Panama Canal

Having spent a couple of weeks relaxing in the San Blas Islands, we continued our journey to the Panama Canal, stopping first at Portabello which is about 25 miles from the Canal to complete our paperwork formalities for Panama.  Portobello is a popular anchorage and considered safe from all but westerly winds - although not officially in the hurricane belt, Portabello was badly affected by Hurricane Mathew which hit the San Blas (which are also not in the hurricane belt!) last Autumn.  We were told that about 18 boats ended up either underwater or aground during the storm, and many have remained there.

 

Portobello Bay - a reminder of the unpredictable power of nature.

 

Astonishingly, the owner of this yacht was still trying to sail back into deep water - allegedly the yacht is inching forwards through the mud and rubble, but whether he makes any significant progress before his sails fall apart remains to be seen!

 

Portobello Fishermen - a very active fleet of canoe fishermen in the entrance to the bay as we were leaving.

Our next stop was Shelter Bay Marina just inside the massive Canal Breakwater - there is a surprisingly large community of permanent 'live aboard' sailors and a very well organised social calendar as well as yachts waiting for a transit date for the Canal.  We took the opportunity to haul out and re anti foul the boat before we go to Galapagos - we have heard of more than one yacht being turned away due to barnacles and other growth on the hull.

The construction and ongoing maintenance of the Canal is a major event - Initially the contract was awarded to the French and work began in 1880, nine years and 20,000 lives lost later the first French project failed.  Five years later a second French attempt began - and again ended in bankruptcy, and after much political negotiation the United States took over the project in 1903.  Ten years later, at a cost of almost $400 million with a workforce of 75,000 men the Canal was officially opened and under American management in 1914 - the opening then being rather overshadowed by the start of the First World War.  The Panama Canal was finally officially handed over to Panama on 31st December 1999.

There are now three sets of locks - the two original sets of locks, and the new larger locks that were opened last year to take even larger ships.  Approximately 40 ships transit per day, the Canal Authority employs 9,000 people (the USA had a workforce of 15,000 with their own schools, shops and hospital when they were in control). The largest ships pay between $800,000 and $1 million to transit the Canal, the small original locks cost a ship a mere $300,000 - those in a rush can elect to pay an additional premium of $35,000 to get an immediate transit.  Over the last ten years, approximately $100 million has been spent on straightening, deepening and improving the canal in ongoing maintenanc annually.

Yachts transiting the canal are obliged to have an official Canal Advisor, 4 line handlers and a skipper on board - and like many other sailors we went through first as line handlers for another yacht to get some idea of what to expect.  Not quite in the financial league of the ships, our transit still cost us in the region of $1,700.

 

 

Transiting with Hugh and Annie, on Vega - also heading for the Galapagos and New Zealand.

The day of our transit arrived, and we set off as instructed for the Gatun Locks which consist of three lock chambers, each 1000 feet long and 110 feet wide, that raise you up 84 feet (26 metres) to the level of the man made Gatun Lake. The locks hold 55 million gallons of water, and at the time of its construction, the Gatun Dam was the largest earthworks dam ever built.

 

The Canal Rules require yachts to transit over two days, and we were instructed to raft up with several other yachts on a large buoy in the Gatun Lake, and our Day 1 Advisor was collected from the yacht by a work boat.

 

Day 2.  Our new Advisor arrives, and we set off across the lake - all shipping is obliged to follow a specific route in order to avoid the many small islands and paying very close attention to the many ships that are also crossing the 40km of lake.

We were delayed for several hours on both days of our transit with Vega, but otherwise all went well.  We took a taxi back to Shelter Bay to get Nautilus back into the water (after antifouling) and await our own transit.

 

Amazingly this ship is in one of the original small locks - the little trains, known as Mules, are used to control the position of the large ships in the lock.  The ship literally fills the lock, there is no more than 50cm space between the ship and the sides of the lock.

The day came for our own transit - our line handlers consisted of Sandy Mair, the owner of the yacht we'd raced on last year in Grenada and Antigua Race Week who'd flown over to join us specially to transit the canal, David from another yacht that is due to transit in a few days and amazingly Paul from Delphinus - he was in Shelter Bay to meet up with the Oyster Round the World Rally.  Jayne and Lily managed to get to the Viewing Gallery in the Milaflores lock to form our own personal Fan Club.

 

The yachts have line handlers on the Canal - they throw a small line with a weighted 'monkey's fist' down to the yacht to which we attach the long blue lines we have had to rent from the Canal Authority for the transit.

 

 

Our Transit went like clockwork - no delays, only one other yacht rafted alongside and a 600ft ship for company.  Photo taken by Jayne, from the Viewing Gallery.

 

 And this is what it looks like from on the boat!

 

Going down

 

Exiting one of the Miraflores Locks, with a Canal Work Boat in front of us, David managing the lines.

 

The Lock Gates - they have been operating 24/7 since 1914.  On the left you can see the original swing bridge across the Canal, no longer in service.

 

And finally - The Bridge of the Americas, it links North and South America and also marks the start of the Pacific Ocean.

We headed for the moorings at Bilbao Yacht Club where we intended to spend a couple of days before heading for Las Perlas islands then on to Galapagos, we were congratulating ourselves on a trouble free transit and start to our Pacific Adventures - we'd heard of a yacht that transited the day after us and got run into by a fellow yacht, another friend nearly had the lock gates shut on him (apparently this has never happened in the history of the canal etc, etc, ) and we'd not even been delayed ... then on the mooring we got hit by a large steel work boat, and had a hole in the back of our transom.

 

It did not look good - there was no way we could cross a lake, much less the Pacific with this!

At 0800 on Monday morning we were in the Bilbao YC office - but amazingly by 1200 the same day we were welded back together again.  After an unfortunate accident, the service we received from Rex at Bilbao Yacht Club was superb.

The bent aluminium was forced back into place, and an angle grinder used to prepare the area for welding

 

Probably best not mention the fact that we were alongside the fuel pontoon, but here we are being welded.

 

The man is a genius

 

Not quite the original finish, but he did not have access to the inside of the damaged area and was hanging over the back of the yacht as he worked. I think we may get it beautified when we get to New Zealand.

Despite the damage to the yacht, we did manage to do a little sightseeing in Panama - a quick visit to the Old Town and also the Canal Museum, but the anchorage is very uncomfortable due to the continuous swell created by the work boats heading up and down the canal so we are keen to get away to somewhere more peaceful, the Las Perlas islands and then on to Galapagos.  The plan is to head off tomorrow.

 

Panama Old Town has been declared a World Heritage Site, and considerable work is going on to preserve and renovate the old buildings, many of which are literally just facades.

 

It will probably look quite different in about 10 years!

 

 

This building was constructed in 1917, it was the first in Panama to be constructed from reinforced concrete

 

 

The usual street markets and shops line the street.

 

Guna ladies in Panama City wearing the traditional dress.

 

And a very different style of Mola for sale.

 

We wondered out of the old town into one of the more derelict areas by mistake.

 

Panama has an excellent and very cheap public transport system, a bus ride costs 35 cents, as does the new Metro.  There are shopping centres the size of small towns, and of course there's the modern City of Panama - which we decided not to visit.