Many sailors dream of transiting the Panama Canal from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. It’s an epic journey that could take as little as 12 hours or as long as 36 hours, much shorter than the several months required to circumnavigate the continent.

Talking about transiting the canal was one thing, but actually preparing to pass through what’s often called the eighth man-made wonder of the world, was surreal. We started the process three months prior to our preferred crossing date by hiring a canal agent called Erick Galvez. Some of our friends chose to proceed without an agent, but the negligible $325 fee, compared to the hefty transit cost of $1935 US Dollars for vessels under 65 feet in length, was worth it. Ultimately, the whole transit cost us about $3000 US Dollars.

 

Getting a transit date for the Panama Canal

Obtaining a transit date, especially in the busiest season, January-April, can be a challenge which is why we started the paperwork early. After submitting all of the paperwork including our preferred way to transit (Side tied? Center tied? Tug tied?), our requested date was granted.

Most cruisers enter the canal zone and await their transit date from the comfort of the dock at Shelter Bay Marina. It was a wonderful place to complete last minute boat work, provision, and find line handlers. Every boat must have four, plus the Captain.

Volunteering to gain experience

Many cruisers, including us, volunteer to serve as line handlers on other boats to get familiar with the canal and to enjoy the transit with no stress. As volunteers, we were provided all meals and the cost of an Uber back to the marina.

Our volunteer boat transited the canal in 12 hours, but during the passage my husband Brown herniated a disc leaving him in excruciating pain. Since we didn’t know if he would require surgery or how much time it would take for his back to heal, we canceled our transit, leaving us and our sailing future in limbo.

Rescheduling our Panama Canal transit

These are the exceptional times when an agent is extremely helpful.  It was a difficult time for us, but we were thankful for the superb medical help we received. Within a couple of weeks, Brown was much better and the threat of surgery was fading away. Our agent was able to reschedule us for a couple of weeks later, despite the chaos of the drought and the high season for transit. It was truly miraculous.

At the dock in Shelter Bay, we busied ourselves with boat projects and preparation to transit the canal and cross the Pacific Ocean. Every day we watched stacks of blue lines and large fenders appear on the boats around us, signaling the pending departures and transits. Brown and I talked about how soon, we would be the ones with the blue lines and fenders on our deck. And, less than two weeks later, we returned to our boat and found the blue lines and fenders stacked up on our deck. It was now our time!

The day before transit

The day prior to our transit, we anxiously awaited the arrival of our transit itinerary from our agent. The vast majority of boats transit either in one long day (4 am start, 4 pm exit) or in two days (4pm start with overnight in Lake Gatun, and mid-day exit). We could not have anticipated that the email would bring the confirmation of the longest canal passage that our agent had ever seen; this was due to the severe droughts the canal region was experiencing and the lowest level of Gatun Lake in the history of the canal.

The good news in this was that our transit was confirmed. The not so good news was that we were going to meet our advisor at 4 am, transit the Gatun Locks, but then we would have to stay all day and overnight in Gatun Lake before exiting the canal the following day in the late afternoon. It was a 36 hour transit as the canal scheduler had to align the North bound transits with the South bound transits so no water was wasted.

A challenge for us was that we would have to provide accommodation and five meals to the three line handlers and the advisor; typically, a transit is 2-3 meals. And, the canal authority requires that every meal must have meat (at least for advisor). Thankfully, we had friends as line handlers so they were flexible, fun and helpful.

Day 1 on the Panama Canal

The morning of transit, surrounded by absolute darkness, we left the slip at Shelter Bay Marina and met our advisor in the area called the flats. The advisor is a Panama Canal employee who accompanies you through the journey to coordinate with the canal authority and provide guidance. The advisor does not pilot the boat. All advisors are not created equal, but we were thankful that ours was attentive, gracious and kind.

As we prepared our lines, and carefully navigated in the pitch black towards the canal entrance, the advisor explained our unusual rafting situation. We were transiting the Gatun Locks with one other vessel, a 69’ motor yacht to which we would side tie through each of the locks. With this configuration, once we were secured, we were able to sit back and enjoy the experience. The motor yacht would be the one controlling the lines on the wall. Also, this meant that we would not be subjected to the infamous toss of the monkey fist, a rock hard, fist sized ball of string that is thrown from the wall onto your boat four times to serve as mouse lines for the long lines to connect from the boat to the wall. These monkey fists have shattered hatches, windows, and solar panels due to the poor aim of the thrower.

