Ketch 22 In The Panama Canal

Photo Gallery of the sailing voyages of Ketch 22

The panama Canal

Construction on the Panama Canal was begun by France in collaboration with Columbia and finished by the US in collaboration with the new born country of Panama.   Malaria, dengue fever, cholera, and and what ultimately proved to be insurmountable technical challenges doomed the French effort.   Doctor Walter Reed and revolution helped to finish the final effort.   As a reward, Dr. Walter reed got a hospital named after him.   Panamanians got their independence from Columbia

The Canal is the commercial heart of the Americas and much of the world.   Damn near everything, from everywhere, going to everyplace, passes through the Canal.   It's a twenty four hour a day operation; the Canal that never sleeps.   Dozens of massive freighters are always poised at the entrance as though hovering at the event horizon of a worm hole, waiting to get through.   Eventually, they get their paperwork done and they breakout of their anchorage and they get sucked into one end of the worm hole, ending up an ocean away.   A fleet of cargo vessels, brilliantly lit up at night by their nav lights, hover around the entrance to the Canal, giving the appearance of a floating city, just offshore from Ciudad Panama and Colon on the Caribbean side.   Wow!   What a sight.

The Transit Details

After leaving Bocas Del Toro with owner and crew Robert Devaney, Ketch 22 stayed in Shelter Bay Marina for ten days, waiting for an open slot.   The day finally came and we transited the Panama Canal on March 24 and Mar 25 of 2012.  She entered the Gatun Lock on the Caribean side around 4:30 PM local time and so began the process of transiting the locks and canal.   The Canal transit can be dangerous.   Read this description for more detail.   Fortunately, Ketch 22 and crew had no problems other than fatigue.   The entire process took about 13 hours of motoring, only making stops in the locks.   The crew and I started about 1 PM, when we left Shelter Bay Marina.   We had been preparing Ketch 22 for the transit the previous several days with provisions, handling lines and oversize fenders (tires wrapped in plastic).   At the appointed hour, the line handlers boarded and we left the marina for the "Flats", an anchorage just off the coast from Colon.   We waited there for our Canal Advisor Roy to board.   When he showed up, he introduced himself, boarded Ketch 22 and we were off to the gatun Lock to begin the transit.   We arrived on the Pacific side around 2AM the following morning.   Roy was offloaded to a pilot boat who was waiting for him but the line handlers stayed on board and spent the night.   We dropped anchor at La Playita, a rolly anchorage just south of the Pacific entrance to the Canal.   What an experience!!   Total crew was myself, my wife Naty , Advisor Roy, line handlers Delvis, James and Michael.  

Click on any image for a hi-res version.

The Advisor showed up on time, but we had to wait for a large container ship once we got to the first sea level Gatun Lock.   With little current and a lot of wind, I had to put the transmission in reverse and try to motor in place.   The container ship Bow Cape finally showed as well as large motor yacht.   After they were in place in the lock, Ketch 22 was rafted up against Andante, an older ketch recently of Ft. Lauderdale FL) of about the same length. The four of us were then positioned in the lock by line handlers onboard and line handlers onshore (teams of locomotives for Bow Cape).   After the lock filled, we were walked forward into the next lock. When the gates closed behind us in the new lock, the water level would rise, the onboard line handlers would take up the slack to keep us positioned, and we eventually crossed over the continental divide on our way to the Pacific.

The entire operation reminded me of a military operation.   Hurry up and wait!   We got through the Gatun Locks in about two hours.   After that, it was motor at max speed until around 1 AM when we arrived at the Pacific Miraflores Lock.   Our advisor Roy was good, but he had a bad habit of directing me to the extreme edge of the well marked channel.   This put the burden on me to keep an eye on the depth meter and the GPS, to be certain I was in the channel, as we had little margin for error.   To his credit, Roy went forward to the foredeck for most of the voyage, where he kept a sharp eye out for vessel traffic.

We spent the night at La Playita and in the morning, we awoke not far from the Bridge Of The Americas.   After a short delay to offload the line handlers who had spent the night aboard Ketch 22, we headed for Isla Taboga, about ten miles south of the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.   It's a lovely anchorage with lots of history.   Francisco Pizarro had a house here.   The French painter Paul Gauguin worked as a laborer on the Panama Canal (a two week stint) and visited Isla Taboga.   A lovely spot.

A Footnote:

The astute reader will note that there are no pictures between the last Gatun Lock and the Centenario Bridge.   That's because the photographer went to sleep!   Not really.   The real reason is that it was dark, and there weren't any images to be had except for nav lights and buoys.   There are plenty of nav lights and buoys all over all over the rest of Ketch-22.com, so we opted to not take any pictures.

Sailors Myth # 5:   Fast is fun.

Myth Buster # 5:  For those who believe the myth, this won't come as a surprise, but fast is also labor and capital intensive.

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