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Here are just a few little things I thought were interesting about the canal.
In 1880, Ferdinand de Lesseps, fresh from his triumph building the Suez Canal, sold stock to millions of Frenchmen to finance the building of the canal, but went into financial ruin before the end of the century.
In 1903, Panama and the US entered into a treaty by which the US undertook to construct an interoceanic ship canal across the Isthmus. The following years the US purchased the rights and equipment of the French for $40 million and took over the construction. It took 10 years, the labor of more than 75,000 men and women, and almost $400 million to complete the job. The builders of the Canal faced unprecedented problems: tropical disease; the unusual geology of the Isthmus that made land slides a constant hazard: the enormous size of the locks and volume of the excavation needed: and the need to establish whole new communities, to import every last nail, and to organize work on a scale never before seen.
The Canal opened to traffic on August 15, 1914: since that time, there have been more than 825,000 transits though the waterway.
The canal is 80 kilometers long from deep water in the Atlantic to deep water in the Pacific. It was cut through one of the narrowest and lowest saddles of the long, mountainous Isthmus that joins the North and South American continents. It requires about 8 to 10 hours for an average ship to transit the Canal. During this brief time, the passengers aboard have an opportunity to see one of the modern wonders of the world in operation. The Canal’s principal physical features are Gatun Lake, the central man-made lake stretching nearly all the way across the Isthmus; Gaillard Cut, the 13-kilometer-long excavation through the Continental Divide that extends Gatun Lake to Pedro Miguel Locks; the locks on both sides of the Isthmus that raise ships between sea level and the lake and the ports of Balboa on the Pacific and Cristobal on the Atlantic. At the time the Canal was built, Gatun Dam was the largest earth dam that had ever been constructed, and Gatun Lake was the largest man-made lake in the world. The three sets of locks were the most massive concrete structures ever built.
A ship that transits the Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific enters the channel from Limon Bay at the Cristobal breakwater. This sea-level section of the Canal channel on the Atlantic side is 10 kilometers long and 152.40 meters wide and runs through a mangrove swamp that is only a few feet above sea level in most places. A ship is raised or lowered 26 meters in a continuous flight of three steps at Gatun Locks. Each lock chamber is 33.53 meters wide and 304.8 meters long. The lengths of Gatun Locks including the two approach walls is 2 kilometers.
Gatun Lake and Dam, through which ships travel for 37.8 kilometers from Gatun Locks to the north end of Gaillard But, covers an area of 423 square kilometers and was formed by the construction of Gatun Dam across the Chagres River adjacent to Gatun Locks.
Gaillard Cut has the most historical background. Perhaps no part of the Canal trip is more interesting than this Cut. This portion of the channel is 13.7 kilometers long and was carved through rock and shale for most of the distance. It was here that the principal excavation was required and here that devastating slides occurred during construction and soon after the Canal was opened.
Coming from the Atlantic, the ship enters the Cut where the Chagres River flows into the Canal channel at Gamboa. In the Cut, the ship passes Gold Hill on the left, the highest promontory along the channel. It rises 179.37 meters above sea level.
The Pacific-bound ship enters Pedro Miguel Locks at the south end of Gaillard Cut. Here it is lowered 9 meters in one step to Miraflores Lake, a small artificial body of water that separates the two sets of Pacific locks.
The transiting ship is lowered the remaining two steps to sea level at Miraflores Locks, which is slightly over 1.609 meters length. The lock gates at Miraflores are the tallest of any in the system, because of the extreme tidal variation on the Pacific Ocean.
One more thing I thought was interesting, in a brochure it states the highest Canal toll is $ 165,235.58 paid by the Rhapsody of the Seas in 1998. The lowest toll is 36 cents, paid by Richard Halliburton for swimming the Canal in 1928. (Can’t believe they even charged him). The average toll for oceangoing commercial vessels is $ 42,000. Smaller boats, like us, pay $ 500 up to 50 feet and $ 750 for above. There is also a $800 fee which is used as insurance and will be returned after safely completed with the canal crossing.

