Cruising through the Panama Canal

Transiting the Panama Canal on a 33ft boat

Many years ago, at the end of our sailing season, we left our 32ft Eclipse catamaran in a marina in Panama and took a bus to Colon to look for a boat that we could help through the Panama Canal. After a couple of days walking the docks we eventually met "Captain Woody" in the yacht club bar (where else!).

The canal is about 50 miles from sea to sea, so this is a longer video as it covers a 24hr trip. A trip that is often stressful, especially for low powered boats like Low Key or Eclipse. The penalties for taking too long for the transit, or worse, stopping altogether, are severe! Fortunately for Woody, transit day was calm with no wind, until we met a sea breeze leaving the last lock and were heading out into the Pacific.

It's normal to do a trial run on a friends boat to "case the joint" before going though as skipper. Apart from Jetti and I, Woody also picked up 2 others, as 4 line handlers are required, one per line, port and starboard. These, plus the helmsman and Canal Pilot are a lot on a 33ft boat, especially one normally sailed singlehanded.

The transit takes most of the day, furthermore yachts not allowed to travel in the canal after dark. Thus yachts leaving the Caribbean go through the first set of locks at dusk the evening before. Often right behind a big ship, see the heading photo of our Eclipse in the first lock.

It's pretty scary when the gates open and the ship leaves. Few people are ever that close to a turning ship propellor and the bouncing from the wash is very stressful! It was obvious why 4 line handlers were needed! All told, that's why there's no video of the first locks.

Once clear of the locks yachts pick up a mooring for the night, so the transit proper can start at daybreak the next day.

When "empty" the locks are still about 12m-40ft deep and this determines the maximum draft of ships. The "Bridge of Americas" is 198ft high and that limits the size of sail boats (yes some yachts have masts taller than that, so cannot get through)

Most of the canal runs through the man made Gatun Lake, so we spent hours motoring slowly through a flooded rain forest. When it was formed Gatun Lake was the largest such lake in the world and is about 27m, 90ft, above nominal sea level.

Like all yachts, we used the Banana Cut as a short cut, done in part to avoid ships, so we didn't meet any until we got to the canal proper. The lake section is about 20 miles, while the canal section is about 8 miles. The remaining distance include the access channels, the locks and their approaches.

I still vividly remember going singlehanded through the very crowded Trollhatten locks at the end of the Gota Canal, and not being able to use warps, instead pushing the boat off a sheer rock face by hand. A lock that actually had a greater drop than any in the Panama canal.

The Gaillard Cut has the steepest banks in the canal and needs constant repair from daily landslides. Dredgers and bulldozers have been at work full time since 1914.

As always, going through the locks was very much a "hurry up and wait" process. Usually delays are when waiting for a ship going the other way that was running late.

Going down through locks is always easier and it was certainly easy for us to catch the thrown ropes - and 4 handlers made it even simpler, but you can see why it's recommended to place cushions on any solar panels!

The on-shore line handlers had a lot of walking to do when the yachts move through the locks - ships have small trucks to take their warps.
Then finally it was out of the last lock, drop off the pilot and out into the Pacific under the Bridge of America.

[thecaptainwoody]

Thank you Richard, this is great! I'm checking out your other videos.

[WoodsDesigns]

Footnote: A "must read" is the Path Between the Seas by David McCullough. In it you will learn that politics and yellow fever were both major factors during the construction. And that there is/was a good argument for having the canal across Nicaragua instead.


Which just leaves two questions for you to answer below. No googling for answers!

1) How much more water is wasted when a yacht goes through a lock compared to a ship?

2) Which end of the Panama canal is further east? The Colon end or the Balboa end?