As many other sailors, we also help out on other yachts as line handlers for the Panama Canal. Every vessel needs four line handlers, a skipper and an ‘advisor’, who’s sent by the channel authority and looks that everything runs as it should and keeps the communication with the control center.
Friday we get ready and give our kids to the SY Mares, while Gui and me get aboard the Tamora to go to the ‘flats’ (the anchorage in front of Colón) where the advisor is to come aboard. We’re in a hurry as the time for the passage was moved from 16h to 14h and we still have to get some fuel. Bas, the fourth line handler could not be found in the hurry and was replaced by Marissa from the SY Tevakenui, who only had five minutes to prepare. :-)
We drop the anchor in the flats just in time and hand over Gui to the Kira that arrived yesterday. Thus all line handlers are on their ships and everybody is ready. Only the advisors are absent. It’s getting 14h… 15h…. 16h… we call the channel authority’s scheduler and get a big shock: We’ll not get through today, they re-scheduled us for tomorrow 16:00 ! Usually that wouldn’t be bad, but every ship has three additional crew aboard and we gave our kids to friends which makes things a little more complicated… But we can’t change it and it has the advantage that we’ll be able to celebrate Tim’s 29th birthday on the Gatún lake, in between the Atlantic and Pazific !
Next day at 16:00h a big pilot boat closes in and drops of a very friendly advisor. Just two minutes later we’re on our way to the Gatún locks, where just in front of the first one, we go alongside with the Kira to form a pack of two ships. A big freighter from the Philipines is going into the lock in front of us and seconds later the monkey fists are thrown towards us. We connect the lines to ours and get into position in the first of three locks on the atlantic side. The lines are pulled up and as soon as they are tied up, the lock closes and water flushes in.
Everything runs smooth and we’re through all three locks just before sunset. We drive a few minutes into the Gatún lake and tie up to a big mooring buoy. The Kira goes alongside and only minutes later we jump into the lake to have our first bath in a sweet water lake since a long time.
We have a excessive birthday party and when the advisor arrives at 06:15h in the morning, nobody has had any sleep. :-) With small eyes covered under sunglasses, we enter the ‘Banana Cut’ (a shortcut) and sail slowly in between little islands covered with rain forest, while we try to catch up with our sleep. At around noon we arrive at the first lock on the pazific side and again everything runs smooth while we go down the three locks together with the Kira.
Big smiles on all faces as the last lock is openend and we slowly enter the Pazific ! Silke gets out some champagne she brought from Germany especially for that occasion. We sail around Balboa and drop the anchor in between SY Kira and SY Thor, in front of the amazing skyline of Panama City. Soon after we start our voyage back with the bus and arrive in Colón just before sunset. We are greeted enthusiasticly by our kids, have a final beer in the marina bar and fall into the bunks very early in the evening. In a few days we will do the passage again, this time with the Rancho Relaxo. Hope that everything runs just as smooth.