Over the past week I have made two canal transits on other boats. It is quite an experience. And, I can now understand why they make a big deal about it, simply because it is (or can be) a big deal. For a transit you need the following: 4 line handlers, lots of tires as fenders, 4 lines at least 125 ft of decent width. You might not need all that, but it depends a lot on how you go through what you might need. Most boats go through as part of a raft (where they tied two or three boats alongside eachother). Depending on the raft configuration (size difference of the boats) the lines from the dock will go to the outermost boats, or, if the center boat is a lot longer than the outer boats, they will to to the center boat as well.Rafting a few boats together while underday can be a little stressfull. As we know, everyone thinks a boat that comes alongside does come with way too much speed and without consideration for their delicate vessel. But things pretty went smooth, except for the incidental shouting of some inconsiderate people that you just have to ignore.
The current procedure to go through the locks is that the advisors (pleasure craft do no not need to pay a fully licensed pilot, but use and advisor instead) come on board in the evening. Once they are on board, the vessel picks up its anchor and motors to the Gatun Locks (only about a 5 mile trip). Before the locks the rafts are put together and motors into the first lock. The raft it typically proppelled by the engine on the center boat (always the biggest boat) and then the boats on the outside use their engines for steering. All this is under command of the advisors, who really do a good job in making things work as smooth and safe as possible (the advisors are in charge, and this saves the problem of multiple captains in charge of the raft).
The first set of locks are the hardest. This is where you go up 9 meters per lock, 3 times. The amount of turbulence in the locks can not be underestimated. With the first transit (on board “Scraatch”) the lock was filled with four rafts of sailing vessels. And some rafts almost lost control because of the turbulance (the water comes into the lock with a lot of force, being filled by the gravity of the lake 27 meters higher) and were heading for the unforgiving walls. But they managed to gain control before things got really bad. But a good warning. As a line handler you are in charge of one mooring line, making sure you keep tension on it at all times. So far I have always been line handler on the stern of the boat. When going up you need to haul in on the line, when going down you gradually pay out. Paying out is a lot easier, and there is less turbulence in the water.
On our second transit we were a single raft behind a container ship that filled up almost all of the locks. Going up there was a lot less turbulence then the previous time. But, when the container ship put his propeller in gear (sailing into the next lock), we were in a whirlpool of a tremendous strenght. Luckily you only need to hold on, and they will not start moving the raft until the water has settled again.
Once through the first series of locks you arrive in Gatun Lake, typically past midnight. The boat gets anchored or moored, the advisor gets picked up by the pilot boat, and you go to bed. Next morning a new advisor will come on board (both times they said it would be at 6, but it was not before 7). Than you motor through the lake, the first 10 miles or so the yachts go through the Banana Cut, a channel seperate from the big ships route. Later the channels come together and you start running into some huge containers ships and tankers. Somewhere past noon you reach the first locks on the Pacific side. Rafts are put together again (not necessarilly the same ones as the night before) and you go through the locks down. And another two hours later you are in the Pacific. There is yacht club in Balboa, and from threre you take a cab to the bus station (the size of a busy airport) and a bus back to Colon.
It really has been a great experience. I am having a good time here, the Panama Yacht Club is sort of a crossroad of sailors with new people to meet every day (or running into people you met before in Jamaica, Puerto la Cruz, Trinidad, Curacao etc…). The city of Colon is quite rough, very poor, but apparently Columbia is even worse of, because there is a large number of immigrants from Columbia here). Things seem to be a little better in Balboa.
Last week I was busy locating someone to fix my fore stay. I manage to find a Canadian rigger, I hoisted him up the mast (that is quite a work out) and he had a look at things. Like I expected I need a new fore stay, and some of the terminals. It is supposed to be ordered today, and could come in this Friday. Also ordered some cheek blocks for the windvane steering. I had only found replacement blocks in Trinidad, but they were of a poor quality, and one already failed coming from Curacao. Still need t buy some more spare lines and looking for a repair (more likely a replacement) of my depth sounder.
As for the labtop, right now I wrote this on a labtop from Roy (nice Irish sailor), tomorrow I am going to help him with some electrical problems on his boat. In Balboa I found a Toshiba notebook for $600 (local currency is the US dollar. though the call it Balboa’s, they do have their own coins, interchangeable with US coins). There is a free zone here in Colon which I still need to visit. Seems like all local computers come with the Spanish version of Vista, now my Spanish has improved some, but that might be a bit of a stretch. Also I think I prefer XP, have not heard too many good things about Vista.