Once you rise, you enter a second lock. The cargo ship is connected to mules—special locomotives to pull the ship by cable through the locks. Most ships require three mules on each side. This is quite impressive. The private boats have to switch sides and tie again to the tugboat so a lot of work is involved. The crew threw stern lines from one boat to the next with no time for error.

The next lock is San Pedro. It is the smallest lock raising us 10 meters. The tugboat we were tied to, Colon, invited us onboard. This was quite an invitation, to get a tour of something that is such an intricate part of the workings on the canal. Tugboats operate 24 hours a day so it has all the amenities. The Captain allowed us to sit behind the steering wheel and inspect the instruments. Each tugboat costs $8 million dollars and this one had a 5000 horsepower engine. It was a short tour as the locks were filled and emptied in less than ten minutes and each pair of locked gates took only two minutes to open.

When the San Pedro doors opened we entered Lake Gatun, the second largest man-made lake in the world, second to Lake Meade (Hoover Dam). Lake Gatun is 32 miles long. It took us five hours to cruise through the lake. It is the main source of drinking water for Panama City and the Gatun Dam is able to generate enough electricity to run all the motors, which operate the canal, including the mules. Water, however, is not pumped into the locks, the locks operate through gravity. As the locks operate, the water simply flows into them from the lakes or flows out to the sea level channel. Of course, this process relies heavily on rainfall to compensate for the 52 million gallons of fresh water consumed during each crossing. The total number of vessels that pass through in both directions is 38 per day. We paid $500 for access but most ships are charged $160,000. The lowest toll ever was 36 cents by Richard Halliburton for swimming the canal in 1928. Roberto was most impressed when a US submarine moved through the Canal.

There was no hint of rain the day we crossed. The sun was relentless. I sat near the front of the boat listening to Roberto talk about politics and life on the Canal. There were little islands scattered throughout the Lake and spider monkeys swung from tree to tree. All day I felt like I was part of history. When we arrived at the Gatun Locks we had a bit of a wait and Roberto gave us the okay to jump in. We dove off Yemaya into Lake Gatun. It was such a thrill to cool off in fresh water. The current was strong. A police boat eventually came over and ordered us back onto Yemaya. I guess the strong current and wild crocodiles create dangerous swimming environment.

The last lock is the Gatun Lock which was to lower us 85 feet back to sea level (down locking). This is where we ran into a bit of trouble. We were in the last lock when the yacht we were paired up with was too slow in tying to the tugboat. The cargo ship was behind us at this point. I never really knew how big those cargo ships were, until we were about ten feet from its hull. The crew looked like soldier figurines from where I was standing. I was chatting with our pilot when we heard the shouting. The crew on the yacht missed our rope toss and we started to spin. The cargo ship went into reverse and its huge propellers created strong prop wash that pushed us faster towards the cement wall. Ron tried to steer the boat but it was no use. Our first reaction was to use our upper body strength to push away from the wall. This did not work and could have potentially broken all of our arms. The wall had layers of thick green and brown algae and our hands slipped right off of it. Ron had tied old tires to the perimeter of the boat. A tire in the front hit the wall hard, which swung Yemaya against the wall sideways. We tossed a rope up to one of the handlers on land and he tied us to a hook. We were secure. One look at the tugboat captain and we knew we were lucky. He said he’d never experienced anything like it and I don’t think he wants to again.

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