Mehalah's Voyages: L'il 'Ol Mehalah gets to play with The Big Boys

Date: 17th January 2023

Location: La Playita Anchorage, The Pacific Ocean!!

The last locks before the Pacific.

The final few days before the transit were packed with last minute marina jobs. The new chain had arrived so Hugh and I installed that and amazingly we finally managed to purchase a reconditioned Tohatsu 9.8 2 stroke engine. Phew, we will need it once we are anchored in the Pacific. Meanwhile Gill and Linda were provisioning for the trip and preparing food in advance for the crew.

A bit of context. The Panama Canal runs north/south from Colon on the Caribbean/Atlantic side of Panama to Panama City, the capital of the country, in the south. It's around 50 miles all told. Opened in 1916 it was created by damming the River Chagres (which we sailed up for New Year) to create a large lake, Lake Gatun, many miles across at a level 80 feet or so above sea level. The transit involves three locks up, travel through the lake, 10 miles or so through the manmade Culebra Cut and finally a single and double lock out into the Pacific. Since it opened it has only been closed for a single day due to a land slip in The Cut. It is massive and in 2016 they opened even bigger sets of locks to take even bigger ships. These "neoPanamax" ships are built to exactly fit through the new locks. The bigger ships pay $1m each to pass through, thus avoiding the long and dangerous passage around Cape Horn.

The price for us was a mere $2,500 US and for that we are allocated an advisor for each of the two days the passage will take. We also employed two experienced Panamanian line handlers to help us through the locks. One of them, Santiago, had been with us when we transited with Milly last year.

So off we go at 1pm, out into The Flats, the holding anchorage, ready for our 2.30 advisor. It's a bit rocky and we seem to have chosen one of the windier days to leave with gusts of 20 knots. Hugh is quiet! The advisor, Ronaldo, eventually rocks up on his pilot craft at 4.45pm and steps onto Mehalah.

The advisor arrives.

Under the beautiful Atlantic Bridge and then we were rafting up or "nesting" as they call it here with "Cat With No Name". This is a brand new Moorings catamaran on delivery direct to Tahiti. Crewed by three Irish sailors we were destined to become best buddies by the time we arrived in the Pacific. They had their own advisor, Moui, extremely experienced and very clear in his instructions as we approached the first lock. They were bigger and steered more easily. We were heavier and controlled direction. "Forward Gill" was responded to with "Forward" from Gill, "Neutral Gill" with "Neutral". It worked so well that at one stage Hugh thought that "Neutralgill" was a special command!

First lock ahead

Nested with No Name

Small lines with a weight on the end, known as monkey fists, were thrown down from the sides of the locks. Our line handlers, two on each boat, tied our heavy lines onto the money fists, which the shoremen pulled in and walked us into the lock.

The doors closed and the lock began to fill. The water comes in through 100 holes in the bottom of the lock. Fast. Each lock is 900 feet and you can actually see the water level rise. Huge amounts of water swirling around trying to push us from side to another. Then the lock is full. We are 25 feet higher and on we go to the next one, and then the third. All very exciting especially as it is getting dark by now and we are in the locks behind a very large ship.

All goes smoothly. We exit the top lock, split from Willie, Ben and Ferdie(?) and motor into Lake Gatun following a line of red buoys where we are tied to a big buoy (or booey as they are called here) in the anchoring area. Now it's all action as we need to feed the advisor before his pilot boat comes to take him home whilst the line handlers try to eat as much as they can. The cook, in this case, Linda, is probably the second most important person after the skipper on a transit as there are specific requirements to feed the Panamanians. They can eat a lot and you don't know what they will like and they can ask for food at any time. And it is HOT down below in the galley with the engine running all afternoon. So thank you Linda. Great job. Turns out that whilst Santiago will eat anything Juan leaves all the vegetables and lovely ratatouille sauce, preferring just the traditional Panamanian chicken and rice. Hey ho.

Juan also has a cough which is not good for Linda's immune system and he is reluctant to wear a mask. We were pleased that both line handlers always sleep in the cockpit.

Next morning at 8am we are expecting our new advisor. Unfortunately he arrives at 7am as I am finding out we have used up rather a lot of oil which needs topping up. I do this in two milliseconds and we are off, faster than our admitted top speed whilst Linda feeds the crew bacon and egg rolls.

Across the lake we go, past The Smithsonian Institute Research Centre. It gets hot. We chat. Our new advisor lounges across the entire port cockpit cushion. Juan plays noisy iPhone games, Santiago carries on fishing off the back.

The world renowned Smithsonian Institute.

The Skipper.

We arrive at the northern end of the narrower manmade Culebra Cut. We have to tie up to a ball here and wait whilst four mega ships come north. Linda makes more food and Hugh admires the dredgers and scale of engineering. And then it's time to go go go. The ship that will be behind is in the locks is steaming towards us at 8 knots and we have to keep ahead. No chance but we manage 7.5 and he slowly overtakes us in the Cut, throwing us around as he passes. Meanwhile Cat with No Name is catching us and eventually passes us too. Under another bridge and ahead is Pedro Miguel lock, the first of the 'down' locks. We re-overtake Glovis, the big blue ship that will be behind us for the rest of the transit and Gill has to raft with No Name whilst travelling at 3.5 knots. Nice one Gill. In we go and Glovis comes in behind. Very close!

Gulp!

We repeat the locking process, this time going down not up. Then a mile long lake before the famous Miraflores double lock leads us out into the Pacific Ocean watched by the crowds on the viewing balcony where we had stood with Hugh and Linda six years previously. Not only those people viewing us though but also many of you as well. Thanks to those of you who sent us webcam shots like the first photo in this post.

Adoring fans.

And there we were. A new ocean. A new adventure. Watch out Galapagos, we're coming for you.

And there it is. The Pacific Ocean.

And then it rained. Thunder, lightning, no visibility, soaking wet as we dropped advisor and linehandlers off before motoring to La Playita Anchorage where we are now.

Fast forward a few days and we are well settled here. Meraki 2 have arrived from along the coast and the anchorage is becoming our new community. Hugh and Linda have left after three days of birding in the rain forest , culminating in lunch with us in The Old Town of Panama City. The next job is stocking up for the passage to the Galapagos and onwards to French Polynesia. And the onerous admin for the Pacific too. Typhoons, visa and stores. These are the next challenges. Planning must avoid typhoon season and Galapagos has challenging biosecurity requirements. We've paid our Galapagos agent (you have to use one) and started the visa application for French Polynesia. Thanks to Brexit we can only stay 90 days unless we go through the convoluted French embassy website to gain a longer stay visa.

Gill has somehow stored months of dried food and tins of tomatoes away somewhere and now we are in clean water I've been able to run the new watermaker. No leaks and 150 litres per hour of pure drinking water. Result!