Chapter 136: The One Where We Discover the Pacific Ocean

WE MADE IT!!!!!

It was a 14-hour journey with its fair share of twists and turns, but we have successfully transited the Panama Canal and are now officially in the Pacific Ocean.

The original plan was to leave on Thursday afternoon, go halfway, spend the night on the lake in the middle of Panama, then finish our transit the next day. However, at 5 PM on Wednesday afternoon, our agent called us. Because of a shortage of advisors, we instead needed to leave at 4 AM on Thursday. As in less than 12 hours from when we got the call. And instead of taking two days, we would complete our transit in one. There was much scurrying to complete a flurry of final preparations. Happily, our crew of line-handlers all arrived from the US on time. Rick and Kevin Arnold (brothers) and Drew Orr joined us on board Wednesday afternoon. Yes, for you long-time readers, THAT Drew Orr, project manager extraordinaire, who helped us rebuild Meraviglia in Brunswick, Georgia last year. There is something quite reassuring in knowing that you have on your boat someone who can fix pretty much anything. We also had delivered 8 large fenders to protect the sides of the boat and 4 long lines to secure us in the locks. Later that evening, we were joined by José, our professional line-handler. This gave us one line-handler with experience to guide our three volunteers through the process.

We finished our prep, got settled, and went to bed, getting about 4 hours of sleep before wake-up call at 3 AM.

Thursday morning, we left the marina and headed to the rendezvous area where we picked up our canal advisor from the pilot boat. Carlos, our advisor was excellent. While not responsible for Meraviglia, it was his job to give us advice on handling the boat in the locks and he did a great job. His other job is as a guide at the Canal Visitor Center, so he provided a running commentary on the history and working of the canal while we transited-it was amazing. After picking up Carlos, we found our “transiting buddy”-the huge cargo ship we would be sharing locks with. The AS Savanna was just a bit imposing up close! We approached the first lock around 6:30, just as it was getting light. In we went and our line-handlers secured our lines, centering us in the middle of the lock, right behind the Savanna. Then the Canal Authority closed the doors and started pumping in the water. Up we went. 31 feet up, to be exact. As they fill the lock, the water creates currents, eddies, and whirlpools that try to swing the boat. That’s where the line-handlers’ job comes in. As we rise in the lock, they need to constantly keep pulling in the lines so they stay taut and prevent us from swinging against the walls of the lock. It was tricky and took some practice, but they did a great job. There we three locks on the Atlantic side, each raising us 30 feet. After the third lock, we proceeded out into Lake Gatún. Most of the canal transit actually involves motoring across this large lake in the middle of the country. The locks themselves are a very small part of the distance covered during the transit. It took us about 4 hours to motor across Lake Gatún. That gave us a chance to eat breakfast. And then lunch, for that matter.

We arrived at the Pacific locks around 1 PM. That’s where things got a little dicey. In the Atlantic locks, we were alone but on the Pacific side we were scheduled to rafted up with a fancy catamaran. This is where our blood pressure went up. The catamaran refused to raft with us because of the fancy solar panels they had on their hull. Never mind that they hadn’t arranged this in advance. And the Canal Authority didn’t have enough line-handlers on shore to accommodate both us and the fancy cat. So guess who got the short straw? Yep-us. We were offered a choice: go through alone against the wall of the lock with only two lines or wait and see if we could hitch a ride with another raft later in the day. Not much of a choice. We decided to take the wall.

After moving all the fenders to the “wall side” of the boat, we repurposed our crew: José and Drew would handle the two lines anchoring us to the wall. Rick and Kevin would wield boathooks to push us off the wall when we got too close. Overall, it went okay. We had one hairy moment: an eddy of current swung our stern out and our bow in and we ended up hitting the wall with our anchor. Fortunately, no damage. We went through the three Pacific locks and then there it was: the Pacific Ocean! Actually, what we saw was a giant squall with tons of rain. But still.

We dropped Carlos off at the pilot boat and made our way to the marina. Fourteen hours after leaving Shelter Bay Marina on the Atlantic side, we were safely tied up at La Playita Marina on the Pacific side. Whew! We were soooo tired. We grabbed a bite to eat and went to bed.

On Friday, we cleaned up a bit, took a walk around the cruise port next to the marina, and sat through a bunch of rain. Yesterday, we said “good-bye” to Drew, Rick, and Kevin. The were amazing. Considering we had never met Rick or Kevin and they had almost no experience with boats, we all worked great together and got along well in a cramped space while doing a high-anxiety job. We could not ask for better volunteers. And our paid “crew”, José our line-handler and Carlos our advisor were fantastic as well.

Now? Now we see what the Pacific Ocean is all about! Onward.

P.S. And for those who are wondering, as far as I am concerned, yes, he is Santa Claus.