Transiting the canal in a 24' inflatable.

After coming to the conclusion that there was to much red tape to deal with to get our 24' Nautica tender towed across Panama on a trailer, I ended up running it through the canal a few nights before we took the big boat through.

It was the smallest boat by far that our adviser had ever taken through. And the smallest boat our agent (Tina McBride) had ever sent through.

Even though it rained for the first half or so of the trip it was still a lot of fun. And a rather unique way to make my first ever canal transit. We left the dock a Shelter Bay Marina on the Colon side of the canal around 2:30pm to meet the canal adviser at "the flats" anchorage off the city of Colon. I got back to Shelter Bay from Flamenco Marina on the Pacific side (were I left the tender till we crossed over and picked it up on the big boat) the next morning around 3am.

Oh yeah, the port captain made my canal agent buy a port-a-potty to put on board the tender in case the canal "adviser" had to go on the transit. And it's a good thing she did. Because after we had gone through the first locks at Gatun, the port captain called the adviser and told him if he wasn't happy with the head facilities on board, we would have to stop in Gamboa to let him off while we, meaning myself and the 2 line handlers, would have to spend the night on the tender and pick up a new adviser in the morning. Which would mean we would have to pay for 2 advisers and sleep in an open boat on a rainy night without planning for that ahead of time.

Luckily the adviser was a nice guy about it all and told the port captain he could manage to get us through in one night without having to use the head.

Below are some of the pictures I took of the transit.

Once it got dark I started shooting video which I'll try to put up also.

Pilot boat after dropping off our canal adviser.



Our adviser Adrien. No one had told him how small our boat was ahead of time. His eyes were a bit large as the pilot boat pulled along side. Very nice guy. His day job is a port/canal tug captain.
















As I mentioned, I switched to mostly video after dark. So this is about the only good nighttime still I have.

You're welcome. With everything it was under $1000.

Here is a link to the videos.

http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/captbill11/Tender Canal Transit Videos/

Yes I did. Are you Capt. Chance or Chance's better half perhaps? Or one of the crew?

It was very nice to meet both of you. And I used a fair bit of the local knowledge Chance was kind enough to pass along to me on the trip from Flamenco to here in Quepos. Thanks again for sharing.

How's Gunner doing? Tell him to Email me.

Videos of the trip can be seen here:

http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/captbill11/Tender Canal Transit Videos/







Along with a helo tour of the canal, Colon, P City, Shelter Bay Marina, etc. here:

http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/captbill11/Canal Helicopter Tour/

Your welcome.

1) You're right. And even if you could get a shore and hoof it, there aren't many places to go. So you have to carry a lot of spares and know what to do with them.

Here is a link to more pictures of the over all trip.
http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/captbill11/PR to CR/
I have more I need to add of our transit.

2) The volume of water used for each ship that transits the canal is staggering. I don't recall the exact figure but it's 10s of millions of gallons per lock through. We naturally moved around on the tender a lot more than on the big boat as we locked through. On the big boat it was pretty easy to keep it off the wall. In fact our fenders never got dirty.

3) Unless you have your own the lines, 4 - 125' ones, they are supplied by you agent. As you enter the locks the line handlers throw down tag lines and you then pass up/over your transit lines to them. The line handlers then make the lines fast to bollards at the top edge of the lock. As you move from lock chamber to lock chamber they walk the lines to the next tie off point. Once done with the final chamber they let them loose and you pull them back aboard. It's their rules as to how you tie up and lock through.

In the tender we went through side wall to in all locks. In the big boat we were spider tied in Gatun and sidewall in Pedro Miguel and Miraflores.

It's all done in a very profession manor. And with the large ships anyway, I found it rather graceful they way the just slide them in and out of each lock and lock chamber.

I also found the canal adviser and pilot to be great people. They were of course very professional but at the same time not rigid and inflexible. And they both were very interesting to talk to about the history and workings of the canal.

The pilot we had on the second day of the big boat transit, Douglas, was great with the guests. As was the first evenings pilot. It was just that Douglas was with us longer so he had many more questions to answer.

He also saved us almost 2 hours by getting the port captain and lock master to let us jump ahead of the boats we were scheduled to transit with since we could run faster than they could through the lake.

The turtle appeared to be bitten by a shark. And yes we did take the tender up the Chagras a couple of time. It was like stepping back in time. Very cool place.

Happy New Year Tom. We still need to get you down here to Quepos for some shots soon.