The Panama Canal – itsajollyholiday

Incredible Feat of Large-Scale Engineering

It happens everyday but this day was our day. Like falling in love, even though countless souls have gone before you, when it does happen to you it feels so unique and personal. Transiting the Panama Canal. Wow. We did it!

Who wants to sail around the tip of South America? Have you seen how bad the weather can get down there? Not to mentioned a few thousand extra miles (say 8K). Luckily men before us decided they didn’t want to make the South America rounding either, or rather, men before us wanted to ship goods quickly and cheaply between Atlantic and Pacific coasts (and reposition battleships). And so the Panama Canal became a realization (1903-1914) and a country was reborn (The Republic of Panama- Independence declared November 3, 1903).

I didn’t expect to be as excited as I was, but I could hardly sleep for the thrill of creeping slowly through the canal. It probably reads like I’m joking, but I’m not. Not only is this one of mans’ great feats, but more personally it represents the gateway to the sailing life for which we had been wanting, saving, working and planning the better part of twenty years. Leaving the Caribbean behind and emerging in the Pacific meant this was really happening. Not another delay or false start. This sh*t is real.

We requested, via our hired canal agent, a one day transit, and we got it. Most boats like us do only the Gatun locks on day 1, then must stay in Gatun Lake overnight before the final locks and completing the canal transit on day 2. This might sound like a better pace, but a day 2 doesn’t necessarily end any sooner than our one-dayer, and stopping involves getting a pilot off at night, a new (or same) pilot on the next morning, plus additional meals for all involved. We were stoked to get a 1-day transit. Let’s do this!

The Panama Canal in One Day

Our Timetable
Day before transit	Docked at Shelter Bay Marina. Already on board: Jim, Tom, Giselle and CJ. Hernando, local line handler, arrives & boards.
Evening before transit	Arrive at Anchorage F, "The Flats"
Day of transit:
The Flats starting point	3:30 am wake time (required to be ready for pilot an hour before he gets there) 4:45 am pilot arrives via tugboat & boards Holiday
Atlantic Bridge	~6:00 am day is dawning; 3 kilometers (about 2 miles) north of Gatun locks
south of Atlantic Bridge	raft together with California Gold
Gatun Locks 3 chambers	~7:00 am entering the 1st lock; 27 million gallons of water enters (each lock) and raises us up
Gatun Lake	~9:00 am unraft with California Gold; 34 kilometers (about 21 miles) until Culebra Cut
nearish Barro Colorado Island	~12:00 pm south side of the lake; caught a mooring buoy; lunch time
heading south & the Culebra Cut	~1:30 pm underway again
Centennial Bridge	~2:30 pm close to Pedro Miguel Locks; 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of Bridge of Americas
north of Pedro Miguel Locks	reraft together with California Gold
Pedro Miguel Locks 1 chamber	~3:00 pm entered the lock and waited, waited, waited for a massive RoRo (roll-on roll-off) car carrier ~4:00 pm descent back to sea level begins, from 85 feet to 54 feet above sea level
Miraflores Locks 2 chambers	~5:00 pm entered the lock and waited, waited, waited for that same RoRo ~6:00 descent continues; back to sea level
heading south	sun going down; parted ways with California Gold; sunset at 6:28 pm
Bridge of Americas	~7:30 pm pilot boat comes by to pick up our pilot
Balboa Yacht Club, Pacific Ocean	time = very dark; moor in the mooring field close to the Bridge of Americas; celebration! (short); bedtime

The Panama Canal, more stuff

April 22, 2018 – 2 days before canal transit

The excitement is building as we approach Shelter Bay Marina. Also on board, Tom, who joined us at our previous spot, Linton Bay Marina.

Later that day we were joined by Jim, a friend of Tom’s. Tom asked us if Jim could join and we were happy to have him aboard.

*Ships-a-plenty as we head SW*
*~6.5 nautical miles from the breakwater*
*(screen shot from Apr 9 when we were going to Shelter Bay Marina for our official measurement)*

*Here’s the ship closest to us on the chart plotter screen shot. Looks close, and it was, but it wasn’t under way.*

*Plotter orientation is ship heading up, but we are heading SW (see course over ground 234º)*.

*CJ at the helm. Cristobal Port Control gave him clearance to enter the breakwater*.

*view of Holiday*
*Shelter Bay Marina restaurant*

*Jim had a bucket list item we could help with;*
*the Panama Canal. *

April 23, 2018 – the day before transit

Final preparations at Shelter Bay Marina. Joining us onboard = Hernando.

*While underway (south of Lake Gatun) this freighter passes with our trusty line handler looking on.*

*After attending his line, Hernando comes forward to attend to the slackened forward port line as well.*

Hernando – Fourth line handler. Four line handlers are required, plus a captain and a local pilot (joining us later). We had three inexperienced handlers (Giselle, Tom and Jim) so having one local, experienced handler made sense. We were not wrong! Hernando didn’t speak much or really any English, but was friendly, hard working and knew his sh*t. Also, he had a predilection for Cholula hot sauce so we knew he was good people. When you look at the video pay special attention to the first set of locks (Gatun locks). You’ll see the ship in front of us hails from Majuro and you’ll see Hernando, after doing his job, running forward to the the one job Tom and I were sharing. (Since we ended up tied to another boat only two line handlers were ultimately needed. Hernando took the stern, port line while Tom and I, but mainly Tom, shared the forward port line. Jim was free to roam about. What Jim was doing while Hernando was doing two jobs at once was enthralling Tom and me with a wild story about how he hitchhiked in Majuro and accidently met The King. Jim ends up at The King’s ‘house’ that day and other wackiness follows as well.

