Canal. You take off in the evening, anchor overnight on Gatun Lake in the middle of Panama, then take off the next morning for the
second half.
There are two sets of three locks in the canal. You are required to have four line handlers and hire a Panama Canal Advisor. If the
boat is longer than 65 feet, you hire a Panama Canal Pilot. A pilot is like a high-powered advisor that costs $2250 and gets you
faster service crossing in the canal.
We were also required to have four lines for the four line handlers, 125-feet long and 7/8" diameter. We rented these.
They gave us a time of 16:30 to be at "the flats" anchorage ready to go. 16:30 is the equivalent of 3:90 p.m. in the afternoon.
Rudy, Jose, and the other line handlers got to the boat around 3:00. They attached 14 tires to the sides for bumpers, in addition to
our 10 bumpers. They apparently had heard about my boat driving.
On the way to the anchorage, Cristobal Signal told us something about 19:00. So we anchored until 19:00. They told us we'd be going
through the locks rafted to two other boats. The Minnow would be in the center, with a sailboat tied to each side. The Minnow would
do the driving and the other boats could assist with their engines if we needed them.
At 7:00 pm, we pulled up the anchor to get ready to load the advisor and take off. The other two boats were already driving around.
It was raining. The three of us drove around the anchorage until the advisors arrived at about 8:15. We took off about 8:30. It was
raining. I was wet. Next time I'll stay anchored until the advisor is on the boat.
We drove up the canal to the first lock. We stayed to the right of the channel so other boats and ships could pass us. It was easy,
but I had to pay attention for literally minutes to void being crushed by a ship or ramming the side of the canal. It might have
been a first for me.
Just before the first of the three Gatun locks (on the Atlantic side of Lake Gatun), we rafted up with the red boat on our left and
the white boat on our right. Then we drove to the lock.
It was really strange going up to the lock at night. The lights, current, and rain made everything pretty disorienting. But I
behaved normally and they just figured I was drunk or something. The fresh water from the lake and river mix with the salt water of
the ocean just below that lock, producing quite a bit of turbulence. I was crabbing to the left quite a bit, then a few seconds
later I was crabbing the opposite direction as we passed through a circular current. Those other people were really wondering.
It looked like we'd never fit in that small canal with the tiny ship ahead of us. But things were farther than they appeared, and we
pulled up behind the ship. It was a big car carrier. The advisor was a little surprised to be behind such a big ship.
Four guys on the top of the canal (way above us at that point) threw "monkey fists" down to our boat, attached to some small ropes.
A monkey fist is a weighted knot they use to target line handlers and boat drivers. If they miss and don't nail anybody, the line
handlers get to tie our big ropes to their small ropes. The guys on the canal then pull up our big ropes and loop them over cleats
on the canal. They our line handles pull in (going up) or let out (going down) the big ropes through our cleats.
Since we had three boats and four ropes, we put two ropes on the left (red) boat and two on our boat. The boat on the right was
smaller, so they got no ropes. We went up at the Gatun locks, so they closed the gates behind us and filled the lock with water.
We rose up with the water, which is considered a good thing. After the lock was full, the big ship took off. Quickly. It made some
giant waves that had the red and especially the white boat bouncing around. The line handlers and advisors were doing a lot of
speedy communicating. Or maybe it was exclaiming. They asked the ship to take it easy after that, and it wasn't so bad on the next
two locks.
We stayed rafted together and drove up behind the ship on the second lock, and repeated everything, except the guys on the canal
kept hold of the small ropes and walked along with us. I think if they don't nail anybody the first time they throw the monkey
fists, they don't get to throw them any more.
Once, one of the canal guys dropped a rope in the water instead of attaching it to a cleat. So we twisted around the white boat was
headed for the side. We corrected with the engines before we broke anything, though.
Instead of a line handler and ropes, the ship used locomotives and cables to hold it in the middle of the canal. It looked like it
only had a foot or so clearance on each side. They apparently build the ships to fit the canal.
After lucking out and making it through the third lock without damaging the canal or the boats, we took off and tied to a giant
mooring buoy on Lake Gatun. Or maybe it was Gatun Lake. Our advisor got off, and the line handlers, Melinda, and I went to bed.
While I was driving, Melinda helped me, too pictures, cooked, got drinks for people, and got really irritated when the line handlers
treated her like a girl. She didn't appreciate the chivalry.
The next morning around 6:30 or 7:00, we got a new advisor. The other one probably resigned after experiencing my boat handling. We
motored a few hours to the Miraflores locks and went down. We had to wait for a while at a dock while they blew up some rocks in the
river across from us. They set off about 30 timed charges. We saw birds, ships, and stuff on the way to the locks.
We went down through the locks with no major problems, and then motored out to the Pacific Ocean. It was pretty neat.
Photos are at http://xpda.com/minnow07/pancanal
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