The crew of Anna Mae is happy to report a successful transit of The Panama Canal. Our experience was exciting. The day was long and stressful at times along with the thrill we anticipated.
We woke early to arrange our fenders for the transit. The Port Authority told us their pilot would board around 9am. Of course we were excited and anxious to get our day started. Along the way we discovered that they do things on their schedule and the schedule doesn't necessarily get relayed to the boats going through the locks. Hurry up and wait was the motto of the day.
As we approached the Miraflore Locks our pilot informed us that we would be rafting to SpringDay on our port side and SpringDay would be port tied to a tugboat. We frantically changed the fenders from starboard to port at the last minute creating our hearts to race just a bit. We were not anticipating the strong turbulence in the locks as they raised. Bill managed to control Anna Mae in every unexpected situation we encountered.
After transiting the first set of locks we anchored in the lake for 4 hours waiting our transit through the last set of locks, The Gatun locks. We swam in the fresh water, ate dinner and took a short nap.
When our second pilot didn't arrive at the agreed upon time to advise us through the second set we all got a bit nervous. The control station wasn't answering our radio calls and we got a bit more anxious. The freighter that we had been assigned to go through with had raised anchor and started moving toward the locks giving us all a sense of abandonment. Finally at the last minute, in the dark we saw a boat approach first going to SpringDay to drop off their pilot and then to us. Our pilot boarded and informed us we were late and needed to raise anchor and get going quickly, oh and our fenders needed to be moved to the starboard side... We of course ran around in the dark moving fenders, yet again. Our crew knew exactly what to do at this point, thankfully. SpringDay was on the far right side tied to the wall and we rafted to their port side. A huge frieghter snuggled up to our stern. We moved through the locks with no problem. We anchored in The Flats on the Atlantic side around 1am, we all slept well.
Currently we are at The Shelter Bay Marina enjoying the monkey and resting up for our cruise to The San Blas Islands. We are experiencing a rain shower at the moment that is very impressive and coming form someone that lives in Portland Oregon that is saying something.
I have so many pictures to share, but must wait for better internet access...
We woke early to arrange our fenders for the transit. The Port Authority told us their pilot would board around 9am. Of course we were excited and anxious to get our day started. Along the way we discovered that they do things on their schedule and the schedule doesn't necessarily get relayed to the boats going through the locks. Hurry up and wait was the motto of the day.
As we approached the Miraflore Locks our pilot informed us that we would be rafting to SpringDay on our port side and SpringDay would be port tied to a tugboat. We frantically changed the fenders from starboard to port at the last minute creating our hearts to race just a bit. We were not anticipating the strong turbulence in the locks as they raised. Bill managed to control Anna Mae in every unexpected situation we encountered.
After transiting the first set of locks we anchored in the lake for 4 hours waiting our transit through the last set of locks, The Gatun locks. We swam in the fresh water, ate dinner and took a short nap.
When our second pilot didn't arrive at the agreed upon time to advise us through the second set we all got a bit nervous. The control station wasn't answering our radio calls and we got a bit more anxious. The freighter that we had been assigned to go through with had raised anchor and started moving toward the locks giving us all a sense of abandonment. Finally at the last minute, in the dark we saw a boat approach first going to SpringDay to drop off their pilot and then to us. Our pilot boarded and informed us we were late and needed to raise anchor and get going quickly, oh and our fenders needed to be moved to the starboard side... We of course ran around in the dark moving fenders, yet again. Our crew knew exactly what to do at this point, thankfully. SpringDay was on the far right side tied to the wall and we rafted to their port side. A huge frieghter snuggled up to our stern. We moved through the locks with no problem. We anchored in The Flats on the Atlantic side around 1am, we all slept well.
 |
| Anna Mae and SpringDay going through The Panama Canal |
Currently we are at The Shelter Bay Marina enjoying the monkey and resting up for our cruise to The San Blas Islands. We are experiencing a rain shower at the moment that is very impressive and coming form someone that lives in Portland Oregon that is saying something.
I have so many pictures to share, but must wait for better internet access...
No comments:
Post a Comment