We arrived at La Playita Marina on September 5, 2022, around 12:30 pm in preparation for our canal transit. The following morning at 8:30 am the canal admeasure agent came and measured the boat for transit. This took no longer than 30 minutes and included me answering a few questions regarding the boat. He left us with some paperwork and a canal transit number on a piece of cardboard.
Instead of doing all the legwork ourselves, we opted to use a canal agent, Erick Galvez, to help coordinate the canal transit. Because we were Panama Posse members, we received a discount on his fee. We had heard it could be done without the expense of an agent, but the process can be time-consuming and a bit hectic to get everything done properly. We opted for the K.I.S.S. approach and kept it simple. Erick made the process very easy, as he handled everything, including bringing four 125´ lines and 8 real fenders, not tires, to the boat one morning. He accepted a credit card for a small fee. The total cost to transit the canal was slightly less than $3,000.00. This included 4 line handlers, admeasure, permits, canal advisor, 4 lines, and 8 fenders. I did nothing but steer the boat and Lynette fixed meals. We had to prepare meals for everyone along with drinks. Lynette prepared a very nice scrambled egg and bacon breakfast burrito and a pasta dish for lunch. These meals were excellent and satisfied everyone.
La Playita Marina is known for its heavy surge at the docks. The night before our transit we had the worst surge we had ever had at a dock. We were down below sleeping when all of a sudden we heard a big bang, almost like a gunshot right next to the boat. I went topside to see what it was and found that the port mid-cleat line chock had been ripped off the toe rail. It had been through-bolted with backing washers and the two bolts had sheered right off from the stress of the surge on our spring lines. Sigh, another project to put on the never-ending to-do lists.
Our transit was scheduled for 7:15 am on Saturday, September 10, 2022. Erick told us that 4 line handlers would be at our boat at 4:00 am, and we were to be at buoy 6 by 5:00 am to meet our canal advisor. The canal advisor is in charge of the transit process and is in communication with the canal traffic control people during the transit.
Once we picked up the canal agent, we were on our way to the first lock in the canal. The plan was to raft up with our buddy boat, New Horizons, and enter the canal together. This happened without incident, although we had to wait a bit for the other boats that were entering the lock to get into position before we could enter the lock, as we were to be last in.
It was entertaining to watch the line handlers dance around the two boats as they caught monkey fists thrown for the lock sides and attached the large lines that would secure our boats in the lock. Once secured the huge lock gates closed slowly and the lock began to fill with water.
We had heard horror stories of big turbulences that would bounce the boat around, but we experienced almost none of that. Yes, there were turbulences, but nothing that disturbed the boats much. All-in-all, transiting the locks was uneventful and almost boring after experiencing the first lock.
We stayed rafted with New Horizons through all three of the Pacific locks; the two Miraflores locks and the Pedro Miguel lock. Once out of these locks we unrafted and started our trek through Lake Gatún. This reminded me of motoring up and down the Columbia River. Red buoys on one side and green buoys on the other that marked the channel, along with big ships coming and going. Outside the channel it was very shallow, so we stayed as close to the buoys as we could along our starboard side.
About 2/3 of the way through Lake Gatún it started to rain heavily, and the wind picked up to about 18 knots. Quite a change in a very short period of time. By the time we arrived at the Gatún Locks, it had stopped raining and New Horizons was waiting to raft up to us again for the transit through the last 3 locks. We then had to wait for a large cargo ship that was going to lock down with us. Once all were secured in the first lock, we started the downward process.
Within 45 minutes we were out of the last lock and our Panama Canal experience was over. We unrafted from New Horizons and headed to the rendezvous point where our canal advisor disembarked. We were now on our way to Shelter Bay Marina. We hailed the marina on VHF when we got close, and they instructed us how to enter the channel and which dock we were to tie up to. By 5:30 pm we were securely tied up. The long day was finally over. We said our goodbyes to the 4 line handlers and they took the lines and fenders off the boat and headed to their pickup spot at the marina.
We were tired and not very interested in fixing dinner, so we took a much-needed shower and walked up to the marina restaurant for a nice, juicy hamburger and a beer. We were finally on the Caribbean side of Panama!
Sailing into our next chapter 