The journey began two months earlier than our transit date, logging on to the web site of the canal’s Small Craft Service, ASEM, to register the boat and request a transit date. I wished to make sure we reserved a particular date as we had company becoming a member of us for the transit and their schedule didn’t give us a lot flexibility.
The web site requires you to add pictures of your boat from numerous angles. It’s glitchy and sluggish, and I needed to make just a few calls to the helpline to get it to work. In some methods, the location was more durable to navigate than the canal itself.
Previously, the one choice to pay for the journey was depositing a piece of money at a financial institution in a sketchy neighborhood of Colón, with costly ATM charges. It’s now potential to do it by financial institution switch, however as a result of many retail banks have restrictions on sending cash to Panama, ASEM offers particulars for a bouncing cash switch which routes cash by way of New York.
I discovered an easier and cheaper means was to make use of my Clever account, an internet financial institution and change service, that may switch money on to the Panamanian account. ASEM doesn’t publish the complete particulars of this account, and getting it took just a few extra calls.
The price of the transit is simply over $3,000 USD for any boat below 65ft. Nonetheless, you get about $1,000 again two months later for those who don’t trigger any delays or want help within the canal.
The brand new system means there’s little or no cause to make use of an agent anymore. As soon as paid up, we uploaded the receipt to the web site and the following day referred to as the scheduling division to substantiate our date.
Andy and Julie transited the canal with a crew ranging in ages from 3 to 75
Prepared and ready
Just a few days earlier than the transit, we arrived in Shelter Bay Marina to prep for the journey.
There’s an anchorage simply exterior referred to as The Flats, however in sensible phrases, the marina expenses a lot for mooring a dinghy and choosing up passengers that it’s a false financial system to not are available in for a minimum of one or two days regardless of their excessive costs.
There’s a implausible WhatsApp group managed by a few long-stay residents. Helpful objects are marketed, normally at cut price costs, and a wealth of nice info is shared on the place to supply every little thing from flares to flags to fridges.
Cruisers additionally organise a weekly barbecue and night sundowners. The marina is about within the forest and bathed with the sound of howler monkeys and birdsong. One of many safety guards, Carlos, runs a guided nature stroll the place it’s common to see sloths.
Nonetheless, it’s removed from anyplace, so there’s a twice-daily, free shuttle bus into Colón, and this was our probability to do a giant provisioning run for the Pacific transit.
Wash contained in the lock could make holding place difficult
The water and electrical energy on the marina have been irregular, and I heard complaints about unhealthy gas, each diesel and petrol, from the gas dock. As you’ll want gas to motor for about 15 hours via the canal, it’s good to plan forward.
The opposite factor we would have liked to choose up have been strains and fenders. ASEM stipulates that every boat wants 4 hefty strains of a given size and diameter. We rented these together with 4 giant fenders from one of many brokers. Stanley delivered them to our boat within the marina, they usually have been straightforward to drop off at Playita Marina the day after our transit.
You additionally want 4 line handlers to handle the strains because the boat rises and falls within the locks, however two days earlier than they have been as a consequence of be part of us, the Campbell household was snowed in with canceled flights from the US.
They have been in a position to rebook, arriving 24 hours late. I referred to as the canal scheduler and was amazed to search out that not solely was there area on the following day, however we might be the one boat on that day. January is often the excessive season for yacht transits.
David advises Julie on the route as she helms via the canal
Boats normally undergo in pairs or trios, rafted collectively. Paradoxically, the opposite two boats as a consequence of raft with us on the 18th additionally rescheduled for various causes. Being alone within the lock introduced a brand new downside. Rafted boats solely want two energetic line handlers every, and a ship in the midst of the raft doesn’t want any. I’d counted on solely needing two energetic line handlers, however now we’d want 4.
Utilizing the WhatsApp group, I used to be capable of finding a dock-walker, Lorena, to affix us, and Melvin from the Campbell household eagerly volunteered to do the fourth nook, however his 75 years and slender body. Different skippers from the WhatsApp group typically make prepared volunteers too, because it’s a great way for them to arrange for the transit with their very own boat.