Enroute to The Flats

*pictured near the west side breakwater entrance – Heading to go across the channel towards The Flats which are East (& north) of the Canal. (All behind the breakwaters.)*

April 24, 2018 – the transit day

The video captures the entire day in four minutes so it is the best way to see it all, but here are additional (and some of the same) moments:

Atlantic Bridge

*Pilot, Guillermo, getting ready for the day.*
*CJ at the helm*.

Looking back after going under the Atlantic Bridge (under construction). This bridge will be the world’s longest concrete cable-stayed bridge. 1,050 meters (3,445 ft) long , 530 meter (1,739 ft) main span, 212.5 meter (697 ft) high pylons, and 75 meter (246 ft) vertical clearance.

south of Atlantic Bridge

rafting together with California Gold

Gatun Locks – 3 chambers

*Our first lock! Gatun (1 of 3 chambers) – picture looking back, north, at the Atlantic Bridge.*

*Our first lock! Gatun (1 of 3) – picture looking forward.*

*About eight minutes later, chamber is full. 28 feet above sea level. How does it work? Gravity.*

*Jim, Giselle and Tom in the Gatun Locks*

*SBI URSA moving into second Gatun Lock*

*Made it up all 3 Gatun locks! Now 85 feet above sea level.*

Gatun Lake

*We overtake SBI URSA (see Gatun Locks) off our port side.*

*Plotter orientation is ship heading up (our direction), but we are heading SE (see course over ground 147º).* HAMBURG SÜD. *is the ship heading towards us; California Gold behind us.*

Chart plotter was zoomed out so it looks like trouble, but not really (just got close – not on a collision course) – btw SÜD in short for Südamerikanische Dampfscheffahrts Gesellschaft. Hard to say why they abbreviate.

nearish Barro Colorado Island

Floating crane Titan (aka “Herman the German”) – main boom standing 374 feet (114 meters) above water line

One of three seized by Allies from the German Kriegsmarine. Herman has tended Nazi U-boats, did heavy lifting at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard (USS Missouri and USS New Jersey gun barrels), lifted the Hughes H-4 “Spruce Goose” from its original hanger and more. Herman came to Panama in 1996 replacing cranes that had been around since the canal’s beginning (1914). Herman now performs heavy lifts for the canal’s lock maintenance.

*We arrive at a mooring field and tie up. This is where we have lunch.*

*California Gold, the boat we raft up with going through the locks, arrives to mooring spot about 15 minutes after us.*

Lunch was my biggest pre-canal fret. And coffee. I seriously worried about what coffee to have on board before we even left Grand Cayman in 2016. Reportedly, if you do not provide proper coffee or hot meal, the pilot will send out for it and we’d be on the hook to pay hundreds of dollars. Our friends Jenn and Tony provided the perfect coffee solution and the bon voyage gift that keeps on giving – a single cup Keurig coffee maker and a boatload of coffee/tea cups to go with it. Did the pilot want French Vanilla, Dunkin Donuts, Breakfast Blend, or some other? He could name his coffee and we had it!

I am not an avid cook and when I do cook, it is not with meat. Also, I didn’t know how much time I would have to be both line handler and cook so I needed something easy, quick and tasty. I ended up pre-prepping a red lentil Sloppy Joe concoction and had some frozen, seasoned chicken ready to heat up to go with the Sloppy Joe lentils. I served this for dinner the night before as well, so The Crew all got the same meal twice, but I think it was a decent fare. Turns out I had oodles of time to prepare lunch leisurely, but it was nice to have it all ready anyway. Coffee and lunch were successful enough that nothing needed to be sent out for and at the end of the day Guillermo said we took great care of him. He also complimented CJ’s helm skills. Thanks Guillermo!

heading south & the Culebra Cut

Centennial Bridge

*Chillaxin’ before the next set of locks.*

*Centennial Bridge – 1,052 meters (3,451 ft) long , 320 meter (1,050 ft) main span, 184 meter (604 ft) high towers, and 80 meter (262 ft) vertical clearance*

north of Pedro Miguel Locks

*California Gold approaches so we can reraft.*

Pedro Miguel Locks – 1 chamber

*picture looking back, north, at the Centennial Bridge*

*waiting for the RoRo (massive roll-on roll-off car carrier) to get here*

*looking back at the RoRo in Pedro Miguel*

*our first red channel mark on the “wrong” side*

The Tug That Could
There was a strong wind blowing perpendicular to the lock so this tug pushed on the RoRo sideways to get it into the 1st Miraflores lock.

Miraflores Locks – 2 chambers

*Miraflores Visitor Center and The Observers*

*Chamber 1 – Come on RoRo; Get in Here*
*(Tug That Could in Action)*

*So Close and So Far*
*We quickly made it into the Miraflores 1st Lock (still rafted up with California Gold), then waited forever for the RoRo to get in behind us.*

HUGE thank you! to PATTI and JOHN LEMIEUX who got this screen shot.

We sent a shout-out to everyone we could think of to get a canal webcam shot of us. Turns out it is not so easy. Some cams work, others not, and/or footage is delayed, and no one expected us to still be in the Miraflores locks so late. No one in the world managed to capture a webcam shot for us except Patti and John. Thank you so much Patti and John for persevering!