But of course the real story is going through the Canal! Most people go through on a cruise liner and see the canal work from way up high. Not us! The Canal Authority requires that each small vessel have four "line handlers", not counting the captain of the boat. Each boat is required to have four 125' polypropylene lines - one for each handler. Mary was assigned port forward and Mike was assigned port aft. So Mary got the all the real action and the very best of views of gates closing and opening, etc. It is a totally different feeling when you are at the bottom of the canal - virtually water level - 30 feet below the level you left; the gates are closed and the water is either streaming in or flowing out depending on whether you are "locking up" or "locking down".
The sides of the boat are literally covered with old tires wrapped in plastic and then tied onto the side of the boat. This is done to prevent damage to the boat when slamming into the sides of the canal. In reality this rarely happens but boats have shown up in our anchorage with needed fiberglass repairs so accidents do happen. We were almost a case as in the second of the six locks, the tugboat we had tied to powered off upstream as the currents from the lake flooded the chamber. The poor monohull never had a chance. The Canal line handler up above took and long coffee break and when it was time for him to let the line go - he wasn't there!! So the boat was free on the port side and still tied to the starboard side. With the currents provided by the tug and the lake the boat lost all way and headed directly for a crash with the wall. Tim swung the boat around and almost got it straight but then the gates fully opened and 25 knots of wind from the north met the boat and off we went again.
This time Tim decided to try to literally turn the boat around inside the canal lock and he almost made it again. The doughnut was almost done when the wind hit us again and we slid back down the lock some more. Things were tight as the back end of the locks were now getting real close. By now the Canal line handlers were alive and alert and screaming back and forth to each other. We got lines back to the port side of the lock on the bow (Mary's side) and they were then able to hold the boat into the wind so Tim could get enough boat speed to control the boat and make progress. We escaped lock no. 2 with no damages but a lot of fright and swearing. Interestingly, this is the lock with the live video cam - of the Mira Flores Locks. So, a lot of folks got to watch us swirl around inside the canal that day.
The mess in lock no. 2 took so long that we got off track with our other boats of passage and we had to wait another hour to get to and go through lock no. 3. No problems there but it also meant that the likelihood of getting to Colon was pretty small. They fine you if you can't make the passage in one day so Tim was worried that he'd lose his deposit. Lock no. 3 is the Pedro Miguel lock about a couple of miles from the last of the Mira Flores locks. They made us wait one and a half hours and then let us go thru - all by ourselves. Guess they didn't want another show or more potential damage.
Sure enough, all the waiting and time needed at lock no. 2 made it impossible to get to Gatun Lock #1 by 6 pm. So we got to spend the night in the huge fresh water lake - Lake Gatun. We tied up to a huge buoy, had drinks and dinner and crashed. The next morning we took turns swimming in fresh water - boys first and the girls. Then at 11 am our next advisor showed up and by 1pm we had begun going down the last three locks. By 2:30 we were in the Caribbean; by 4:30 we'd moored in the Shelter Cove Marina; and by 7:30 the second night we were back on the Pacific side and on our boat.
Other than the memories of the waiting and inefficiencies and near disasters, the crossing of the continental divide; passing under the bridge of the Americas, the Century Bridge, and seeing the construction for the third canal (for gigantic ships of the future) were among the highlights of the trip. Six locks - 3 up and 3 down for 85 feet of rise above sea level was now a trip of the past and it was time to get ready for our own big crossing.
We had a list that we'd been preparing for crossing the Pacific to the Marquesas for some time. It had 39 items on it and still had 20 to go when we got back to the boat so it was time to buckle down and work. You can find virtually anything in Panama City but it takes time and money (taxis and prices that are 20% higher than in the States). The language barrier is pretty much gone by now as both of speak pretty good Spanish and some of the taxi drivers and merchants speak English. We'll leave two or three items that can be done anywhere for the Galapagos Islands and end up with 36 of 39 checked off our list.
We keep track of our expenses because Bruce (Sacramento) was always asking us how much everything cost. This March will definitely be our most expensive month in the four years we've been sailing. We decided that before crossing we'd better get the whole boat in shape - cause there isn't going to be another fix-it city until New Zealand. On top of that we have to buy food for the next four months while in French Polynesia (where internet cafes charge $27/hour and a hamburger is $14); and then for another three months when we return to the boat six months later (after cyclone season). So, we've made four huge shopping trips to the various markets here and the boat is nearly overflowing.
The two big issues still facing us are lack of wind and barnacle growth on the bottom. The nice strong north winds stopped about 10 days ago and now the anchorage is very calm - nice for an anchorage but terrible for a long passage. It is 824 nm to the Galapagos and most of the folks out there now are drifting with equatorial current rather than motor since they wouldn't have enough fuel to make it. So, we'll deal with that when we become becalmed. The bottom paint put on in El Salvador, at Island Marine, was not applied correctly and fell off. So the very bottom of our boat is unprotected and that means diving on the bottom once a week to keep the barnacle growth under control. The problem has been here in Panama City where the water is cold and murky and rich in nutrients. We don't know how bad the bottom is yet and will start diving soon to find out - but it does mean we'll be slower in the water than normal or very sore from hanging upside down underwater and scraping the bottom clean. But soon we'll be gone and on to another adventure.
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