Well, here we are! At the canal, getting ready to do our first passage from Balboa to Pedro Miguel and here is how it works. Right after we arrived at Balboa Yacht Club a fellow named Porki boarded us and of course tried to sell us his services. Since the check-in involves several places to visit, I decided to have him guide me. (He will not tell you how much his service is, he leaves it up to you). His taxi driver friend Louis will be waiting for you already and both of them will drive you from place to place. (It’s not a bad deal, but you can do it without Porki, if you can find a taxi driver like Louis, who knows what’s going on and where everything is and what you need. Porki is a nice guy, but a bit of a scheister, so watch out. As for Louis, he’s just as bad and tries to rip you off, if you need a taxi here either tell Louis from the get go that you know he’ll rip you off or just find another friendly taxi driver. I wouldn’t rent a taxi by the hour, the traffic in Panama City is so bad, that you pay for getting stuck in it, besides the rides cost between 1 to rarely 2 dollars to drive in town). Right next to the Club Pier is an old shack, which is Customs, where you get the first stamp in your Passport, then your off with Porki and Louis. First visit, the National Bank of Panama to buy tax stamps for some of the paper work. You need a total of 8 stamps worth one dollar each, four for the cruising permit, four for the Zarpe, when you leave the country, if you just check out for Crystobal on the other side, you will need four more since the Zarpe is only good for 48 hours. Next stop Immigration, were you get the 3 months visa ($10 per person). Then, the Navigation Permit Office, the 3 months cruising permit will cost 65 bucks, plus the four stamps. Next stop is the Admeasure Office, for an appointment to have the boat measured for the transit. Without it you will not be able to transit. They usually show up the very next day, but be careful with that, you will have to have the required four lines (min. 125 feet), each 4 bumpers (tires) and a good air-horn ready. (Porki will offer to lend you the stuff, he will not charge for the lines, he will charge you for the tires, which he does not tell you in advance and he will bring you double of what you arranged. We kept the 8 for we thought they were needed. Actually funny, you pay 2 to 3 bucks for one tire and are told that you will be able to sell them on the other side, where they actually charge you one dollar each to discard it, now how does that work?! Porki will try to rent you the lines, he’ll charge 20 bucks per line, but the guys he gets them from only charges 15. There is a lot of paper work involved in the measuring of the boat. After that you pay the City Bank the transit fee, for our size boat $500, plus $800 for the insurance, which will be returned to us in about three months or you can pay with Visa. The same evening after 18:00 you call the Admeasure office to find out your date of transit. One day before the transit, after 09:00 you call them again to find out the time the advisor will arrive. If you decide to spend some time at beautiful Pedro Miguel Boat Club in the Miraflores Lake, you will have to call or visit them prior to admeasuring the boat and make arrangements. They then will make arrangements with the Canal office for a permit to stop at Pedro Miguel. Without that there will be not stopping at all. Also if you do that, note that the admeasure papers are only good for two weeks, thereafter you will have to have the boat admeasured again (in case it grows?!!!, they just want to see, that you have all the lines etc.). A good way to do the transit is to first crew on a friends boat, so that you have an idea what to expect. When Sid did that, he found out that our BBQ was in the way, also that we needed to take of the canvas around the cleats and that we had to use the windless as an additional cleat, since we only have one on the bow. Then when your time is up, have plenty of coffee ready, donuts, sweet rolls, soda pops and water and enjoy the ride. I forgot to mention, that you need four line handlers, which everybody in the cruising community will help you with. We all help each other.

