The Panama Canal! (43nm)

We’ve dedicated this entire blog post to our transit of the Panama Canal, as it certainly felt like we packed a regular week’s worth of activities into the two days it took us to travel from Colon to Balboa (and thus save us the terrifying prospect of rounding Cape Horn). We learnt just how big the cargo ships look when you have to share a lock with them, and were thankful to get across to the Pacific without any major damage to Serenity.

Introduction

I was amazed to learn that the Panama Canal is now over 100 years old, as it was opened in 1914 (although its opening was somewhat overshadowed by some major geopolitical events in Europe). Whilst it has undergone a number of major upgrades over its lifetime, the core concept of the canal has remained unchanged: boats are lifted 26 metres above sea level over the course of three locks and then make the 25nm journey across the man-made Gatun Lake and through the Gaillard Cut, before being lowered back to sea level across a corresponding three locks. It is a remarkable piece of engineering to consider given its historical context, and it was the only way that we’d be able to sail Serenity First across the Pacific whilst also keeping the ‘no Capes’ promise that I made to Laura when we first discussed a life on the ocean.

In addition to maintaining my status as a man of my word, the canal would also save us having to sail c.8,000nm around the coast of S America, which is a bloody long way considering the conditions that one tends to find in that part of the world. So all in all, it represented very good value for our c.$2,000 of transit fees (perhaps less so if we had been forced to pay the new rates of c.$4,000 that came into effect on 1st January…).

Whilst sailboats are not an uncommon sight in the canal, it is fair to say that the canal was designed with larger vessels in mind. As such, the prospect of dealing with the lock infrastructure is quite daunting, but thankfully the Panama Canal Authority often arranges for sailboats to travel through the locks in ‘nests’ of up to three vessels, albeit you still end up sharing the lock with one or more larger vessels. Since the sailboats are tied together, it simplifies the number of lines that are needed to hold the boats in place against the strong currents that are generated by the filling / emptying process, not to mention the wash from the big boats you end up sharing the locks with.

The standard timing for a North to South transit is to spread the journey over two days, with a night spent on a buoy in Gatun Lake to break it up. Our nest buddies for the trip were a 36ft Vancouver called Venture Lady and a 54ft custom aluminium boat called Dame Jane. The latter boat would occupy the centre of the nest given their larger size and engine, and we would then be responsible for two lines (bow and stern) to the locks from our side (with Venture Lady taking care of the other side). Even though we would only be handling two lines, the regulations insist on having four line handlers available on every vessel in the event that nesting is not possible. Due to some confusion on line handler availability, we ended up with four additional crew for the transit plus the canal adviser who would guide us each day and so our total aboard including Laura and I was seven. It was the most crew we’ve ever had to accommodate and it was fair to say it was a boatload, but we were just about able to make it work.

The Transit

We decided to stay in Shelter Bay Marina until the day of our transit, as it was easier to meet up with our line handlers, and collect the oversized fenders and ropes that you need to rent for the crossing. Our new crew consisted of Ilene (a friend of Yanell and Missy on S/V Hoodoo that we met in San Blas), Carola (a student from Mexico), and Neil and Chuck (long-time cruisers off S/V Dottie Sue that was scheduled to make the reverse transit on the 30th December). The latter three had all contacted us after finding an advert we had placed on panlinehandlers.com, and we were very grateful to them as it saved us the $100 per linehandler fee we would’ve had to pay to get ‘professionals’ aboard.

Crew and kit collected, we motored out of the marina on Boxing Day and waited at anchor, as instructed, for our advisor to be dropped off and our transit to then begin. Things were running a bit late, naturally, and by the time they got to us the wind had picked up significantly, which made it a tough jump aboard for Jorge, our first advisor, to join us. But he made it successfully and we were finally off.

The next two days passed by in a bit of a blur, but thankfully we got some good GoPro footage of the key moments of the transit that I’ve edited together into a highlights reel below. The ascending locks up to Gatun Lake on the first day were by far the hardest to clear, as we were still learning what was required from us on the lines, but we made it up intact and then formed an unusual raft around an oversized mooring buoy for the night (at which point Jorge left us). Unfortunately the Canal pilot boats continued to operate throughout the night and their wakes caused a very bouncy motion in the raft, so sleep was elusive for most of us. We then woke to discover that the bouncing had damaged our forward fairlead and toe rail (albeit the design choice of aluminium by Elan for these has always seemed insufficient). The good news was that the damage was mostly cosmetic and didn’t interfere with the cleats that we needed to use for the locks that day. We quickly inhaled some breakfast and then our new advisor, McClane, was dropped off and he was anxious to get moving.

The whole morning of the second day is spent motoring across Gatun Lake and then through Gaillard Cut (which represented the biggest engineering challenge of the whole canal project). Sailing boats do this un-nested as it is more efficient and maintains their manoeuvrability to get out of the way of larger transiting vessels. The scenery was spectacularly different from what we are used to (this being our first freshwater lake), and the only downside was that our new adviser was far less friendly than his predecessor and was more focused on running his side business than on ensuring our safe transit. Thankfully he did eventually put his phone down as we approached the descending locks, but I was still puzzled by his instructions that often seemed to contradict his colleagues’ on the other nest boats. However, we escaped any further damage and before we knew it we were safely in the Pacific!

Parting thoughts

Once we were through, McClane continued to try and push our boat speed as high as possible and so I obliged if only to get him off Serenity asap. With him successfully deposited on the Canal pilot boat, we picked up a mooring buoy at Balboa Yacht Club and thus avoided having to deal with the unfamiliar currents and tides of the Pacific for at least one more night.

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Neil and Chuck were familiar with BYC as it was where they had left their vessel Dottie Sue, and so we followed their lead to the club house bar, and enjoyed some celebratory beers in honour of what felt like a massive achievement. The Panama Canal is a major bucket list item for pretty much all cruising sailors. It has loomed in front of our Pacific Crossing for so long that it felt very strange to now have it behind us, and therefore have very little time left before the Pacific Crossing itself. More importantly, we only had one more week before Daniel and Camille joined us as our long-term Pacific crew. It all felt very aligned with the impending 2019/20 NY celebrations, and gave us a lot to reflect on as we started to consider the next stage of our sailing adventure.