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American Spirit II - Day 23; Thru the Down Locks: Pedro Meguel & Miraflores; Sunday, January 26, 2014



The day started at 5:00 AM, as the Chief Advisor had told us that we needed to be under way by 5:45 AM. We were ready. The Pilot boat arrived at, you guessed it, not 5:45 AM but 6:45 AM; one hour late. The extra sleep would have been nice.

Not mentioned from Saturday's log was that Nexus, a 60 foot catamaran that was the center of our raft up, tied up to a mooring ball in Lake Gatun Saturday night; and we tied up to them. We were happy to do so as we didn't have to worry about dragging anchor; and because at 74 feet it would have been a deep anchor with insufficient scope. We normally like to anchor with a scope of 5:1. At 74 feet we would need 370 feet of anchor chain out. Oops. We only have 300 feet. Thank you Russ and Laurie off Nexus.


We had a different Advisor on board today, a gentleman named Mc Lain. Nexus, the center of our raft, had the same Advisor, which is unusual.

From 6;45 AM until about 11:00 AM we motored across Lake Gatun. As we did so, a few ships passed us heading north to the Caribbean side of the canal. When they passed, they thru up large wake waves, one of which broke over the bow. Fortunately, no water went down the center cabin top hatch, which was open for ventilation purposes. We motored at between 6 and 7 knots; and encountered a little rain along the way. The depth of the lake was between 54 and 74 feet.

At approximately 11:00 AM, we arrived in front of the Pedro Manuel Locks. There we tied on to the port or left side of Nexus; and Audacious tied on to the starboard or right side of them. The other boats then rafted up as the night before, forming 4 rafts or nests of 3, 3, 3, and 2. Eleven boats total. Once we entered the locks, a canal worker thru a 'monkey fist' at our bow, where Paul Fox was, and stern, where Joel Heyne was. After retrieving this monkey fist and thick twine, it was tied onto the large blue 125 foot lines that we had and the workers pulled them across the canal to secure them during the 'locking.' Audacious, in the starboard side of the raft, did the same. The water then started to drop. 'Going down' in a lock is much more potentially damaging to a sail boat than going up, because if the line is not let out properly, the boat would get hung up and the cleat that the rope is looped around would be pulled out of the boat. If that happened, one of our four anchoring points during the locking would be lost. As this whole process is going on, we were lowered from 74 feet to 43 feet. Occasionally, the boat in the center of our raft, Nexus, had to apply forward or reverse engine thrust to keep us off of the sides of the lock. In the event that an outer boat 'crashed' into the lock wall, we had tires along the port side of our boat so that the impact would not damage our white fiberglass hull. Once we were lowered, we proceeded forward still tied together and into the next lock. While this whole process is going on, the engine of American Spirit II is on as sometimes I was directed to add reverse or forward thrust. After going thru the second Pedro Manuel Lock, we entered small Miraflores Lake. Before entering the Miraflores Locks, the last locks before we reached the Pacific Ocean, we passed thru the Culebra Cut, the narrowest part of our journey and the most difficult area to dig thru during the canal's construction.

The last set of locks are the Miraflores Locks; and the last lock of this set of locks is the most dangerous. As we entered this last lock, hundreds of people were watching and waving and taking pictures of us from a multi story observation building ahead of us and to our left. On a large tower next to this building cameras were stationed so that people at home could watch us on a still picture Web Cam. As we were waiting for the other sail boats to make way and get in position behind us, I called Janet (my better half) and talked to her and my grand daughter, Kayden. They could see us. Because all the locks have Wifi, its possible to do so. Very cool. One comment Janet made was, '...wear a red shirt next time.' Most of us on the boat except Darlene Heyne were wearing light colored shirts because the temperature was over 90 degrees.

As our lines were tied to the sides of the lock, a strong current from astern tried to push us into the gates in front of us. I was directed to put my engines in reverse at 75% of cruising power. Our Advisor Mc Lain, told me before the current hit that there had been occasions where sail boats had been propelled in a circle due to the current and panicky actions of the boat Captains. He said that if things 'go south,' to remain cool and follow his instructions. My comment to him was, that that was one of the reasons I had insurance.

By 12:45 PM we were thru the last lock; and by 2:01 PM we were anchored in a protected area on the lee side of Isla Flemenco. A sail boat near us, an American flagged boat not in the rally, was kind enough to give the Rally boats some local information concerning a channel used by work boats that run thru the anchorage. The Captain of this vessel came over to introduce himself later. He had been anchored in the anchorage since last summer, and stated that the wind howls from the north at 20 - 25 knots, and that that was the reason he had 175 feet of chain out. Also, the tidal range in the anchorage is 15 feet. Welcome to the Pacific!

In closing So that you can understand the magnitude of the Panama Canal, since 1914, when the Panama Canal opened, 100 years ago; more than one million ships have passed thru it. The one million mark was actually reached on September 4, 2010 with a ship named Fortune Plan. In building the canal and blasting thru the mountains and Culebra Cut, 62,000,000 sticks of dynamite were used.

Brian Fox

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