September 2nd 2000, the big day. The adviser arrived only 10 minutes late, (could be up to two hours, one never knows). 08:08 we dropped the mooring in Balboa Yacht Club and headed under the Bridge of the Americas towards the canal locks. Peter (Blondie), Joe (Island Time) and Carl and Janice (Orbiter) were our line handling crew. The weather was sunny and beautiful and excitement was in the air. As we were about ½ kilometer from the first lock, the adviser told us to slow down and wait for our ship to pass us. Primness a 30 000 ton bulk carrier freighter was sharing the lock with us. They had to go into the canal first, followed by the tug boat and then us. We were side tide to the tug. You get several choices, center-tide, wall-tide, tug-tide, etc. We chose center or tug. Tug is actually the easier one, they don’t have to throw monkey fists onto your boat, which could damage things they hit, (line, which you tie your lines to, to be hauled up to the lock line handlers). As we tied to the tug, the lock behind us started closing. What an exciting morning! It gets even more exciting when you start seeing the water come out of the ground, it seemed to boil all around us. Eddy’s everywhere. It doesn’t take long to fill up the chambers and in no time you’re almost leveled with the canal top. While this all happened I called Primness on the radio and had a friendly chat with the captain. The gate opens, the adviser told us to get ready for the prop wash of the big ship in front of us, but that never happened, instead they pulled him through to the next lock with the mule. He then wanted to know what I had told the Primness captain. I told him that we were honored to be in the same lock with him for our first crossing and also to be gentle with us that we were virgins. The advisor laughed and said that this never happens that they pull them through with the mules. Now the gate was open and Primness moved into the second lock. We untied from the tug and followed the tug into the second chamber and side-tide with him again. The locks behind us closed, the chamber filled up with water, Primness pulled out first, we let go of the tug, the tug took off and we happily excited the first two locks to the Miraflores Lake. The Pedro Miguel Marina is only one mile on the other side. At least six people were waiting, greeting and helping us to get tied to the guest dock. A few hours later they moved us into a permanent slip. Which turned into a battle with the mud bar, which was just in front of our slip and of course we got stuck on it. Six strong guys tried to pull us across, but no success, we were not going anywhere, great, stuck in the middle of the canal. Sid came through again and had the most incredible idea to pull us in with the windless. It worked and a few minutes later we were securely tide up in our slip. Hope this will not be a problem getting out.
The very next morning we were line handling for Island Time. The advisor was on time, but before they let us into the lock, they made us change lines and tires four times, they couldn’t make up their minds. Well, at least I know how to change tires now and I’m good at it, my dad would be proud of me. That back and fourth stuff took away a lot of time and since Island Time’s top speed is 4.8 knots, we of course were worried that we wouldn’t make it across on time. In order to do a crossing in one day for a small boat like us, we have to arrive before 14:00 by the locks on the other side. Unfortunately we were 10 minutes too late and had to spend the night in Gatun Lake, which is not all too bad, except non of us expected that and we didn’t have our tooth brushes and overnight bag with us. Island Time wasn’t prepared for it either and had to take their provisioning out for dinner. It’s a very pretty area and of course very, very quite. We had fun and enjoyed the quietness, until 03:30 in the morning, when a pilot boat repeatedly honked his horn at us and yelling over his PA system for us to move. We had parked were the advisor had instructed us and he could not leave until we were anchored. It is forbidden to move a boat around the lake without and advisor, but he was giving us such a hard time, we moved. If a boat gets stuck in Gatun lake, they usually don’t get to transit until the next afternoon at 2PM. One thing we didn’t know is, that the canal moves only one way at a time and so you have to wait until the traffic changes around. We were very surprised as the advisor came back at noon already and we immediately started heading into the locks. Now to go down the locks, the small boats go in first, followed by the big ship. It has something to do the way the mules (a miniature version of a railway engine, which are connected with the big ship with cables). Anyway, it’s very neat and exciting to be in the front of the lock, locking down on the next two locks down below and then the bay opening into the ocean, the Caribbean side, yeah. Sid calls it the other side of the world.
We did another transit, this time we helped Breathless from our Yacht Club to go through. Breathless can do 8 knots and we go to the Gatun Locks in no time and were in Colon by two in the afternoon, a very smooth and fun transit. The advisor said that this was his fastest transit ever on a sailboat. It was a very special transit for us as it was out 10 year anniversary and to that I brought a couple of bottles of champagne and some yummy snacks which we enjoyed after we came out of the last lock.