Transiting the Gatun Locks

The first set of locks that raised us 85 feet from the Caribbean Sea to Gatun Lake are called the Gatun Locks. In these locks, the large cargo ship enters the lock first and then the smaller vessels tie to the wall behind it. After each step up, the doors opened and the cargo ship moved forward into the next lock, sending significant prop wash backwards. Once the cargo ship was secured, we moved forward into the next chamber and side tied to the sailing yacht.

After a couple of hours, we were 85 feet above the Caribbean Sea and motoring into Gatun Lake. Normally, vessels not transiting the canal in one day tie to the moorings at the start of Gatun Lake, but given our unique situation, our advisor advocated for and received permission for us to travel 25 miles across the lake and take a mooring at Gamboa, an anchorage reserved for cargo ships. Unlike most transits where the advisor is pushing the Captain to always go faster, we had a relaxed, casual motor through Gatun Lake, maintaining a speed of only 5kts.

After connecting to our mooring, our advisor was picked up and we were left on our own. Before leaving our advisor warned us that we were not to leave our boat, not to swim, and not to drop our dinghy into the water; not that we minded, it was a welcome break from the stress of the initial part of the transit.

The passage was mentally and physically exhausting; getting up at 3 am, navigating in the darkness and crazy currents in the locks, caring for our boat, feeding and hydrating our crew, and making sure Brown was resting his back at every opportunity. Thankfully we all went to bed early as we were awakened a number of times in the middle of the night by huge flood lights illuminating the mooring field from several cargo ships tying to the moorings around us.

Day 2 on the Panama Canal

The next morning, our new advisor arrived at 9 am and immediately started barking orders. We set off from the mooring and headed South to the Pedro Miguel Lock, a single lock with an elevation change of 29 feet which deposited us in Miraflores Lake. Our advisor informed us that we would be going through the last three locks as a single vessel. That was exciting news, but it also meant that all of us would be managing lines; it was going to get busy!

We arrived at the Pedro Miguel locks, but the lock manager refused us entry as he said we were too early. This is very common in the transit. The advisors make you hurry, only to have you wait. But in the world of the canal being early is much better than missing your lock time.

After an hour of circling in front of the locks, we were permitted entry. Four monkey fists were accurately thrown onto the front trampoline, allowing us to pass the heavy long lines to the sides of the canal. We waited at least an hour for the large cargo ship to be “muled” into the lock behind us, pulling in way too close for comfort.

The final locks

After navigating Pedro Miguel Locks, we crossed the two mile wide Miraflores Lake and entered the Miraflores Locks. We repeated the monkey fist process and tied center chamber. About an hour later, the large cargo ship floated in behind us. The Miraflores Locks are a lot of fun because there is a huge gallery of onlookers from the visitors center who learn about the locks and cheer when you safely pass through the lock system. We dropped 54 total feet in two different locks and when the final gates opened, we motored into the Pacific Ocean.

Finishing the Panama Canal

While there was a sudden flood of relief that we had made it, we still had many tasks to accomplish in a short period of time. We needed to remove all of the fenders and tie them in pairs and then neatly bind four sets of 150’ long heavy line into manageable bundles. The crew needed to pack their belongings and prepare to disembark and we had to summon the marina dinghy to pick up our crew and rented gear. As we passed under the Bridge of the Americas, maintaining awareness of the canal lanes, a vessel to retrieve the advisor arrived and he safely exited our boat. Soon after, the marina boat arrived and collected the rented gear and the line handlers.

Since it was the early afternoon we decided to navigate around the peninsula and drop anchor in Las Brisas, a common stop for cruisers who’ve completed the canal.

As we pulled into the anchorage, we heard loud cheers and shouts from our friends on the boat we had helped transit a month prior! What a perfect welcome! After turning off the engines, a flood of relief and thankfulness filled us; it felt like a movie! The reel of the past 36 hours playing over and over again in our minds. We were exhausted and elated, in a state of disbelief that we had just completed an uneventful transit through the canal.

We grabbed our chairs and hopped up on the roof to celebrate and watch the sunset, the towering buildings of Panama City as our backdrop. It was hard to comprehend that we were in the Pacific Ocean and our dream of crossing to French Polynesia was less than two months away. This was definitely a huge milestone in our sailing career and an experience we still talk about to this day.