Maple moves to the Pacific

Iris and Ella wrote separate accounts of Maple’s journey through the Panama Canal, a key first step in sailing across the Pacific.  I took those accounts and combined them below for this post about the Canal.

Fabulous friends helping us with line handling.
Jeff (in yellow) from Nawii who we first met in Turkey in December 2015, and crewed for us across the Atlantic.
And the Bethke family from Ad Astra, who we first met in Bonaire
and recently spent the hurricane season with in the Rio Dulce.

Recently our family went on a journey through the Panama Canal on our boat Maple. The Panama Canal is located in Panama. Panama is a country that is located in Central America, between Costa Rica and Colombia. The small country of Panama, located at the bottom of North America is an awesome place.

Approaching the first lock, our lock mates are a cargo ship and a US Coast Guard boat.

Gates closing on the Atlantic!

Our last glimpse of the Atlantic from 10 meters above sea level.

Before the Panama Canal was built, if you wanted to go to the Galapagos you had to go the long way around Cape Horn. The only problem was that weather at Cape Horn is wild and ever changing. So it was a risky way to go. Then, in 1881, a French man named Ferdinand de Lesseps had the idea to build a Canal so that there was a more sure way of getting cargo from the Atlantic to the Pacific. If there was a Canal then all of the boats carrying precious cargo could go to their destination knowing that it would be safe.

Our fab line handlers keeping Maple safely off the wall.

For the construction of the Canal Mr. Lesseps wanted to build the Canal in the narrowest part of Panama. Unfortunately, there was a mountain in the way. When Mr. Lesseps pictured the canal he pictured it without locks. This was because the first canal that he built was in Egypt. This canal is called the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is a canal that runs through Egypt connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. If Mr. Lesseps wanted a canal without locks that meant he had to dig a path through a mountain. So he set to work using Panamanians and Eastern Caribbeans as his diggers. There was just one problem, digging through a mountain with shovels is bound to result in mud slides. These mud slides killed thousands. There was also another problem. An unknown disease was killing tons of workers, so Mr. Lesseps had to pay for even more. This unknown disease turned the whites of your eyes yellow and caused you to vomit up black sludge. This continued until you died. What terrible disease could this be and what caused it. This disease was Yellow fever, and the thing that caused it were mosquitoes. Such a small creature that no one guessed it. So no one had a cure. Eventually Mr. Lesseps ran out of money, and he died a ruined man.

It was dark as we exited the last lock on Day 1 and made our way to a ship mooring to tie up to for the night.

Ten years later the United States decided to continue working on the canal where Mr. Lesseps left off. The Americans had a different idea though. They were going to use locks in the canal. The Americans knew that it was impossible to build a canal through a mountain range at sea level. Also, instead of using men to dig the canal, they were going to use dynamite. If they used dynamite then there was a less likely chance that people would be buried by mudslides. Unfortunately there was still yellow fever. So people still died. Only this time there was a doctor there to help. This doctor was the one who figured out that it was mosquitoes causing the illness. At the time he didn’t have a cure, but he knew that if he could stop mosquitoes from biting a victim then the mosquitoes couldn’t spread the illness. Finally, after ten years of work (plus the thirteen years that the French did), the Panama Canal was finished.

It is a nearly 30 mile motor through Gatun Lake on Day 2 to reach the last three locks.

A lot of lounging for the crew!!

Yes...lots of spare time...

The way that the Panama Canal works is, you go into one of the locks and the gate closes behind you. Then the lock gets filled until it is as high as the lock above it. The gate in front of you opens and you go into the lock in front. You do this two more times, then leave the locks and go into the lake that was formed when the river flooded. The next day you go into the locks and the gate closes. Then the lock empties until it is the same level as the one below it. The gate in front of you opens and you go into the next lock. You do this two more times, then you are in the Pacific Ocean. Once you know how they work it is very simple.

Our rafting buddies for Day 2.  Darryl got a break from steering through the locks on Day 2 as this boat had the bigger engine and had to do all the steering for us.

Day 2 lock mates was a tourist boat and a Clipper cruise ship.

Can you see the outrageous amount of people standing on the balconies just to watch the boats going through the canal?!?!  If only I could get my hands on some of their pictures of us.

Many thanks to Leah for sending us a picture from the webcam!!

We took Maple through the canal. There are four people, two on either side of the boat to handle lines. People on the canal wall throw these things called monkey fists to the boat. Monkey fists are small balls of iron rapped in rope. Then you tie up and water starts to fill up from the bottom, and the boat slowly goes up. It took us two days to get through the canal. It was awesome to go through the canal and to see how it works. It was a one time experience and I think I would definitely do it again if I had the chance to.

What a monkey fist looks like.  Watch out...it will hurt if you get hit by one.

Last lock....here we come Pacific!!

And there she is...we are entering the Pacific Ocean!!

And this video demonstrates why we are not vloggers!

We had the best advisor, Hector, who safely guided us through the canal on both days.