Canal Transit

 Canal Transit

We are transiting the Panama Canal – on someone else’s boat. We join a Canadian sailboat, a roomy catamaran that belongs to Brent, who is sailing with family and friend to distant shores on the Pacific side. The Canal authority has strict rules on how to cross the Canal, and for small pleasure crafts that includes requiring four line-handlers. Eliza and I are two of them. You need to look at the pictures to find out what line- handlers do!

The Canal operates 24x7, so a scheduled transit can happen anytime. In our case, it happens to start in late afternoon, crossing three of the total six locks in the evening, and the remaining portion the next day. The Canal is 82 km long and the locks elevates transit ships up and then down by 26 meters. The Canal is truly an engineering marvel, and can be appreciated only by transiting through it. It is also a good practice for us – if and when we decide to cross to the Pacific on our own boat.