Jumble Ventures: Panama Canal

I'll let the pictures do most of the work.

Canal Cross Section: to get your bearings

Bullshitting under the Bridge of the Americas

Big container port in Balboa

Our first day lock-mate

First lock of Miraflores, note the turbulence as the lock fills

Looking back from the filled lock

We were locked center, with a tug and bulk carrier

Gates closing on second Miraflores lock

The locks are in pairs, the east side is already filled here

Spectators

Southbound yachts rafted in groups, the usual way

There is a small lake in between the Miraflores locks and the Pedro Miguel lock. We have no pictures from Pedro Miguel lock. It was an 'all hands on deck' situation. The process, as small boats approach the lock, is for line-handlers on the canal walls to throw weighted messenger lines down onto the deck. The boat's crew then tie their larger lines to these messenger lines. The line-handlers then walk into the lock with the boat as it idles forward. When the boat is in position, they place the boat's lines over bollards. As the lock fills, four crew (one for each line) on the boat haul in their lines in order to keep the boat centered in the lock. This is important. There's a lot of turbulence and there's no other way to control the boat.

As JUMBLE entered the Pedro Miguel lock, there were no line-handlers on the walls. "I've got a bad feeling about this" I told Anna. Our transit adviser (Canal employee whom comes aboard for the duration), was on the radio trying to figure out what was going on. Meanwhile the lock gates were closing behind us. The tug and freighter were already in. I was having a hard time keeping JUMBLE centered with the current or what I guess was prop wash from the tug. Finally, some line-handlers appeared on one wall and I did a reverse-forward-reverse full circle inside the lock to re-center. Their throws were short and we resumed drifting towards the opposite wall. The adviser asked me to do another circle and work back to center, but by that time we were too close to the leeward wall.

JUMBLE ended up tied along the lock wall, exactly what you're not supposed to do in a small sailboat. The lock walls are rough, 100 year old concrete. If your rig gets caught on any of the various crevices or hooks along the wall while the lock fills, you can kiss your mast goodbye. Luckily, we were well fender-ed (to protect the hull) and had an active crew. We moved all our diesel and water jugs to the port side to heel JUMBLE away from the wall. As the lock filled, we all fended off the wall and kept the lines as slack as we could. JUMBLE's small size was advantage, I'm sure it would have been much harder to manhandle a heavier boat.

Supposedly, this fiasco attracted some attention. The lock manager (or whatever he's called) had either forgot us or assumed we were a tug tie or something. Our adviser for the second day, after introductions, said "Oh! You're the boat that did a circle in the locks!" I hope someone got chewed out, at least.

After Pedro Miguel, it's a long (25-30 nm) motor to a mooring buoy in Lake Gatun, where the adviser leaves and you spend the night. The second adviser arrives the following morning for the last set of locks.