Moonshot across the Panama Canal

Authors : Pascale and Olivier Lazare – Moonshot – Outremer 55

The Panama Canal is such a mythical place that we crossed it twice in a row!

The whole Grand Large Yachting World Odyssey fleet is assembled at Shelter Bay marina. It’s a technical stop for the rally and all the boats are getting in top shape for the forthcoming pacific crossing. Meanwhile we wait with anticipation for the dates when we will be called to cross the canal. Victor and the Grand Large Yachting World Odyssey team have made all the arrangements for us. We get a briefing for the Panama Canal authorities; it’s a bit intimidating!

Every boat that crosses the canal need a skipper, an official Panama Canal ‘advisor’, and 4 lines handlers. So we make arrangements within the fleet to help the boats who do not have enough crews. Our first crossing will be as line handlers on TEM, the Outremer 55 of Pascaline and Arnaud.

We embark on TEM early afternoon with long blue lines and big fenders provided by our agent. The advisor comes on board and we’re off towards the Gatun locks. We pass symbolically under the Atlantic Bridge. The advisor tells us to follow the cargo Cool Carrier as we will be in the lock behind it.

The mariners on the lock throw us lines with monkey fists at the end, which land more or less on target. We attach the blue lines to them, and the mariners walk along the lock while we move forward at about 3 knots. The cargo behind us has nice locomotives called ‘mules’ to do the same thing. Once in position, the mariners attach our lines. The doors close, water comes in and we start going up. Our job is take up the slack. We do that three times and we’re up 26 meters when the last door opens to the lake Gatun. We’re in freshwater! The night is falling. We go on a few miles to tie up to a strange big round orange buoy. Our advisor leaves us after eating a big hamburger with fries. The food on TEM is incredible, and we have we believe the first ever ‘raclette’ (a special cheese dish) eaten on lake Gatun. We continue on with a disco party!

Early morning the breakfast is royal with bread, brioche and crepes, all made onboard. We are ready for a long day. A new advisor comes on board and we are off in splendid spirit in scorching heat for 5 hours of motoring accompanied by huge cargoes and tankers.  We arrive at the Pedro Miguel lock where we form a raft with TKT, an Outremer 45 from the rally. It gets a bit complicated with the advisors of each boat giving contradictory orders while the wind is blowing 20 knots. TKT touches the wall a bit… we all learn from the event and the last two locks are handled smoothly. This time we go down.

The last door opens… we can see the bridge of the Americas, we’re in the Pacific! A few miles further and Arnaud parks TEM in the marina La Playita. We still have time for a baba au rhum before we take a bus back to Shelter Bay marina where we arrive 1-1/2 hour later.

The next day, Moonshot leaves the marina with 9 other rallies boats and 2 monohulls. This time we have a special crossing with only yachts in the locks. We leave the Atlantic, we will only be back in 2028!

Before we arrive at the Gatun locks, we form rafts of 3 boats. Ours is the widest: 2 Outremer 55 and 1 52; that’s a 18 x 27 meters raft of almost 60 tons for a 33 meters wide lock, only 3 meters each side… a bit tight! Moonshot is in the middle, our advisor Ricardo is in charge of the whole thing and gives us instructions: port, starboard, forward. Everything goes well. The night falls on the fascinating show of the locks. We continue and all tie up at the round buoys in the lake; it’s a big battle with the fenders to keep them in place (and they’ll move away during the night anyway).

The next day we leave together and the fleet stretches along the lake and the Culebra cut (where things happen in ‘The 3 bodies problem’…). Arriving at the Pedro Miguel lock, we form rafts again. Everything goes well up to the point where inside the lock the advisor and the chief of the lock give contradicting orders to the mariners who decide to wait to tie us up. A big argument and shouting in Spanish starts. Meanwhile we have stopped and the wind pushes our whole raft into the wall. Cattiba suffers some gelcoat damage. We pass this lock but our advisor decides that we are too wide and that we will split the raft for the final two Miraflores locks. We pass these locks on our own along the wall, and it works well.

The last doors open. Moonshot is in the Pacific! The adventure continues!