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The Canal Transit and Panama City
By Ewan | May 13, 2009
The Canal Transit all went pretty smoothly in the end. The hired tyres, ropes and professional line handlers all did their various tricks and we came through with all our cleats and stantions intact.
The advisors that the canal authority provide were both very helpful (although slightly baffled as to why a racing boat was so slow under engine).
We ‘locked up’ through the first three locks into the Gatun lake with a couple of other yachts rafted together which requires some interesting manouevering, and being lightweight we were always going to be on the outside - which is sometimes a little unnerving, since you’re going to the the first to hit the wall if the guys on the far side don’t get their lines sorted properly. But it all went well and we had a quiet night tied up to one of the huge mooring buoys in the lake.
The following day started early at 6 with a thud as the new advisor jumped aboard. After 25miles of motoring through the lake we missed our intended transit by about a minute! We had to wait a couple of hours until a ship small enough for us to fit infront of came through, but before long we were on our way down to the pacific. In the first lock we were on our own infront of the ship (which was pretty close behind!), and in the last two locks tied to a tug - which was fine once we were tied up, but getting logic positioned next to the tug was pretty tricky with the the following current and the lack of space in the lock - definitely had the skipper at full concentration!
From there we motored to the Balboa Yacht Club were we spent the next four nights on one of their mooring buoys. Our time in Panama was filled with DHL package chasing, fruit and veg shopping, briefly exploring the city, and welcoming Jurrie to the boat, and filling up with diesel and water for the 900 mile trip to the Galapagos…
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