The United States had a monopoly over the Panama Canal for 85 years. However, the Torrijos-Carter Treaties signed in 1977 began the process of returning the canal to the Panamanian government in 1999.
Since the Panamanian Government has taken over the administration of the Canal, fees have increased greatly and it now pumps millions of dollars from toll revenue to the national economy and provides massive employment.
While sightseeing in both Colon and Panama City, Mal and I viewed clusters of vacant buildings, offices, and double story brick homes. Apparently, these were inhabited by the Americans when America was administering the Canal. On leaving, these buildings were abandoned and are still vacant to this day.
There are three optional types of lockages available to vessels under 38 metres (125 feet) length overall when transiting the Canal. They are: Centre Chamber, sidewall or alongside a tug.
Centre Chamber Lockage – This is the preferred type of lockage. The vessel is held in the centre of the chamber by two bow and two stern lines. Often this type of lockage is done “nested”; this means rafting up with one or two other boats in order to form a nest of two or three boats. Yachts tie up to one another just before entering the locks and split up once they have transited the set of locks.
Sidewall Lockage – This type of lockage uses two of the required 125ft lines to hold the vessel alongside one sidewall in the chamber. The walls of the locks are rough unfinished concrete, which can cause considerable damage to vessels not properly protected by fenders. Damage to masts or rigging on sailboats may also occur if turbulence causes the vessel to roll and strike the sidewall. Consequently, sidewall lockage is not recommended for small yachts, except on downward lockages, when turbulence and currents are much less pronounced.
Alongside a tug – This type of lockage, when available, also uses two of the required 125ft lines. Availability of this type of lockage depends on the ship traffic for the day, and as such cannot be scheduled in advance. The vessel waits for the tugboat to tie to the sidewall of the lock. Once the tug has secured itself to the sidewall of the lock, the vessel then comes alongside it and ties up.
Steps to Transit the Panama Canal
STEP 1 – Hire of Line Handlers, Fenders and Ropes
The vessel is required to have a skipper and four line handlers, one for each line. Mal and I hired three line handlers as I was to be the fourth, 10 car tyres covered with plastic as fenders and 4 x 125ft ropes 7/8 inch in diameter. This was arranged through our agent Tito on arrival to Colon.
STEP 2 – Contact the Admeasurer’s Office to make arrangements for admeasurement and to be cleared by the Panama Canal Authority Boarding Official.
Small craft tolls to transit the Panama Canal are according to length overall. The Admeasurer comes out to the boat and physically measures the boat’s length including bowsprits, davits or any other protrusions. The minimum fee is US$1500 for up to 50ft in length. Then the fee steps up to US$2000 for over 50ft in length.
We, with Tito our agent, visited the Admeasurer’s Office, on our arrival and arranged a visit to “Hasta La Vista”. We had a temporary Panama Phone Number for our mobile and they said they would contact us and let us know when the Admeasurer would visit.
A couple of days later, we were instructed to anchor in the “Flats” and the Admeasurer arrived by tug boat. He spent approximately an hour with us, physically measuring “Hasta La Vista”. With the fixed spinnaker pole, “Hasta La Vista” measured 49ft. The Admeasurer also explained the process of going through the Canal, obtained all of our details including where to send the cheque for the refund of the bond (US$820 of the US$1500) and had us sign a release form which releases the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) from liability in case of any accident, damage or injury, caused by use of the equipment aboard the vessel that does not meet the Panama Canal’s requirements.
We were told:
- That vessels must be able to maintain a speed of eight knots under power, which “Hasta La Vista” can do.
-That an “Advisor” would be coming aboard early evening and prior to our making way to the first of the locks and that he would be with us while negotiating the first set of three locks. We would then tie to a mooring on the Gatun Lock overnight ready for the arrival of a new “Advisor” at 6.00am to take us through the next set of three locks to the Pacific side.
-And a final requirement was that the Pilot or Advisor be fed meals, snacks and drinks including bottled water. (The three line boys whom we hired would be sleeping overnight and staying with us for the complete transit so they needed meals, snacks and drinks as well.)
STEP 3 – Deposit US$1500 into the nominated bank with a copy of the Admeasurer’s completed “Admeasurement Clearance and Handline Inspection Form.
Once the money was deposited by Mal and I, a copy of the bank receipt is faxed to the Panama Canal Authority so that they can schedule “Hasta La Vista” to transit the canal.
It was our responsibility to phone the Panama Canal Authority Office the next day to ascertain when we would be going through and what type of lockage would be allocated. (We had requested Centre Lockage or Tug Lockage if it was at all possible.)
STEP 4 – Contact the Panama Canal Authority Office to establish the time of Transit.
