Journal

Either side of our delightful experience in the paradise of San Blas, we were forced to spend time
in the administrative base for the Panama Canal. A short overnight sail away from the Kuna
Indian territory of San Blas – yet a whole world apart – we had to check into the country and
wade through all the ‘red tape’ associated with the Panamanian Authorities in Colon, a truly
unpleasant port town that lives up to its name(!), full of unsavoury characters, and unsafe to walk
around. In this town we were even advised to get a taxi to travel one block from the internet café
to the supermarket during daylight hours... a bit excessive, but you get the drift. Fortunately the
Panama Canal Yacht Club – which is far less grand than the name suggests – sits just outside
Colon, and offers a safe haven for yachties waiting to transit, and a good base from where to
organise things.

Since the transit process is geared towards cargo ships, and hence very complicated, there are
no end of “agents” hanging around the Yacht Club waiting to help us lowly cruisers. “Joseph”
one of the local cab drivers, helped us navigate through the quagmire of Panamanian paperwork
and introduced us to all the relevant authorities: Port Captain, Immigration, Customs, Transit
Authority, Citibank to pay canal fee and security deposit etc. The formalities for just checking in
took 4 hours and involved: visits to 10 different offices around town; filling out copious copies of
paperwork; multiple photographs, thumbprints and signatures from every crew member; all
followed by a personal visit from the Admeasurer who came onboard to measure and check the
yacht for suitability to transit (sufficient engine capacity, appropriate 125ft docklines, strong tire
fenders - both borrowed from the Yacht Club - requisite no of line handlers etc.). The whole
process took two days, and a mountain of forms, to finally register with a transit date – little did we
know we would have to go through all this again before we checked “out” of the Atlantic side of
the canal, and then twice more as we checked in and out of the Pacific side!
Long live bureaucracy! The one saving grace was that we got to experience the canal for a
fraction what your average tanker ($100,000) or cruise ship ($250,000) would have to spend.

On a lighter note, Molly McDaniel joined us from St Lucia as planned on the 16th at the Yacht
Club: she had long since volunteered to help as a line-handler on the transit, thus stalking us
further around the globe, and arrived totally overexcited about rejoining Skardu – but her
enthusiasm for everything is infectious and rubbed off on us all. From then on, the paperwork
excepted, the experience picked up.

After lots of horror stories of lengthy delays and damage to other yachts, we were relieved to
transit the Panama Canal successfully, on time, in good weather, and without mishap. We all
loved the experience; it was exciting, interesting and unique. We recruited a Kiwi from another
yacht (Richard from ‘Last Call’) to join us as our 4th and final line handler. To round out the
complement we also had two different pilots help guide us through on the two-day transit.
However, it was somewhat disconcerting that a) they kept falling asleep, and b) their only bit of
advice would be “You see that big ship ahead… don’t hit it”; wise words indeed. Having taken
our pilot onboard we set off just after sunset on the 19th headed for the canal entrance, but before
we could enter the first of the ‘Gatun’ up-locks, we had to stop mid-channel to secure ourselves
alongside the one other yacht scheduled to head through the canal at the same time (a
catamaran called “Milliways” which coincidentally was from our same home port of Hamble).
We sidled into the lock a mere afterthought behind a huge tanker called “Atlas Mountains” (rather
appropriate we thought having travelled there 5 months ago). For this section of the canal we
were also secured to a pilot tug, relieving us of much of the line handling effort – somewhat of a
relief in the dark!

Having successfully negotiated the three ‘Gatun’ up-locks by midnight, we stayed overnight on
the freshwater Gatun Lake, 85ft above sea level and positioned between the up and down locks.
We were woken up in the morning by the screams of howler monkeys in the nearby rainforest,
and we even risked a (rather quick) dawn swim - the lake is inhabited by lots of large alligators,
so we were in-and-out in a flash! The next morning it took 3 hours to motor through the tranquil
lakes to the infamous cuttings and 'down' locks, and we saw our fair share of shipping traffic
coming the other way…. again with the pilot chirping “You see that big ship ahead, please try not
to hit it!”

