As we approach Gamboa, it became clear that there was a delay with an LNG carrier in the ‘cut’ - the very narrow section. We were due to go onto a mooring for an hour until they cleared - however on arrival at the location, the mooring balls had been removed whilst they dredged. We had to anchor - and Nahoa wasn’t keen to hold the whole raft, so they anchored on their own - and we dropped our hook and then had Wings come alongside us.
The break allowed us to get a light bite so we were fuelled up ready for the coming locks. It also gave us a chance to wash the decks down from the mud we collected whilst pulling up the anchor in the flats! The crew were briefed to pull up the anchor whilst flooding it with plenty of water, as the bottom looked very muddy judging by the output from the nearby dredge!
After an hour, it was up-anchor time and off to the Pedro Miguel locks. We had some wind behind us and whilst rafting up to Nahoa was easy, getting Wings alongside us took a worrying amount of time - and I could see the locks getting closer and closer. Ben (on Nahoa) and I had to use judicious amounts of astern to back us away from the wall whilst Wings took their own sweet time to come alongside. However, once rafted up, it was over to me to get us into the lock smoothly. It was a little awkward just because the wind was pushing us along at about the walking pace of the line handlers.
Once tied up in the lock, I set off the job to capture the images from the webcam at the first Miraflores Lock. We had nearly an hour to wait for African Griffon to arrive, but when it did - boy was it big! Its quite intimidating to have something that size come up behind you, even if its attached to 8 ‘mules’ - the trains that control the ships position in the lock.
Once emptied and gates opened, we motored across and into the Miraflores locks - under the gaze of lots of tourists and the Miraflores webcam.
This lock was easy - but the next, wow! The final lock is where the fresh water mixes with salt and causes some very strong and strange currents. We got slewed sideways a bit, and needed lots of engine from both myself and Wings to straighten us up. Then the stern line of Nahoa was tightened a bit too early causing more slewing. However no damage was done, no wall was touched. A short time later we were out into the pacific!
Nahoa shot off into the distance and we made good progress down to the Balboa Yacht Club where we dropped off the lines and fenders our agent had provided. We then loitered a while for the advisor to be picked up, before taking up a mooring (in the dark). Champagne was opened, and we celebrated our arrival in the Pacific. The start of the next stage of our adventure!