Panama Canal Transit

Note: If you want to look at these pics on the blog more closely you can double click and it will take you to the larger versions. i couldn't do justice with my poopy Ipad but it is better than nothing.

After you have gone through all the bureaucracy, paid your fees, rented your lines and fenders and been given your date and time of transit you wait.....................................................and wait until the day

you are told to go to a place called the "Flats" to wait some more for your adviser to come on board. He climbs on and stays by the helm to tell the captain what to do while the rest of us wait for our instructions.

Finally we can go...but it was pouring rain

Our adviser was cool as a cucumber while he instructed us to motor up to the locks in the torrential downpour and wait for the other boats to join us. We all looked soaked but he never even looked wet.That smaller guy in the background is the adviser for the boat that was on our port side.

He had us raft up with two monohulls.

 Then proceed into the locks. There are three on each side of Gatun Lake.

See those guys in orange...they are the Port Authorities line handlers and they throw you a monkey fist to tie off on your rented line that they then drag back to them and use to walk with you into position.

Once inside and all tied off the gate starts to close

When the gate is all closed the water

starts to bubble and whirlpool and churn  in and you raise up. The captain and the outside four line handlers do the bulk of the work, keeping the three boats straight, not hitting the walls, and not tearing the cleats off the boats.

Going up is a trip.

We were heading up to 72' in this one but were only in the 40's

We finished the first locks in the evening and were instructed to separate the boats and motor to very large buoys in

Lake Gatun to spend the night.We had our first fresh water swim of the trip but didn't venture too far from the boat as we had already seen a very large crocodile.

Then next morning a new adviser was delivered at 6:00am. He waited until we were awake and then instructed us to start motoring across Lake Gatun

which would turn out to be a four hour long journey.

 We passed

 some

great scenery

with good birding

 but we had to stay in our lane at all times

 buoys marked our way

The Photographer

 but we ate and chatted and noticed

 bright red dragonflies on our lines.

When we neared the next set of locks we offloaded our professional photographer(my friend) onto this boat so he could take pics of us looking back. They had been transiting alone just ahead of us and agreed to take him on. He had loads of pics of their boat too.

 We rafted

 back up

with our now buddies and their new advisers

checked the fenders

and headed off. This time we were going down, down, down to the Pacific.

 They closed the gates behind us. Can't see them this time except that people are walking across behind us.

 the line handlers watched us go down

 i thought these Virgin Mary type rope holders that were never used by the canal workers were really cool.

 We dropped down and the touristas dem watched the whole show from the balcony above at the Miraflores museum above the locks.

 My friend

 got some

great shots of us from in front.

The gates opened and we greeted the Pacific side.

Got dropped off at the marina

and took the bus back to my friends...the end of a great sailing trip...a great adventure...and a chance to reconnect with people i hadn't seen in a very long time. Plus a bonus visit with someone who added a dimension i never expected to the whole experience.

See ya Wednesday!

Portobelo, Panama

So we sailed into the Portobelo harbor and dropped anchor in what we hoped would be a quiet spot. Needing more information about the particulars of transiting the canal we started questioning other boaters that looked like they may be ahead of us in the process. Of course you hear horror stories...the long delays, where not to wait, transits gone wrong, the expense and the bureaucratic nightmare we were to face. But until we actually started the process we thought we would enjoy Portobelo.

 The vultures were everywhere, especially swarming above the church called San Felipe. i kind of wondered about that.

 The old and the new!

 Another black christ but this one has quite a history. He is said to have been delivered to Portobelo accidentally but didn't want to leave and caused all sorts of turmoil and miracles. Every year hundreds of people crawl into town on their knees to ask forgiveness. You can find more of the history HERE.

Scariest mask at the show.

We met nice people everywhere even though we were warned not to walk the streets of Colon and that 28 gangs were just waiting to attack us just because we were Gringos with dollar signs written all over us. When i actually went there on a bus later it didn't look so dangerous but we did follow directions and take the really inexpensive taxi's that are everywhere. A lot of the negatory story was worst case scenario.

Sailing to Colon

 The ZONE...I counted 38 tankers just waiting to transit. There were loads more in the other direction.

 Colon didn't look dangerous...but looks can be deceiving. The people on the streets and in the grocery stores and on the bus were nothing but kind. We took taxis like we were instructed but i was dying to get out and walk around.

we had to go wait somewhere until they called to tell us when to come get measured. We found a little secluded spot at the Flats and spent the night. The horns and containers dropping all night made it a bit rough.

We got measured the next day.. the stories unfortunately had sunk in so after we paid the transit fee at the Citi bank you accessed from mooring at Club Nautico we booked it on out of there and found a nicer secluded spot to wait.

Spent two nights here...no crocodiles...did lots of swimming and more boat maintenance then back to Portobelo where i got off to spend a few nights on shore with an old friend from St. Croix that i had run into accidentally. That's a great story but too long to go into here. That friend ended up being our 4th line handler and professionally photographed the whole journey through the canal.

 Friend's sunset...lovely and peaceful!

 Friend's Hammock

One of Friends buildings

 Low tide at friends...swam and birded a lot here too.

More touring

The 7th Horseman...Castro and Noriega...on a Diablo Roja

Hiking and finally visiting with a lovely lady that teaches English to local kids at her house.

Next one will be the transit!