We got our canal transit date a few days ahead of time. After departing the marina, we went to the holding area a few miles away and anchored overnight for a 5am start. Pleasure yachts are required to have 4 line handlers, a captain, and a hired canal pilot. The job of the canal pilot is to advise only, they don’t touch lines or the wheel. Boats are also required to have proper lines and fenders, which were rented ahead of time.

Jaime, the canal pilot, boarded Rioleon promptly at 5am, gave us some quick instructions, and off we were. A 5am start meant that the canal transit would be done in 1 day. Start times later than noon makes it a 2-day transit, and you have to anchor overnight on Gatun Lake. Jaime was extremely knowledgeable and was glad to answer any questions we had. Here are some of the facts he told us:

• it takes 26 million gallons of water for each locking. Locks are gravity fed, so water from a down-going lock feeds the up-going lock.
• an average of 24 boats per day transit (40 max).
• a neo-Panamax ship pays about $500 million per transit normally. During drought conditions, such as now, a bidding can fetch $1-4 million.
• typical revenue from the Panama Canal is $10-12 million per day.
• there are 3 uplocks and 3 downlocks–it’s 28 vertical feet per locking. Gatun Lake is in the middle and used to be jungle. The channel through the freshwater lake is the original river basin.
• it’s 50 miles through the canal from ocean to ocean.

It took us 12 hours to transit the canal. For a line handler (like me), it was a lot of inactivity while motoring between locks, followed by flurries of more intense activity at each lock. Rioleon was rafted up with 2 other catamarans (shown in picture below) for most of the lockings and we were on the outside, so we really only needed 2 line handlers for each locking. Three bridges cross the canal–one at each end and another one somewhere in between. They’re spectacular especially at night when lit up.

After getting through the canal, we tied up to a mooring buoy overnight and had a good dinner at Balboa Yacht Club. (l to r: Heidi, Clement, Mike, Jim, David)

A final provisioning in the morning, clearing out of customs, and refueling took a bit longer than expected so it was good to finally get underway.