While we were in Pedro Miguel we hooked the air-conditioner up. You probably think now, where has cruising gone, air-conditioner, marinas. . . . . Yes, we’re spoiled, but that’s not the real reason for the air-conditioner. Due to having two cats on board and not wanting them to wander off at night, we have to lock the boat down at night, which means ALL the hatches are shut. Can you feel the heat building up inside and can you imagine sleeping in this tropical heat and humidity. Neither can we, besides that the air-conditioner is the best prevention of mildew. You should have heard all the other boats complain watching the fuzzy stuff take over.
While here we did a lot of boat work, mainly canvas work. We added side shades to our awning, to keep either the sun or the rain out of the cockpit. We also made a replica of it for over the for-deck, so that we can have the hatches open when it rains. We had some fun too, I played tennis and Sid played football on TV.
On our trip down from Costa Rica, I discovered a lump in one of my breasts, so while here I got that checked out. I was amazed again, how low the medical aid is here. The visit was $30, Mammogram $75, Pap $10 and I even did an osteoporosis test, which is $250 bucks at home, here $50. All the tests came out negative, what a relief.
I haven’t even described the club house yet, have I. Island Time used to call it rustic, Sid thinks it’s rather rusty, so we call it “the rusty, rustic Pedro Miguel Boat Club”. The marina is located right next to the Pedro Miguel Lock in the Miraflores lake and unfortunately due to that, there are some times when we get horrendous currents from the tugs propeller wash when they push a big ship into the lock and can easily snap a dock line. Some boats have been smashed onto the dock with minor damage. So it is very essential that the boats are tied up with many, many dock lines. We were lucky and got a slip further in and away from the prop wash, although we still got the wakes, when the tugs came rushing across. But all in all it is a very nice and quite marina. The clubhouse is fun. It really is rusty and rustic and you can hear the termites eat away in the wood and the droppings are falling off the ceiling everywhere. It still is a fun place to be. Every cruiser gets a space in one of the four big refrigerators and in the freezer, yeah, ice-cream and ice for cocktails!!! There is a huge community kitchen, Cable-TV, computer, workshop, sewing room and of course shower facility. You feel right at home in this place. As a matter of fact, I think we never even spent any time on the boat, except for sleeping and we cooked every meal up in the club during our whole stay. The kitchen even had a dehydrator, which I sure used the heck out of it. Everyday the bread man came and spoiled us with the most delicious cinnamon rolls, breads and other sweets. Saturday and Sunday lunch a local girl cooks delicious meals for $2 a person. Saturday is pot-lock night with sometimes a pig roast, which always was very fun. We’ve never been to any pot-lucks with such a variety of gourmet foods before. I tell you, no loosing weight here!
Pedro Miguel is pretty much in the jungle, but also only about 20 minutes by bus from the big Panama City, which has anything you need. We were warned to be careful about all the plentiful poisonous snakes in this area, but we never got to see one. Sid did see the crocodile in the lake and I saw one in the little river. There are plenty of Jesus Christ Lizards, which are fun to watch when they run across the water (that’s how they got the name, they can walk on water). The area is in the midst of trees, which are overgrown with all kind of tropical plants. We saw several orchids bloom, some of them smelled very beautiful. We also saw one very mean looking caterpillar, he had thorns with thorns and is known to be poisonous.
Shopping was quite fun here and we found everything we needed. Unfortunately Panama City has areas which are not recommended to go shopping or walk around. Tourist frequently are getting robbed in these areas and to be on the safe side, one should take a taxi, which are very reasonable and safe. There also are internets everywhere, which I have to tell you the greatest thing we found. It’s called dialpad and you can actually make free phone calls via your computer. All you need is a headset and microphone and your on.
Check it out: www.dialpad.com or www.msn.messanger (which works faster and for Canada as well, the cost: the internet fee!) Then this one will let you call 30 countries world wide: www.hottelephone.com
Have fun!

