The Shortcut

4am Entrance to Panama Canal

The afternoon of Sunday, February 18th, after permission from the Panama Canal Authority, we moved Jolie out of the marina into the huge bay outside the entrance of the Panama Canal, the world's biggest shortcut.

It is relayed to us that we will receive a call on VHF at 3:30 am regarding when the pilot from the Canal will board our boat.  There was no heads up call.  Instead, a very official, all business, brightly lit vessel zooms up to our side and Javier, our pilot, jumps aboard, at 4:15am. Turns out, we like Javier. This is a good thing because he’ll be with us for the next 8 hours. Then, he’ll depart and another pilot, Winston will join us for the second set of the locks. To transit the canal, we are required to have five people on board for handling lines, etc.  We’re quite happy Will volunteered to be our fifth. Will is from the feisty British vessel, Distraction. A lovely and very competent young man.

Traversing the isthmus of Panama, through this 48 mile long engineering feat, in the form of a man made canal, is an experience that’s more impactful than anticipated.  There are 2 sets of locks; one set on the Atlantic (Caribbean) and the other set on the Pacific side.  The first set of 3 locks are one after another and are immediately as you enter the canal. And then you motor 3-4 hours across the large, fresh water, Lake Gatun.  Followed by the second set of Pacific locks. You go through the first Pacific lock, motor across a smaller lake, then 2 more locks.  If you’re fortunate enough to be selected to complete it in one day (which we were), the experience is from around 4:30 am until around 4 pm.  Many of the Oyster boats were assigned to a 2 day passage.  The first three locks, spend the night moored in Lake Gatun, then the second set of locks the following day.

A few fun facts about the passage through the canal…. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans sea levels vary by roughly 15 inches, with the Pacific being higher than the Atlantic.  Interestingly, the first three locks of the canal are designed to raise the vessel up to the level of Lake Gatun, which is about 23 meters(almost 70 feet). Then, the second set of locks lowers the boat down to the sea level of the Pacific, about 22ish meters. All the extreme up and down has more to do with Lake Gatun than the oceans it’s sandwiched between!   

We are instructed to raft together with two other Oysters from the rally - we are in the center with the others tied to each side of us. Situated as the center vessel proves to be quite a responsibility.  The center boat (Jolie) is the main driver of the three boats.  The canal is narrow; freighters commonly rub the concrete sides. We were told the pilot would tell Rob and the other boats every maneuver the boats should be performing in order to stay as close to the center of the canal as possible. This task is complicated not only by the other two boats, but also by, at-times, aggressive swirling current in the locks and the wind across our beam, creating a seemingly random rotation of the three boats as we motor forward, backward or in neutral. The cross wind also catches the masts.  We’re careful when we raft the boats together to stagger the masts so the spreader bars avoid colliding if we rock. See the pictures in the Places menu. https://www.oceansfive.net/panamacanalcrossing

Javier, our pilot, is surprisingly quiet during the process of passing through the locks. Rob quickly realizes he must control and command the three of us to avoid scraping one of the outer boats along the cement walls. At times, very stressful.  Rob’s quick moment by moment processing and anticipation of what will be required by all three boats to handle the situation - varied instruction for each vessel - prevented any damage to the outer two boats.  Impressive, especially because it went on for hours.  It appears easier for the huge cargo vessels because they are pulled through by cables and large train engines, usually two per side, which run on train tracks along each side of the canal. 

Initially, as we enter a lock, the canal lineman on each side wall tosses a “monkey fist” onto the outer boats. This is a large knot tied on the end of a thin line, then tied to a heavy line on our boats. Watch out for the monkey fist - it could knock you out! They throw it hard and with precision. Our crew uses his thin line to feed the heavy line back up to the line handlers. They then walk along the canal on each side with us until we arrive at our stopping point near the giant doors of the lock.

Once we’re situated in the lock, the lines are tied off to the huge cleats on the walls. As the lock either fills or empties, and our crew on the bow and stern of our two outer boats have to carefully feed line in or out to maintain our position in the center of the lock. The whole process is an orchestrated dance between canal line handlers, our crew line handlers, three helmsmen, three sets of bow thrusters, three engines in varying directions (often not the same at any given time) of forward/reverse/neutral, wind, current, fresh water mixing with salt water, changing water levels…. 

Needless to say, super cool experience, but we’re quite relieved (especially Rob) when we finally reach the Pacific and make our way under the Bridge of Americas. We’ll sleep well tonight docked at the marina at La Playita by Panama City. Sweet to have a group of other Oyster friends greeting us at the dock with hearty hails of “Welcome to the Pacific!!”

htg