Commodore
January 29, 2023

Sunday 29 January – We start our passage through the canal

Lots of last minute preparations going on including getting the other cabin ready for Tim (an Arc official) who is joining us to be the fourth of our compulsory line handlers. Even though we are the middle boat, we will have a monohull attached to either side of us who will handle the ropes either side. We have to have 4 handlers incase our raft breaks up, and we are left to do the lines. We had to collect our 4 big heavy lines for the locks and keep them just in case, The monohulls had those too, they also had to take loads of extra enormous round fenders. Finally 2:30 pm arrived, we had Tim on board and we were off, it was pretty windy in the marina so we knew it would be quite choppy out of the sheltered marina. It was howling the strongest wind we have had in ages which is never ideal. The first thing that happened is that our big round fender came off the back and although we turned around promptly it was so quickly washed on the reef we had to abandon it. In the wind we had to anchor in the waiting area with the other 12 boats in our Arc flotilla and wait for our Advisors to get on board. Not the easiest anchoring in the howling wind with a couple of boats opting not to anchor, making things a bit hectic having to keep going at a decent speed weaving between the boats. Every boat has an Advisor provided by the Canal Authority and the Advisor on the middle boat is in charge. We had 4 ‘nests’ of 3 boats and we were in nest 3. It was pretty scary getting the Advisors on board in this wind, we had to open up our side railings and get 4 fenders close together, even so the delivery boat scraped onto us, thankfully doing no damage. Hector our advisor hopped on board at about 5 pm.

Leaving Shelter Bay marina

The 12 World Arc boats leave

Anchoring in the choppy windy harbour

Edmund relaxing

Tim our Arc line handler

Hector our Advisor arrives

No peace for Rowan

Under the bridge

Life jackets on it has been so choppy

Sunsetting as we go under the bridge

The two monohulls in our nest

Hector was amazingly competent, he gave directions continually. We all picked up anchors which was quite a challenge in this wind, but finally we were off. Just before the lock we pulled aside and we all rafted to our assigned boats into our nests. Luckily as we got nearer the locks the wind pressure died. The rafting into our nests went much better than expected, what a relief to have Tim on board who is totally competent. The one monohull next to us was particularly incompetent and was a bit of a comedy show, Once we were attached into our nest Rowan was in charge of steering and moving the nest, under constant instruction from Hector, towards the first lock. The first two nests were in position, we moved into the lock and the line handlers on land threw their weighted thin lines to both the monohulls on either side of the lock. The line handlers on the monohulls then secured the thin lines through a huge loop on the big lines (ropes) that they had been issued with. The land rope handlers then had to walk along the canal with the nest, then up a steep bank to the next upper level, where they secured the thick lines from the monohulls. We were in position, the fourth nest followed us in. We wer all in position, the gates were closed and the water rushed out and we gently sunk down the enormous walls of the lock. The boat line handlers had to gently tension the lines, to keep up with our rising up. No rest for anyone, while we absorbed this was the first of 6 locks!

Heading towards the first of 3 locks. two sets of locks side by side, we were behind the sailing boats on the left

The nests in front

Our Spanish monohull on the right with the bridge lit up behind

The Scottish monohull on the lefgt

Finally entering the lock

the lines being thrown

Lines being held as we move into the lock. A big container ship passing through on the lock next door

We repeated this another 2 times in the thick dark, with everyone fully concentration and working under the blinding glare of the spot lights. By 9pm we were through the third lock, we had to dismantle our nest and go and find our mooring buoy in Gatun lake in pitch darkness with 4 boats attached to it. We had PolePole and another cat along the buoy and then a monohull attached to us. it was pretty hairy what was going on, attaching to the buoy and then getting the monohull alongside us. By 9:15 we were feeding Hector a late Spaghetti bolognaise made in the slow cooker. We all managed to wolf down some food and head to bed promptly to get some sleep.