Oh yeah, almost forgot, Sid found out that he was DEAD again. We tried to get a new credit card, they told us that Sid was using his social security number fraudulently and that he has been dead since 1972. Here we go again, I’m a widow again and he was actually dead when I married him. We contacted SSC and they would not give us any info, they took all of Sid’s info and said it would be at least 90 days before they can tell us if he is alive again or what. Also, they needed a telephone number and mailing address for where we could be contacted immediately if needed. Sid just laughed and said, that we were in Panama on a boat and that we could email. Their reply was, that they didn’t know if they could do email, but they would try. Looks like we need to head back to the States earlier than planed. Instead of the city, Sid has to fight the Government now. As soon as the hurricane season clears, we’re heading to Florida.
After one month in Pedro Miguel it was time to finish the rest of the Canal transit. I went back to the Admeasure office with my paper work and put in a request for a transit date. As she pulled us up on the computer I told her, to make sure that she had the right Paradise, that there was another one in Balboa. She said not to worry. Then check out with the port captain. The same day after 18:00 we called the admeasure office to find out about our date. The day before transit after 9:00 you call the office again to find out the time, then you let your line handlers know.
Remember how we got into the slip, pulled by our windless, we didn’t want to get stuck, so we asked to being moved from the slip two days prior to transit. I wasn’t there, I went provisioning, but I heard later, that we in deed got stuck in the mud again, the prop wouldn’t turn either, Sid thought we were rapped on one of the many dock lines all over the marina, jumped into the yucky alligator infested water finding that the prop was in the mud as well. They eventually got the boat over that hump and safely into the receiving/departure slip.
Day of transit. I surely hoped to get Alex as our advisor, as he was the best we’ve seen. I put in a request for him and it worked, they sent Alex to get us through the canal. Alex arrived ½ too late, he was sent to Balboa instead of here, which should have given us a clue. Immediately we had to head into the lake, since our ship was on it’s way already, that was fast. As we were out in the lake, watching our ship approach, Sid and Alex talked about the paper work and Alex showed him the transit list. Sid immediately noticed that the Paradise noted on the list, wasn’t us, it was that 39 foot Colombia in Balboa and brought this to Alex’s attention. Not even two minutes later the canal called Alex on his radio, telling him to bring Paradise immediately back to the marina that we haven’t paid. At that time we started following the ship into the locks and the gate started closing in front of us. Alex tried to clear up the misunderstanding. For the longest time they wouldn’t have any of it. Alex was persistent and finally they checked into it. They called one person after another, then the controller. We finally got hold of the Pedro Miguel Marina and had Denise call them to verify that we were not the boat in Balboa that in fact we had paid. Alex even gave them the bank receipt number. How could they even think that we didn’t pay, how else would we have gotten into Pedro Miguel. Another thing we found out, they had us on a transit back to Balboa. After almost one hour we got the OK to go ahead with our transit, but by now we missed our ride up. The next one was scheduled for 11:45, two hours! As we started moving toward the other side of the lake to grab one of the moorings, I went down below for something when I noticed smoke coming out of the engine compartment and yelled for Sid immediately. The engine quit! Sid was down in a hurry, getting the steps off and opening the box to the engine. The smoke turned out to be steam, but when you see that at first, fire always comes to mind. The valve from the cooling system had opened for some reason and spewed coolant everywhere. Sid closed the valve, refilled the lost water and started the engine, no problem.
Thinking back on this, I think we were very lucky for the Paradise mix-up, otherwise we would have been in the lock during the steamy event and the transit would have been aborted. We would have been pulled out of the lock and would have lost the $800.
At 11:45 we headed into the lock. This time we got special treatment, we had the lock to ourselves, except for the two tugs and pilot boat, but usually they don’t let you transit with them. At noon we started heading across the other side, hoping that there will be an opportunity for us to get down, which looked very slim at this point. Any small boat not arriving on the other side by 14:00 will have to spend the night in the lake. Sid pushed the pedal to the metal, we did 6.4 knots across the lake (that’s with 7 people and cruise loaded), hoping to make it. Although it wouldn’t have been very terrible to spend the night in Lake Gatun, it sure is pretty there, but we felt bad for our crew, not to be able to sleep in their own bed and having to give two long days up for us.
