The Panama Canal links the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean. It is fifty miles long with a continuous staircase of 3 locks which took us up approximately 85 feet above sea level. We stayed this high through Gatun Lake and the famous Galliard Cut. Then we transited three locks down to the Pacific Ocean. Through the canal marks the entry into the Pacific, a new ocean for ARAGORN and us. The Pacific will become our home for the next 6 months and over 9000 nm of sailing!
Going into the first lock seems a bit ominous... You are two stories down, and the massive lock doors close behind you prior to the lock filling. The doors are generally in good shape for being the originals since 1915!
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The Canal "experience" actually starts with a lot of paperwork (22 pieces of paper in Panama). Here Eric Rodriguez, our admeasurer, does the paperwork and calculations in our main salon to determine how much we are supposed to pay for a canal transit. Actually, once he measured the boat at less than 50 feet overall, the fee was fixed, but that did not stop the bureaucracy from requiring eight more pieces of paper, with three carbons!
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On transit day we picked up our Panama Canal pilot, or "Advisor". Muigel came aboard at 0545, and still looked a little sleepy after the first cup of coffee.
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To lock up, we were supposed to raft next to two other rally boats, SAFARI, a 58-foot catamaran from South Africa, and MIZU BABY, a 55-foot Oyster from England. As it turns out, they tied to a tug, and we had to go up alone in the center of the lock, with four lines out to the handlers on the lock wall. As you can see the latest fashion for fenders in the canal is tires wrapped in plastic bags and taped up. Not pretty, but effective. We used twelve for 46-foot ARAGORN.
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This shows our lock partners for the three up locks. First, a large automobile carrier, Huyndai No. 103, the tug for the ship, and SAFARI and MIZU BABY rafted to the tug. We were the last ones in the lock, center tied all alone.
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The water boils as it comes into the lock and as the large ships move ahead of us. Here our all-star crew, Christy, hauls on the starboard bow line so we don't spin into the opposite wall.
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The view from the top lock is wierd... We could look down at one of the cruise ships that pay over $100,000 so their passengers can transit the canal. You can also see the container ship, half-way up in the parallel lock on the right.
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Leslie, just before the Panama Canal transit. The hair gets shorter in each port in an effort to keep it out of the eyes while at sea. Lucky guy, I am.
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"Pedro" (Peter) and "H" (Helen) Shaw, the entire crew of TOMODACHI, a Moody 54 from England. This was snapped at dinner the day before Valentine's Day 2004. They were married the prior Valentine's Day, so they still qualified as newlyweds for this photo.
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This is Mark, the skipper on FOREVER YOUNG, an Oyster 66 from Bermuda. Mark normally smiles a lot more, but looked pensive just for this photo. Or was he worried we were going to bash our dink into his transom?
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