Yachts share locks with monumental cargo vessels
Making a begin
The day earlier than the transit, the scheduler confirmed we’d be on a two-day passage, spending one night time within the lake tied as much as a buoy simply after the Gatun locks. Generally boats are despatched via in at some point with a 0400 begin.
We met Eduardo, our adviser, whose position is sort of a pilot for yachts. As we motored below the Atlantic Bridge in direction of the locks, we may see the Barrington Island, a refrigerated container ship, hauling up its anchor and beginning its flip into the channel behind us.
This could be our first lock buddy within the three consecutive locks as much as Gatun Lake. We slid over to the facet of the channel as 600ft of metal hull glided previous us and was maneuvered by a tug into the lock forward of us. As we adopted it in, two canal staff from both facet launched skinny strains to us propelled by monkey fists as exhausting as cricket balls.
The Gaillard Minimize was dynamited via the encompassing hills to create the canal
I’d coated the photo voltaic panels with a spare mattress to guard them, and we signaled for them to throw to the entrance of the boat. I noticed a big goal wall utilized by them to follow their throws, however regardless of this, their strains went in every single place and virtually broke a hatch.
The subsequent day, one man managed to overlook the boat fully to the howls of laughter from his colleagues, despite the fact that I’d motored over to his facet of the lock to make his throw simpler. Our line handlers tied Stanley’s thick blue ropes on with just lately realized bowlines, and the employees pulled them up and fixed them to the excessive dock wall.
Because the water degree rose, their job was to drag within the strains to maintain the boat central. It’s a straightforward process with simply the width of 1 boat to handle, however with a raft of three, it’s necessary to observe the road on the alternative facet and work in tandem. The water degree rises slowly at first because it equalizes with its counter-lock after which sooner because it floods from the lake, however the entire course of is leisurely.
It was darkish by the point we exited the primary three locks into the lake. That is the best our boat has ever been. Eduardo guided us to the buoy and arranged the fenders and contours for the side-tie course of, one thing I’d by no means seen earlier than.
Swimming isn’t allowed within the lake, and there are crocodiles, however folks typically take the chance and soar into the contemporary water as soon as the adviser has left.
Throughout the river
The subsequent morning, after a relaxed breakfast, a special adviser, David, joined us and we began the four-hour motor throughout the lake sticking tight to the starboard facet of the channel as we handed and have been overtaken by enormous ships carrying the world’s produce backwards and forwards. We weren’t allowed to sail, however with 14 knots of wind behind us we managed 7 knots at a straightforward 2,000rpm.
We had an early lunch on the transfer and matched our pace to the progress of Crimson Diamond, a bulk service who began the day within the Caribbean Sea and can be our lock buddy on the way in which down into the Pacific. The bigger Panamax ships can solely move one after the other via The Minimize, an incredible channel dynamited via the mountains at the price of many lives to each accidents and malaria.
Approaching the primary lock with a big container ship
It took many years to forge however it solely took us 4 hours to succeed in the downward locks.
By now our line dealing with expertise have been working with navy precision. On the way in which down it’s actually necessary to not lock up a cleat as you pay out the road as a result of the implications might be damaging, however once more the tempo is sluggish. I carried a knife in my pocket on the off probability we would have liked to chop away a locked line.
The Miraflores locks current an additional problem with sturdy tailwinds and eddies between locks. There’s additionally a crowd of vacationers watching on.
In a raft, the central boat does many of the engine work, and I used to be glad to not have that stress of boats latched on both facet in these gentle however quirky currents.
The crew with Eduardo, the adviser who communicates with the canal authorities, different pilots and saved Cushla to schedule
On the way in which down, crusing boats go in entrance of the container ships so you must collect in your floating strains quick as quickly because the gates open and motor out of the way in which promptly.
It was a bit wrenching to see the gates shut on the Caribbean, which seems like a secure, comfy second residence after just a few years cruising there. A brand new ocean induces apprehension and pleasure, and when the Miraflores lock opened onto the Pacific, I felt each reduction we have been safely via, in addition to disappointment the canal was over.
Lorena and the Campbell households have been a useful assist, and Julie and I are nonetheless glowing with satisfaction on the accomplishment.
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