Panama Canal Transit
Storyteller
Tue 5 Feb 2008 20:42
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This is Sue writing in a pool of perspiration, with
half an hour before we set off for the big parade on the last day of Carnaval.
It may not be Rio, but here in Panama things comes to a halt for four days until
Ash Wednesday tomorrow, as everyone uses up all their sin in preparation for
Lent.
We began our Canal transit at 9pm on Friday when
our pilot came aboard, one of the few gringo pilots, as most are black
Panamanians. Our guy , John, was a great character who spent most of the trip
swapping jokes with Tony. It was dark and blowing hard when he leapt on board
from the pilot launch, which I was sure was going to crash into us.
The next very scary part was rafting up alongside
Southern Princess and another yacht in a pretty rough sea and pitch dark. All of
the yachts were padded up with all their fenders plus lots of hired tyres. We
also had to hire extra long ropes which were used to attach us to the sides of
the locks, each rope having a handler on the lock side. we also borrowed a young
guy,Ben form another yacht as each boat had to have four rope handlers on board
in addition to the helmsman, John, and our pilot. We were expected to provide
meals for the pilot, so in the dark, and at this stage pourng rain, I was able
to knock up a few pizzas--no beers, though, as the rules are very strict. The
first set of locks took us up into Gatun Lake, which we reached at about
midnight, along with two other rafts of three yachts. At night the huge locks
looked especially dramatic, floodlit in the darkness. At about midnight we let
our pilot go, keeping young Ben overnight, and introducing him to
Martinique rum. After a very short night our new pilot came aboard at six in the
morning, and as we motored across the jungle- surrounded lake at dawn,
we all tucked into a huge bacon and egg breakfast. Before entering the new
set of locks, we rafted up again, a much easier task in the daylight.
By now we were on the downhill leg, this time going into full locks and
letting off the lines as the water level dropped. Finally, at about one o'clock
we popped out onto the Pacific side at Balboa. It was a fantastic experience,
one of the most unforgettable of our whole trip. The Canal itself is 'an
epic story of pestilence, and politics, brute force and engineering
genius.
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