Sunriser

We have been preparing very long for the canal transit, so when our agent called to ask if we would advance the date we were ready. Suddenly everything went very fast. The canal authorities wanted to clean up a backlog on small craft and planned a weekend to let through 12 yachts simultaneously. This is a special situation which required a lot of planning and a special briefing to the boats involved. We would go in groups of three, with a catamaran in the middle and two monohulls on the side. And Sunriser would be the leader of the fleet!
The canal authorities provide a pilot who comes onboard and very long lines and big ball fenders. We further hired a line handler, Omar, who proved invaluable, and had our friends Carl and Joanne from Rockhopper of London to help.

It is compulsory to have a canal pilot on board so we got assigned a very experienced one, Amado. We were instructed to anchor outside the marina and a boat passed by all the waiting yachts to deliver their assigned pilot. The first maneuver was the rafting up of two monohulls on the sides of each of the catamarans. And then we proceeded as a convoy towards the first lock with the catamaran steering under the pilot’s watchful eye. It was a challenge for Jos to steer three boats simultaneously but he did a great job.

At the entrance of the lock, the canal workers throw lines to the boats which are, hopefully, caught by the handliners, tied to the long blue lines and returned to the dock personnel. They walk with the boats on the line until the boats have been steered in the right position within the lock. Once all boats are in place, the doors close and the water level starts to rise. We passed this way three locks while it slowly got darker.

After the three locks where the water levels is being raised, the boats proceed to an artificial lake, Gatun lake where we spent the night tied up to a mooring buoy.

The following morning we continued across the lake towards the last three locks, thus time to go down to the water level of the Pacific Ocean. At the Miraflores lock there was a big crowd admiring the operation from the viewing platform.

And then the gates opened…and just like that we were on the Pacific Ocean!