Just an hour before we were scheduled to leave the marina at
\nShelter Bay and begin our transit across the Panama Canal we
\nreceived a phone call from Naomi, Mark’s sister, telling us that
\ntheir beloved mother Kitty (Nana) had just died. We knew that
\nKitty’s health had been rapidly deteriorating. Indeed she has
\nbeen fading for the past few years… but still, the news was a
\nterrible blow. Because this blog is not meant as a “personal
\ndiary”, and is open to anyone to read, we are not going to use
\nthis space to write about Kitty or what her loss means to us. We
\nwill save that for personal communication with family. It just
\ndoesn’t feel right to write about the crossing without
\nacknowledging Kitty’s loss. So here is the story of our
\ntransit……<\/p>\n
Within a half an hour after receiving the phone call, and in
\nfact right in the middle of Mark’s phone call to Ben in Israel
\nto tell him about Nana, a car pulled up into the marina driven
\nby our Panama Canal agent Enrique Plummer, and filled with 3
\nother men (line handlers), 4 huge coils of line for the transit,
\nand various duffle bags for the men’s overnight stay with us.
\nSince the Panama transit is tightly scheduled we could not
\ndelay. The captain (Mark) was urgently being called by everyone
\nto get on board for final preparations and to start moving
\ntowards the canal entrance. We put our overflowing emotions on
\nhold, and proceeded with the tasks in front of us.<\/p>\n
The crossing was an amazing experience. We left the marina and
\nmotored a few miles across the open channel to “the flats” – an
\nanchorage where all sailboats wait for their turn to do the
\ntransit. About an hour after we arrived there a pilot boat
\nzoomed over an to us and dropped off our advisor, Marin. Boats
\nsmaller than 65 feet are required to have an “advisor” from the
\nPanama Canal Authority on board. Larger boats have pilots.
\nAdvisors supposedly only advise the captain what to do, and he
\nis free to follow that advice or not. If the boat comes to
\ngrief, it is the captain’s (Mark in this case) responsibility.
\nOn the big boats that have pilots, the pilot is in charge and
\nresponsible.<\/p>\n
The two other boats that were apparently scheduled to go through
\nwith us got their advisors dropped off and then we all proceeded
\ncloser to the actual canal. By then it was pitch dark and the
\ntask at hand was to get all three boats rafted up together –
\nours being the largest of the three we got the prime middle
\nposition. This is a great spot to be in because the other boats
\nactually work like two huge bumpers for you. If anything goes
\nwrong in the canal they will hit the wall, not you. The two
\nother boats keep their engines in neutral, and Sabbatical III
\nsteers the whole way. Our 3 linehandlers, Roberto (talkative,
\noutgoing, liked to eat), Winston (quiet, handsome) and NG (
\nlooked 30 years old, but had been working on the canal for 25
\nyears), were extremely competent, and it did not take long for
\nus all to get tied up together properly. Besides our regular
\nboat bumpers, we had 18 plastic-sheet covered car tires tied
\nonto the stanchions to protect the sides of the boat. You always
\nknow when a boat is either preparing to go through the canal, or
\nhas just done so, as everyone uses the same “attractive”
\nprotection. Our advisor was great – very calm and knowledgable
\nand helpful – particular in helping Mark who had the most
\ncritical job of all – steering the boat and controlling its
\nmovement as we motored into and out of each set of locks. Our
\ntwo crew, Annabelle and Matt were extremely helpful as well,
\nMatt taking on the job of 4th line handler (and photographer),
\nand Annabelle taking a terrific series of photos.<\/p>\n
We were rafted up in the middle of two other boats – a French
\ncatamaran ( G-d help us), and an American sailboat named
\nEuphoria. The French catamaran had about 10 people on board,
\nincluding 3 little kids strolling, jumping, crying, and playing
\nall over the catamaran during the entire crossing while the
\nparents chatted, smoked and mishandled lines. They had no
\nprofessional linehandlers and seemed to be totally unprepared
\nfor the experience. One little girl was nearly hit by the end
\nof one of the the 120 foot lines that are thrown down from the
\ntop sides of the canal by Panama Canal employees. Her mother
\nfinally made her move under the protection of an awning. Our
\nfear was that one of the kids would go overboard right in the
\nmiddle of the canal. The other boat also did not have
\nprofessional linehandlers, relying on their grown sons, who did
\na pretty good job for their first time through. The funny thing
\nwas that our linehandlers, who were clearly competent and
\nexperienced after 15 years of 3 or 4 transits a week, really
\ndidn’t have much to do. After the boats get tied together, all
\nthe lines get tossed down to the outside boats from the top of
\nthe locks, so the two totally inexperienced boats were doing all
\nthey could to keep it together, while our guys were just
\nwatching, ready to jump across to their assistance if needed.