We were advised that only large ships were going through during the next couple of days. There were a couple of sailing vessels waiting and “Hasta La Vista” would probably go through with them on the weekend of the 1 and 2 May. The Authority asked whether we would mind going through Centre Chamber nested or rafted with another sailing vessel. Mal indicated that we were happy with that arrangement. A phone call to the office in the next couple of days confirmed that we had been scheduled to go through on Saturday evening 1 May and we would be required to raft up to a mono.
STEP 5 – Collect the three line boys at 2.30pm on Saturday Afternoon 1 May.
Mal collected the three line boys by dingy at our anchorage at Club Nautico. We then motored to the Flats to anchor and await the arrival of the “Advisor”.
There were only three vessels anchored at the Flats and we established that a mono with a German Flag was the vessel going through with us.
STEP 6 – Wait for our allocated “Advisor” to come on board and commence our transit through the Panama Canal.
On the Atlantic side, the three locks, collectively called the Gatun Locks, are physically connected to each other. At Gatun, the vessel is raised a total of 26 metres (84 feet) in the three steps or chambers. Each chamber is 33.53 metres wide (110 feet) and 304.8 metres (1000 feet) long, while the entire Gatun Locks system, including the two approach walls, is 2 klms (1.08 nautical miles) long.
Our “Advisor” arrived at approximately 6.00pm. We were instructed to haul anchor and motor towards the first of the Gatun Locks. Just before entering, we rafted up to the German mono. It was not as long as “Hasta La Vista” so the Skipper of the mono was happy for “Hasta La Vista” to be the leading vessel.
On entry into the first lock, monkey fists with a light rope attached were thrown to the port forward and aft line boys on “Hasta La Vista” and the starboard port and aft line boys on the German vessel. The line boys quickly tied the 125ft ropes to the light lines and these were then hauled back to the sides of the lock. The lock linesman than pulled in the slack and walked along the wall of the lock while our rafted vessels motored to the front of the lock. The lines were tied to cleats on the side of the lock holding our rafted vessels firm in readiness for the closing of the gates and the rising of the water in the lock. As the water rose, the lock line boys took up the slack and ensured the lines were firm. Once the lock was full, the lines were taken off the cleats, our rafted vessels moved forward to the front of the next lock with the lock line boys walking with the lines along the top of the lock. This process was repeated until we had negotiated the three Gatun Locks.
Upon exiting the Gatun Locks, our rafted vessels untied and ”Hasta La Vista” entered the Gatun Lake, a man-made lake extending across the Isthmus. When the waterway was built, Gatun Dam was the largest earthworks dam ever built, Gatun Lake the largest man-made lake, and the three sets of locks the largest concrete structures in the world. The lake covers an area of 423 sq kms (116.64 sq nautical miles) and was formed by erecting the Gatun Dam across the Chagres River. Hasta La Vista travelled 37.8 kms (20.4 nautical miles) across the lake to enter the Gaillard Cut (13.7 km or 7.4 nautical miles long) at the north end, where the Chagres River flows into the channel at Gamboa.
It was approximately 11pm when we had completed mooring to a buoy in the Gatun Lake. A tug boat came along side “Hasta La Vista” and collected our “Advisor”. Mal and I and the line boys went to bed knowing that we would need to be up at 6.00am the next morning ready for the boarding of our new “Advisor”.
On the Pacific side, the three locks are separated. The first step called the Pedro Miguel Locks, is followed by the adjoining two, called the Miraflores Locks. The Miraflores Locks are just over 1.6kms (0.86 nautical miles) in length.
We motored for some hours crossing the Gatun Lake heading towards the first of the locks, the Pedro Miguel Lock.
Once again, “Hasta La Vista” rafted up to the German mono. Our nested vessels entered the Pedro Miguel Lock and the process started all over again except this time we were entering a full lock, the gates closed, and the water lowered, taking us to the level of the next lock.
After negotiating the Pedro Miguel Locks and the Miraflores Locks, we motored through Balboa Harbour and to the Balboa Yacht Club where a tugboat picked up our second advisor. By then the time was 1.00pm on Sunday 2 May. Our line boys collected the 125ft lines and disembarked at the dock of the Balboa Yacht Club. They were catching a bus back to Colon. We thought that our agent, Tito, would be there to collect our tyre fenders to recycle them but it seems that we were mistaken. So we took the opportunity when we were docked at the Balboa Yacht Club and arranged and paid a small fee to have them taken away to a rubbish dump. A bit of a waste but there was not much else we could do. We then sailed around the Balboa and Amador Causeway, a causeway linking the mainland with three small islands of the coast of Panama City, and anchored at an anchorage called Las Brisas. We were in the Pacific!
