Panama Canal Crossing with S/V Helena (August 16-17, 2010):
We initially didn’t think we were going to be around to assist a sailboat as line handler to go thru the canal. All vessels under 65′ must have a Panama Canal advisor and 5 line handlers. Most boats go thru the canal around December to February as are able to keep going to Equador, Galapagos, Marqueses…. We were anchored in Portobello along with other cruising friends including S/V Helena. Helena is a 44′ Bruce Robert design center cockpit cutter rigged, owned by Eddie (Belgium) and Glenda (Venezuela). They mentioned they had decided to go thru the canal now and hang out in Equador before exploring Costa Rica, etc. So we asked if we could line handle if it worked out in our schedules. It actually worked out great as we had time to put our boat a few days early into Panamarina (near Isla Linton) where she will be moored while we return to MN till mid October. In addition, we were able to stay on Helena anchored in the Pacific (Las Brisas de Amador, Ilsa Perico) until we departed. He needed one more crew so we asked S/V Songbird if they were interested. Pam won the coin toss as Bill stayed with their sailboat at Portobello. It was a busy week once we knew this was going to happen but were very excited to have this experience.
Its a lot of work to prepare for this canal transit. Get the boat measured while boat is anchored in the Colon flats, pay the transit fee of $500, arrange for an advisor at $109 along with a $800 deposit in case you damage anything or anyone, pay $30 for 10 tires as fenders, obtain four 125′ long lines to secure the boat within the locks, cover the solar panels, prepare food for crew/advisor, dealing with your anxiety/tension, etc. They say that most of the damage of small vessels is on the cleats or the solar panels getting damaged by the messenger line thrown down from lock. They had a tentative date of Aug 16/17 to perform this transit but not confirmed till all crew are on the boat and anchored back in the flats. So we arrived on Sunday, August 15th. We were told to be anchored in the flats by 15:30 Monday, August 16th. We arrived mid morning only to be then told that the advisor would not arrive till 17:30.
They used to allow sailboat to transit the canal in one day but no longer. The total canal transit is around 32nm. You will go thru Gatun Lock Monday evening and anchor/moor in Gatun Lake overnight. The next day (17th) the advisor arrived around 6:30am and and anchored near Panama City (Brasis de Amador) around 2pm. We motored 19nm across Gatun Lake before entering Pedro Miguel Lock, Miraflores Lake and Miraflores Locks. We had an relatively easy transit as we rafted to a tug boat after they assisted a HUGE container ship in Gatun lock and then the next day we rafted to a tour boat thru Pedro and Miraflores. The Gatun experience was more difficult as the ship and tug were with us in the same lock which created a lot of propulsion/turbulence for us to deal with along with the water rising (upbound) in the lock. The advisor doesn’t really know what we will tie to or which side till we get closer to the lock. So we had a few scrambles in changing fenders from side to side and raising tires based on what we would tie to.
The lock first opened in August 15, 1914 so we were close to the 96th anniversary. We saw demolition/construction at both ends to add another lock with the bottle neck still being Culebra Cut as this area continues to be dredged daily as the soft steep hillside erodes away.
After this crossing, we stayed on Helena another couple nights and then flew back to MN on August 19th. It couldn’t have turned out any better!
It doesn’t make sense for us to duplicate stories or photos so if you have more interest – please go to Eddie and Glenda’s blog site. You may have to search down abit as they will continue to add additional travels.
http://sailing-helena.blogspot.com/