\nDespite their shakiness, everything turned out OK, and we glided
\nup the three sets of locks to Lake Gatun that first evening.<\/p>\n
Going up the locks is an amazing experience. You start out in a
\nroughly 200 foot long channel with about 80 feet of concrete
\nwall on either side of you, and Panama Canal employees at the
\ntop of the locks throw lines down to the awaiting boats, who tie
\ntheir own lines onto the ones thrown down and cleat them on to
\ntheir boat bow and stern. Then the ends are pulled back up to
\nthe top, and with coordination between the people on top of the
\nlocks, and the linehandlers on the boats, plus the steering of
\nthe captain in the center boat, you manage to stay pretty much
\nin the middle of the locks. It takes about 20 minutes for the
\nlocks to fill and then you are almost to the top of the whole
\nwall. Then the metal gates in front of you slowly open and you
\ngo through to start the process all over again. It is pretty
\noverwhelming – especially the first time it happens.<\/p>\n
After the third set of locks we were in Lake Gatun where we tied
\nup to an incredibly huge mooring ball by about 9:00 P.M. and the
\nadvisor got picked up by another pilot boat. Everyone else stays
\non the boat for the night during a transit, so now we had 7
\npeople on board. The linehandlers are very used to sleeping
\nwhever they can, and were all prepared to just crash on the deck
\nfor the night with whatever cushions we had for them to lie on.
\n It started raining really hard so we ended up with everyone
\nsleeping below – Matt and Annabelle in the forward cabin,
\nWinston and NG in the saloon, Roberto in the sea-berth, and Mark
\nand I in back.<\/p>\n
One more thing… we ate like kings. We had prepared a huge
\ndinner of Indonesian chicken, rice, peppers, fruit and cookies
\nfor the crew- everyone loved the Indonesian chicken. Apparently
\nit is considered bad form to feed your crew poorly, so we spent
\na lot of effort getting everything prepared in advance.<\/p>\n
By 6:15 the next morning the advisor was back on the boat and we
\nwere off. We spent the next 4 hours just motoring through Lake
\nGatun to get to the next set of locks. The advisor asked to
\nsteer the boat through the lake, so Mark got to relax a little
\nand enjoy the beautiful view. The lake is filled with small
\nislands and lots of birds. It was very calm as we went through.
\n We passed under the beautiful Centennial Bridge about 10:30
\na.m. and then were told we needed to wait for the other two
\nboats as they were way behind us. Our motoring speed is about
\n7.5 knots and theirs was only about 5.5 so we had quite a wait.
\n Mark docked the boat at a convenient spot and we all sat and
\nhad lunch. By 1:00 p.m. the boats arrived and we re-rafted.
\nOur advisor was apparently not happy either with the French
\ncatamaran, so they were instructed to proceed through the locks
\nby themselves while we tied up with the same American boat
\nagain, and a new French boat – “Ciao- Ciao”. Two of the women
\non that boat were handling the lines, along with one of their
\nsons. One women was a bit frazzled and after mishandling a line
\nshe rushed back to the cockpit, lit up a cigarette and then came
\nback on deck to finish the job. Different strokes for different
\nfolks I guess. We Americans were enjoying popsicles and cold
\nFresca as the day was incredibly hot . At one point during the
\nafternoon I checked the thermometer in the galley and it read
\n102 degrees – so it must have been even hotter up on deck where
\nthe sun was relentless. Going down the locks was smoother than
\ngoing up – no turbulence in the water at all. We had lots of
\nfamily watching the Panama Canal webcam which is set up in a few
\nplaces along the way . At the last set of locks, the Miraflores,
\nour advisor actually called the Panama Canal Authority and asked
\nthem to train the camera in on our boat. We were able to
\ncontact both Ben and Hannah by sat phone as we sat in the lock
\nand we were waving enthusiastically to the camera.<\/p>\n
We passed through the last lock, into the Pacific Ocean at about
\n1:30 p.m. and then untied ourselves from our adjoining boats –
\nwhile they all thanked Mark for being such a good captain.
\nAnother pilot boat came by to pick up our advisor. He just
\npulled up close to us and our advisor hopped off from our boat
\nto theirs. The Balboa Yacht Club ( BYC), where we had a mooring
\nreservation was just 1 nm away, so we turned in and were
\nassisted to a mooring ball ( tire actually) by one of the club’s
\nemployees in a launch. A minute late the three line-handlers
\nhad gathered up their stuff, taken the bags of donuts and
\nmuffins we gave them, plus some well deserved tips, and hopped
\nonto the launch. Successful and wonderful experience for all.<\/p>\n
Just one more note: Our agent Enrique Plummer was just fantastic
\n– he made everything totally easy – handling all of our
\npaperwork, arranging for the lines and the line-handlers, making
\nmultiple trips out to the boat on both sides of the canal. We
\nwould heartily recommend him to all of you planning on crossing
\nthe canal!<\/p>\n
L.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just an hour before we were scheduled to leave the marina at Shelter Bay and begin our transit across the Panama Canal we received a phone call from Naomi, Mark’s sister, telling us that their beloved mother Kitty (Nana) had just died. We knew that Kitty’s health had been rapidly deteriorating. Indeed she has been … <\/p>\n