Chapter 134: So You Want to Cross the Panama Canal…

Well, Panama. We’ve been here a little over a week now, resting up and preparing for our canal transit. That will be happening this Thursday (and maybe Friday too, depending on whether we get a 1- or 2-day transit assignment, which we won’t know until the day before). We’re hoping to livestream it on Facebook/Instagram, so stay tuned.

Panama is beautiful, hot, and wet. The rainy season doesn’t end until next month, so it rains nearly every day here, though usually only for 2-3 hours. Clouds are a blessing, because we are, after all, only 650 miles from the equator. The sun is a BEAST. Happily, we have aircon on the boat while at the marina, so that let’s us stay pretty comfortable. We are also VERY close to nature. On our daily walks, we have encountered coati, bush dogs, capuchin monkeys, and a variety of birds and butterflies. We have heard the howler monkeys, but haven’t yet seen any. Kim’s more into the wildlife than I am. This morning, the monkeys decided we weren’t welcome and started throwing things at us. That was enough nature for me.

Panama Canal prep is well in-hand. It is a fairly complicated process. We had to take detailed measurements of our boat and also send photographs. It can be done by dealing directly with the Panama Canal Authority, but we are using an agent, who handles all the details. For $400, it’s a bargain. The total cost to transit will be about $3,000. Of that, $2,100 is for the transit itself. The rest is other fees, the agent fee, etc. We have to rent large fenders to protect the boat from the sides of the canal. We’ll also put our cockpit cushions over our solar panels to protect them from the throwing of lines. When our boat enters the locks, canal workers throw large lines down onto the boat. We then tie them to our own lines and that is how our boat is controlled while inside the locks. Handling of the lines is one of the biggest jobs on the boat during a transit. Canal authorities require that we have at least 5 people on board: a captain and four line-handlers. In addition, an advisor comes aboard and stays on board throughout the transit. The advisor doesn’t helm the boat, but instead gives the captain instructions on what to do. Because if you happen to be in a lock behind an enormous cargo ship, that propeller in your face can be just a tad intimidating. I think I’ll take his/her advice.

Thanks to our call for crew, we’ll only need to hire one local line-handler. We’ve got three folks who follow our blog coming down to transit the canal with us and handle the lines. Should be fun!

Of course, there is a chance there won’t be any line-handling to do. Small boats usually don’t transit the canal alone. We will probably be rafted up with one or two other boats. In this case, if we are on one side of the raft, we’ll only be dealing with two lines. If we’re in the middle, we won’t have any lines to handle and our crew can just enjoy the ride!

In any case, we’ll be back next week with a full report on our (hopefully uneventful) transit. And keep an eye on our social media feeds for the livestream on Thursday.

Oh! Almost forgot! Happy Thanksgiving! We celebrated with a whole chicken, which is a better size for a boat than a turkey. Bonus: chickens in Panama come with “value added”!