc with the water. It's like we are in a washing machine with the swirling and swishing. Some of the waves are five feet high. It's a good thing our nesting lines are being held tight by the winches. After the initial prop wash passes, the container ship begins to move into the next lock. The ship gets help from six "mules." Mules are small railroad cars about the size of a small mobile home. The mules run along each side of the canal locks on geared railroad tracks. Their job is to help pull or push the large ships through.
Our nest of two (Free Spirit and Kialoa III) unties from the tug and move to the next lock. The tug moves alone to the next lock and ties to the wall. Then our nest reattaches to the tug and the process begins again.
In the third and last Gatun lock, the prop wash begins to move us around just like the last two times. Then, all of a sudden Kialoa III begins to list about 10 to 15 degrees towards us. Then BANG! What was that? Something happened to the starboard side of Kialoa III next to the tug. Most of the Kialoa III crew rushes over to see what happened. Just then she begins to right herself. The prop wash is gone and all is calm again. From our position on Free Spirit we can't see any damage. After things settle down we learn that one of the fenders, which is air filled, popped. Wow! That must have been a lot of pressure. I have never heard of a fender popping.
With everything back to normal, we exit the lock and find ourselves in one of the largest man made lakes in the world, Gatun Lake. Since it is a fresh water lake, the yachties like it because it will kill all the saltwater creatures that have attached themselves to the hull of the boat. We motor across the lake to the final three locks. These locks will take us down to the Pacific Ocean. The ride across the lake was nice and took about three hours. The lake is littered with islands. The islands and the shore are lined with rain forest looking foliage. I heard that you can see monkeys in the treetops in the mornings but we are traveling midday and no monkeys were to be found.
While crossing the lake we learn Manuel has been an advisor for four years. Before that he taught at a local maritime university for a few years and before that he was in the merchant marines for 11 years. Throughout the whole transit, Manuel is very professional, confident, and polite to everyone. During one point on the lake someone asked about Manuel's family and he took that opportunity to begin passing around pictures of his wife and children.
At this point, Annette has passed around a plate of very delicious cookies and homemade (or rather boat-made) lemon bread and cinnamon muffins. In fact, the cornucopia plate seems to have been coming around all morning with no complaints from the crew. Then sandwiches find their way into everyone's hands. Then near the end of the lake it was time for lunch, which consisted of boat-made pasta salad and hot dogs with condiments including sautéed onions. We are being paid very well.
The lock configuration on the Pacific side is not all three locks back-to-back like the Gatun Locks. The first lock is a single lock called the Pedro Miguel Locks, which is separated from the next locks by Miraflores Lake. The lake will take us about 40 minutes to cross. Finally, there are the Miraflores Locks and we go through two locks there.
For all three locks on this side we go in first with a tug and the same container ship from earlier in the day pulls in behind us. Kialoa III was much faster than us on the lake. She is likely already down on the Pacific side. With the container ship behind us we do not have to worry about the prop wash. Instead once we are all lowered and the lock doors open we quickly untie from the tug and motor into the next lock as the mules help the container ship in behind us.
We run through this drill for all three locks. When we reach the Miraflores Locks, Manuel points out the red and white tower that houses the Internet camera. The camera provides live pictures to the Internet every three seconds. We all have sent emails home alerting our families and friends that we could be seen on this camera between 3 and 5 PM. It is 3:20 PM and now we are all running to the bow waving our beers at the camera. For a short period I run to the stern to hold out the large Canadian flag Free Spirit is flying from the stern. At one moment while sitting at the stern and looking into the camera I wonder how things are going back home. How is my mom? Is she watching me now? How about my dad? Does he have time to check out the site today? Can everyone really see me sitting here in the hot sun wearing shorts? How are things going at my old client site? Ouch! That was a thought about work. No more of that…
In the last Miraflores lock there is a current of about 3 to 4 knots pushing us faster towards the Pacific. We are all excited about getting to the Pacific, but this is dangerous. Manuel warned us the current would be bad in this last lock. Up until now there was no current to speak of in any of the other five locks. To prepare for this I put my beer down and ready myself with the stern line. As soon as possible I toss the stern line to the person standing at the stern on the tug and secure the line to our stern as he secures his end to the tug. This all happens in a matter of seconds. But if we do not secure the stern line quick enough Free Spirit would crash into the lock doors that are only about 10 feet in front of us. Not much room for error. We do have the motor running but using it in reverse in that turbulent current is not easy and Manuel warns us that the stern line is likely to be the only thing stopping us from hitting the lock doors. It turns out to be uneventful and I pick my beer back up and smile at the camera.
After starting the day at about 6:30 AM the last lock door opens and we motor into the Pacific. It's about 4:30 PM. As we start to move, Manuel announces to the crew, "Welcome to the Pacific Ocean." Free Spirit was last in the Pacific in 1996. Doug and Annette are now one step closer to getting home after 14 years.
We are in a river like area that opens into the Pacific Ocean. After motoring about 15 minutes we reach Port of Balboa where a pilot boat is waiting to pick up Manuel. With a touch of his humor we have grown to enjoy throughout the day, Manuel turns the helm back over to Doug and warns him to be careful with his boat. Manual was implying that Free Spirit was his boat.
After dropping off Manuel, Doug is happy to have control of his own boat again. After all, you would think that if someone has sailed 40,000 miles around the world he would have enough experience to steer his own boat. Just below Port of Balboa is the Bridge of the Americas. The bridge is the only road connecting North and South America. All of this is next to Panama City. A few hundred yards beyond the bridge to the port side is the Balboa Yacht Club. It consists of a long pier that extends out about 100 yards with the dock master's shack at the end of it. Around the pier are about 40 moorings that are almost all taken.
Doug dropped off Don, Gerra and me on the pier and we bid our farewells. Don and Gerra are carrying the four 150 foot lines that are mandatory for the canal transit. Very few small sailboats have these required lines on their boats. So as a result a few sets of lines are handed around from boat to boat or rented locally. I am carrying two tires that Alan asked me to bring back to Rhum Punch. We will use the tires as extra fenders for our transit. It is very common for the yachties to line both sides of the boat with tires for protection during the transit. I guess the added benefit of tires is that they are not filled with air like fenders and they won't pop.
The three of us caught a taxi to the Panama City bus terminal and from there we caught an air-conditioned bus back to Colon. Unfortunately, I have already ridden this route twice already. Once with Karen when we left Panama City to meet Alan in Colon. The second time was with Alan and Karen when we returned Alan's rental car in Panama City.
As soon as we locate the bus and find our seats I start to contract minor stomach cramps. Our bus ride is uneventful and lasts about an hour and a half. My stomach doesn't get too much worse, but I avoid dinner for the night. For the next three days my stomach goes through small fits off and on after each meal. We deduce that the heat brought it on during the transit.
During the transit I started out drinking lots of water in the morning. In the afternoon when Annette started passing out beers I did not want to insult her so I had beer all afternoon. Even Manuel had a few. I think there is a rule about offering alcohol to your advisor. Apparently Manuel, despite working the canal for over four years, is unaware of that rule. I guess I should have had less beer and more water.
Overall I had a wonderful time during the transit. It gave me the opportunity to meet new friends and gain experience and knowledge for Rhum Punch's transit. Despite the benefits of free food and beer, line handling will not be a new career for me. In fact, once I have passed through with Rhum Punch, I will be happy to move on. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Once in a lifetime is all you need.