Now without going into too much detail, it would be a shame not to mention something of the
history on the Panama Canal. People have been transiting the Panama Isthmus by land for
centuries, but it was only after the increased traffic caused by the California gold rush of the 1840s
that interest was renewed to build a canal connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific. Based on their
success with the sea-level Suez Canal, the French were the first to have a crack. Unfortunately,
due to a combination of malaria and yellow fever wiping out over 100,000 workers and the
topography being unsuitable to a sea-level canal, the French soon gave up and matters were
handed over to the Americans. To their credit the Americans realized that rather than cut
through the whole isthmus to create a sea level canal, they could instead dam the nearby River
Chagres, flood the intervening valleys, and then float over many of their problems (clearly there
was no Greenpeace in those days). All they needed was to successfully protect their workers
from malaria, create one of the largest artificial lakes in the world, build the largest locks in the
world, and blast through miles of rock. It took the army corps of engineers 10 years, but finally in
1914 the canal was opened. Amazingly, it has changed very little since.

Arriving mid-morning at the first of the three ‘down’ locks, we were without the pilot tug from the
night before, so finally had to participate in the line handling routine. The process for going through
the locks is not complicated, but requires some careful concentration to keep the yacht under
control in the centre of the lock. Canal workers on either side would throw lines down to us
weighted with “monkey’s fists” of rope which we would then have to attach to our 125’ long dock
lines. They would retrieve these back and make them fast to bollards either side of the canal
lock so that our rafted yachts were held securely in place at four points. The canal is an awe-
inspiring feat of engineering; and each lock is about 33.5 m (110 ft) wide by 305 m (1,000 ft)
long. It requires some careful line handling to maintain control as 197 million litres (52 million
gallons) of water rushes through huge sluices to raise and drop each lock 30 feet in about 10
minutes. In fact one pilot boat trying to squeeze through the lock by itself didn’t get one of its lines
attached in time, and spent the 10 minutes going around in circles at full throttle trying to
overpower the eddies it was caught in.

On this day, we had the luxury of not having to share the lock with any other cargo ship, and as
each lock passed everyone felt more at ease with their duties. So, in continuing the Skardu
tradition, we managed a ‘Panama’ beer photo-shoot in the last canal lock with Molly & Lisa
proving a colourful backdrop in their bikinis, much to the delight of the assembled canal
assistants, and the crew on the adjacent ship – not an everyday occurrence we suspect!!!

It was a special moment as the final lock doors swung open to welcome us into the Pacific; it felt
like a grand achievement, and the beginning of a new chapter in the Skardu adventures!
Seconds later the girls had a surprise for Mark and Q, dousing us in buckets of Pacific water as
a first-time Skippers' initiation rite - one that had been kept secret from us. Thank you “Milliways”
for tipping them off!

Exiting the canal system on the other side of a continent, we passed under the elegant 'Bridge of
the Americas' to moor up at the Balboa Yacht Club (which in fact is no more than a pier, since
the club burned down 8 years ago!). A day later, and a day too late for the Canal Transit,
Matthew Stoudt (Mark’s business school friend from Kellogg) arrived just in time to help us with
our provisioning and preparation for the months in the Pacific ahead. We went through 4 days of
frantic work and provisioning in Panama City to last us the three months until Tahiti; not an easy
task. If you have a hard time deciding what you want for dinner tonight, try figuring out what you
want for dinner three months from now!

After much deliberation we finally stumped up and invested in new Solar Panels (as a
replacement for the ones swept away in our knock-down), had some parts for our damaged
frame fabricated, then mounted and wired them up... hey presto we are getting 8Amps an hour
out of them - so cool to produce ‘free’ electricity to help run all our systems! Without them, our
batteries were simply running down too quickly to last across the Pacific, and after all it’s a good
investment for Skardu’s long-term future.

With the assistance of our able crew we found and filled every last nook and cranny with tin-
cans, jars, bottles, packets, tubs, and tubes, then filled the fridge and aft cabin with fresh produce
stacked high... hope we've got enough to last the long miles ahead! We bought extra jerry-cans
for diesel, water, and outboard petrol, filled everything to the brim, lashed all on deck, and then
were ready to leave Panama behind and set off into the deep wide Pacific.