Yes, we could have stayed on anchor outside Shelter bay marina but we decided to make it easy for ourselves: in the marina its much easier to fill up our cooking gaz, do our shopping with the free marina shuttle bus service to Colon and arrange the transit of the 45nm Panama canal.
The marina manager recommended agent Stanley Scott and we can highly recommend Stanley! He came to the boat in Shelterbay marina and after agreeing to his quotation the ad-measurer came a few days later to measure our boat length end to end, including the pulpit: 61 foot instead of 53…. We got our Panama canal number, its valid for the next 10 years, and the ad-measurer explained the canal transit procedure.
Agent Stanley and his collegue bring sturdy lines and fenders for the upcoming canal transit
On May 7 it is our turn and we wait on anchor outside Shelterbay marina for the advisor for who is delivered at 04:00 by a small pilot boat. Roy jumps on board and we are off to Gatun lock!
05:00 under the bridge to Gatun lock
The 46 nm long Panama canal uses the Gatun lake as waterway and the actual canal that was dug is on the Pacific side. There are 2 groups of locks: Gatun lock is a staircase of 3 locks to the Gatun lake 26m higher. The combination of the Pedro Miguel lock and the double Miraflores lock decend to the Pacific ocean on the other side.
first lock, we where rafted up with 2 other sailing boats
the Gatun lock brings you up 26m from the Carribean sea to the Gatun lake with 3 giant locks in series
Goodbye Carribean sea and atlantic ocean!
one done 2 more to go! On to the Pedro Miguel lock, 45nm of motoring over the Gatun lake
Roys directions bring us every time very close to the channel markers;-)
while giant ships pass us
Pedro Miguel lock, right in the center of the country of Panama
this section of the canal is dug out and therefore is called the 'cut'
Miraflores locks, here we come
first our raft of 3
then a freighter
this is how that looks near the water level
and down we go
At there she is….for the very first time….the Pacific ocean!
many thanks to our advisor Roy for bringing us all safely to the other side!
Near the Balboa Yachtclub our agent Stanley came by watertaxi to collect the extra lines and fenders. Two of our line handles went with him to shore.
The whole transit took just 12 hours so we where very pleased.
BIG thank you to our line handlers, you where the BEST!
first night ever on the Pacific ocean
The next morning we got the dinghy out to bring Vincent, our third line handler, to shore.
very unusual to see a hawk this close
At the same time we wanted to make an appointment to bunker diesel in Playita marina and then go by taxi over the new loop road to a super spacious market in Panama city.
last stockup of fresh food in Panama city
Here we bought more local roots, courgettes and potatoes to add to the already well provisioned store cupboards. Shopping makes hungry so Stella had an exellent veggie Spaghetti brunch at the market, only $1.50. Markets are always good places for basic nosh.
this will be very much appreciated in the month to come
