Panama Canal

Well we have finally made it into the Pacific! We made our transit through the canal yesterday and now we are anchored off Flamenco Island just outside Panama City. I don’t know if any of you managed to see our passage through, I know Dad was watching as we came under the Centennial Bridge into the San Pedro lock. We did wave to the cameras but there was a large red tanker in the lock next-door and he may have blocked us from viwe.

We started our transit at 6:45 pm through the big Gatun lock after taking on our Adviser Roy ( he looked like Eric Strada from Chip’s for you oldies), we had a young Danish lad called Daniel who very kindly volunteered to be our 4th line handler. We had hoped to go through during daylight but ended up going through with a large American motorboat, us and another yacht were either side of him as we went through. Actually it worked out quite well, he was 20 feet longer than us so he had the lines tied to him, all we had to do really was watch and fend off the walls if the line handlers failed to control the lines.

We had to share the Gatun with a large tanker, doing this makes it slightly more hairy as there is a lot of turbulence in the water and the boats get thrown around quite a bit. It’s quite something to do, the locks are an amazing piece of civil engineering and it’s incredible to think that they are nearly 100 years old and still using the same lock doors and equipment. The tankers are pulled through by trains on either side of the locks, these are made by Mitsubishi and come in at around £2.5 million each. We finally made it to the mooring boys at around midnight in the holding lake, we had to raft up with the big American boat who’s crew (who had been drinking all the way through the locks) continued to party until 1:30 am much to our annoyance. Even more so when at 5am they turned on their generator, the Adviser was due back on at 6am for us to complete the transit.

We left the anchorage at about 6:45 am, it’s a 25 mile journey down through the lake to the Miaflores locks, the trip takes you down through the Panamanian jungle which was something I didn’t expect. Its incredible to see these huge Panamax tankers speeding through the jungle, I was on the helm for part of the journey through, usually I get spooked at being half a mile away from these things so being only 50/60 feet or so away was quite something.

I called my Dad up just as we were rafting up under the Centennial Bridge before we transited the Miaflores locks, coincidence would have it that he was watching us as I was calling him. Despite the fact that going down in locks is supposed to easier we actually had quite a tough time and bounced off the wall at one point as the line handlers on the other side of the power boat cocked up the lines. Trust me it’s not a bundle of fun being squashed up against the lock walls as the water is emptying out, Hoanlee has gained some scratches much to Ted’s annoyance. Lots of shouting and swearing was done! Poor old Nigel found it incredibly frustrating, he’s been in and out of floating docks for all his working life and not being able to control our lines was quite hard for him. The idiots on the other side were letting out their side hence allowing us to float into the lock walls – great for their boat but not us.

At around 1:30 pm we exited the locks and Honalee sailed quite happily out into the Pacific! Panama City from the water looks incredibly like Miami, lots of skyscrapers and beaches. We anchored up by Raylar and Moonshiner - friends from the San Blas, it was great to see them again. Norsa ,Sarah and Norman’s boat was anchored in the middle of the fleet and we caught up with them when we finally got ashore. It was lovely to catch up with both Sarah’s, they’ve become good friends and it was great to catch up for a girly chat (and a moan!). Last night we all went ashore for a meal in a local restaurant and polished off a few bottles of wine and a ‘couple’ of beers. Norsa is leaving for the Las Perlas Islands today and I don’t know when we will see them again – possibly the Galapagos if we miss them in the Las Perlas.

So – for the next few days we will continue to store ship, do all the work that needs doing and then get under way. The water here is very dirty (something to do with tankers whizzing past 24/7) so we have been unable to try out the new watermaker – I just hope it works when we get into clean water. Hopefully our new crew member will cease to treat Honalee like a cruise ship and actually begin to do some work around the boat rather than asking for another cold beer. Karen F - why oh why couldn’t you have come with us???? – ok so I know you can sink a cold beer but at least you can sail, know what a halyard is and have actually set foot on a yacht before.