{"id":2227,"date":"2008-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=2227"},"modified":"2009-04-15T08:52:55","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T13:52:55","slug":"s_logs-dashew-dashew474","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/s_logs-dashew-dashew474\/","title":{"rendered":"Panama Canal Transit"},"content":{"rendered":"
Details on the Panama Canal transit.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

This is our fifth time through the Canal, so the routine has become familiar. For us this starts with contacting Tina McBride, who acts as the "agent" for many yachts. This means she coordinates the various agencies with which you have to deal, pays the fees, and arranges for everything from line handlers, tires, and lines if required, to advising on restaurants, hair cuts, and helping with local transportation.<\/p>\n

\"Tina<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

If you have the time, you can, of course, do this on your own. But we always seem to be in a rush and using Tina saves us a lot of hassle. We think she is a great investment.<\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Tina made arrangements for the various agencies to visit us within hours of arriving at the dock. That happy young lady is the Immigration officer, while the guy in the yellow shirt is Port Control.<\/p>\n

\"Panamian<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

The "admeasurer" seemed harassed, but then 25 ships arrived the same day as us, so he had a lot of work to complete. Now that we have been through the admeasuring process, if we come through again with Wind Horse<\/em> this does not have to be repeated.<\/p>\n

Tina said we could transit as early as the third day after our arrival, but we put this back a few days to allow a bit of relaxation.<\/p>\n

The transit process started with the arrival of our line handlers at 0600. We were underway at 0700, and then anchored off the Playa to await word from Flemenco Signal on the arrival of our pilot, who joined us at 0900.<\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Pedro, our pilot, was a tug master in the canal for ten years prior to starting his pilot training. He is presently qualified to handle ships to 600 feet (180 meters). Of all the pilots we’ve dealt with in Panama, he was the most efficient. Pedro did a great job of keeping us clued in on what to expect current wise at the various locks.<\/p>\n

We also learned some interesting details about Canal operations:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The lock mechanisms and lock doors are original equipment, dating back to 1913. <\/li>\n
  • The Canal is operating at its capacity of 42 ships per day. <\/li>\n
  • There are no pumps in the system. Gravity (from the water in Gatun lake) provides the energy to drop or lift vessels within the locks. <\/li>\n
  • The Panama Canal Authority is undertaking an expansion which will allow more and larger ships to transit. This is due to be completed by 2013, but might take longer. <\/li>\n
  • To become a pilot you have to have a certain level of experience in tugs or ships, and then pass rigorous written and oral exams. Pedro says favoritism is not involved. <\/li>\n
  • If there is a problem with the handling of the ships – once or twice a year this occurs – the pilot can get into substantial difficulty as you would imagine. Pilots like Pedro make roughly three transits a week on ships (or yachts). <\/li>\n
  • There can be substantial language problems on the bridges of foreign ships, in particular Chinese and Japanese vessels. As a result, their agents often supply interpreters. <\/li>\n
  • The pilot has to be familiar with the handling characteristics of all types of ships and how the various types of tugs operate. <\/li>\n
  • The pilot gives commands to the various locomotive tractors which control the ships within the locks (as many of eight of these at one time).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \n
    \"Wind<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    A great deal of time is spent waiting for the locks to finish with their present ship and be made ready for the next. The photo above shows us waiting at the entrance to the Miraflores locks on the Pacific side.<\/p>\n

    \"locking<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

    When we were offered the chance to go through side-tied to a tug we said great. This is by far the easiest approach, as the tug handles the line adjustment as the water level rises and falls.<\/p>\n

    \"Image\"<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

    A Camper and Nicholson 70 then rafted alongside us.<\/p>\n

    \"Image\"<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

    Between running the boat, trying to capture some video, and watching traffic we did not get a lot of photos taken, especially of the line handlers and locking process (but we’ll try to compensate with video shortly). These are two of our line handlers, part of the crew which Tina arranged for us.<\/p>\n

    \"Image\"<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

    If these guys look sleepy, it is because they have just awoken from a nap (normal during the passage through Gatun Lake). Junior, on the left, was the crew boss (and had been with us on Beowulf<\/em> as a handler on our last Canal transit).<\/p>\n

    \"Image\"<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

    The Canal is not overly wide, and BIG ships are periodically passing each other. You can bet they are keeping an eye on the big guy coming at them and not the little yacht hugging the channel edge. This is as close as we ever want to come to one of these ships!<\/p>\n

    \"Image\"<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

    All of our previous transits have had us centered in the locks with four lines off the corners of the boat, or side tied to a tug. This time, we were offered the option of going down on the Atlantic side against the lock wall. Going down is a lot less turbulent than going up, and as this put us an hour or so ahead of schedule, we agreed to give it a try. However, we first had to wait for the ship behind us to connect to its "mules" (miniature tractor trains). Linda is taking advantage of the hiatus in the action.<\/p>\n

    We would not try this without a very serious rub rail. Junior and the other line handlers said they could deal with the side of the lock by just pushing us off. We figured the worst that would happen is we would have a dirty rub rail. <\/p>\n

    \"Image\"<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

    Almost at the bottom of the first lock on the Atlantic side. The car carrier behind us will shortly be heading for Europe. Later inspection showed that our rub rail was nice and clean.<\/p>\n

    At 1830 we are through the canal. 1900 dropped pilot and line handlers. 1930 we’re anchored in the "flats" for a quick shower, dinner, and check of the engine room. 2230 and we are cleared with Cristobal Signal to head for the Bahamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Details on the Panama Canal transit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}