Archive | February, 2016

Despite predictions from canal veterans, our boat was not crushed by a closing lock door, no one fell overboard to be killed by the strong currents or hungry crocodiles and the two day passage was pleasant and stress free.  The rally folks showed their value as we were never  bogged down with agents, paperwork and fees.

Two hundred meters before the lock, boats nest in pre-arranged sets of three.  Our nest partners were our sister ship Kristal and a small monohull.   The now fifty-five foot wide craft was half the width of the canal so it was a much easier fit than a Panamax ship.  We entered the lock and messengers lines were tossed to Two Fish from canal employees.   The lines had the potential to break our solar panels so we had covered them with cushions.  After the messenger lines landed, we had to tie them to huge lines that had been lent to us by the agent.   The lines are 7/8 of an inch so would not fit through any of Two Fish’s collection of snatch blocks. Instead, we retasked a soft loop to become a fairlead.  This held the line at an angle away from the bow seat.

Lines safely attached, the line handlers on our nest took out the slack as the lock filled with water to raise us up to the height of Gatun Lake.  The canal allows a boat to climb up and then down over the mountains on the isthmus.  After doing this process through three locks, our day was over and we grabbed a large mooring ball for rafting in Gatun Lake.  In the morning, 25 miles of motoring brought us to the down locks.  But before we reached the locks we had to pass the famous Galliard cut.    And before we knew it, we were in the Pacific and lock veterans ready to dispense our own advice regarding what is an easy operation.

Some other boats had a few mishaps.  One dropped anchor by accident while in the lock.  Never found out why.  Another boat had a broken cleat caused by improper line handling.   And another boat had their skipper cut their hand while nesting up.   Not too bad a damage report.  No crocodile deaths!

We did eat very well during our two days in the canal system because we had to feed the canal advisor aboard.  The crew asked him to stay until Australia so we could have great food the whole time. Gail maintains that the galley is more receptive to producing good meals in calm waters.

Next stop Las Perlas islands.