We arrived on the other side just before 16:00 and just very few minutes before the last possible boat for us. It was by minutes, they were heading for the entrance of the lock already. We made it, still can’t believe, neither does our crew, that we actually made it in one day. Alex was great, if it wasn’t for him, we would have never made it. We headed straight into the marina and tide up to the fuel dock, invited our crew for some drinks at the bar and paid a taxi ride back to Pedro Miguel and Balboa for them.
The next day we checked into the marina and took the slip next to Day by Day. We were planning to haul out for a new bottom paint, but the way the boat tram works, they need at least a one foot tide and that’s how much the tide range is over here. There is no possible date to haul until two weeks later. What we figured out later, was, there was no appropriate tide during working hours, the office opens at 9 and closes at 4, really 5 but all Marita does is hide behind the window, watching TV. There were a several tides at 8 but they don’t open until 9. I’d like to run a business like that someday. I guess Welcome to the Caribbean!
Colon is a pretty ugly, filthy and very dangerous town, I actually would call it fugly, you don’t walk around here alone or at all. Taxi is in order and the safest way to go shopping.
Since we had to wait for 14 days for the haul out, we decided we might as well go and play around in the San Blas islands. The next day I came down with the worst food poisoning which delayed our trip for another day. Then we finally headed out, where 6 foot waves made it miserable, the wind of course was on the nose again and the motor had to be run. Then we started to see white caps and the mess got even worse. When the wind hit 20 knots, we decided that we didn’t want to be in Isla Grande that bad and turned around and back into the anchorage. Wise choice, then for the next four days, the weather was miserable. The day the weather looked OK again, Sid started the engine, but had a hard time starting and the decision was made to go back into the marina, and work on the engine. The weather still was not good enough, 25 knots of wind and choppy seas, so might as well be in a safe marina with the air-conditioner hooked up.
For a whole day Sid was working on the engine. He found that the connection to the glow plugs were corroded, he also did an oil change and cleaned up the coolant mess. He didn’t start the engine until the next morning, being afraid of not working. Well, he did a good job, the engine is purring away and we’re out of here.
While he was working on the engine I went shopping. The Super 99 supermarket is incredible. They have a pick-up service. So I called them (449-3460/449-3461/449-3462/449-3463 or 449-3465) and I couldn’t believe it, ten minutes later this big red school bus with Super 99 written all over pulled into the marina and picked me up. Two of the boys packing the groceries greeted me with a happy smile on their face and took care of me from then on. The store had everything from hardware, clothing, house hold goods and groceries. As I was done, one of the kids gave me his discount card, I saved some money with that and he got some good points on his credit. Then the bus drove me all the way back to the marina and the two kids, carried all the groceries to the boat, I felt like a queen. What a way to go shopping. The plan was to leave the next, but unfortunately Sid pulled his back out and so we decided to stay in the marina a bit longer. Besides we met the dock master the same night and talked about the haul out. He seems to think that we should be able to haul out in the next couple of days, since there is a full moon. That would be great and would save us some time, yeah. And sure enough two days later we hauled out. This time, we didn’t lift a finger. For the first time Sid paid somebody to do it. Victor did a great job, even waxed the boat, all in 2 ½ days for $350, not bad at all. We really were very lucky on the weather. The whole two weeks prior to haul-out it rained every day, sometimes all day long. The day we were high and dry, the sun was out and stayed out until Victor was done waxing, about one hour later it rained cats and dogs. How lucky can we be?!

“Sailing south until the butter melts, turn left and then we’ll decide where to go”, we used to tell our friends at home, when asking where will sail to. We can barely believe it, but we’re here. The butter has melted a while ago, we turned left, so here we are, deciding where to go, but definitely to the right coast for a while.

Here is some Net info, for cruisers heading south:
Panama Pacific Net: 8.143.0 SSB at 14:00 Zulu (Sid was Net-Manager for
6 months)
Panama Connection Net: 8.107.0 SSB at 13:30 Zulu
Breakfast Club: 7.083.0 lower side band ham at 13:00 Zulu

To view photo album click on arrow in photo: