Today was a fiasco. No one injured. No scratches on the boat. But a fiasco none the less.
We awoke to another sunny morning and many of the gang jumped into the lake to rinse off the salt from yesterday.
We were moored right next to the canal diver training ground. The two big white flat areas you see in the picture are actually canal doors laying on their sides. When they need work, they float them on their sides and divers work on them underwater.
Our adviser was due at 9:30, but arrived closer to 9:00. This is the first time we've seen anything happen ahead of schedule in canal operations.
When our adviser, Astro, opened his mouth and started talking a number of us thought to ourselves, "uh oh, this guy doesn't seem as on top of things as our previous advisers". After a short wait of only about 30 minutes, we maneuvered around a big cruise ship on our way into the locks.
Our lock buddy - a dry bulk carrier ship was coming up behind us.
As we entered the locks, the line handlers tossed us the monkey fists so we could connect them up to our lines. They hit us spot on all four tosses this time!
Melissa and Holly were assigned the bow because the adviser believed the guys strength would be needed in the aft. This should have been our first clue that he wasn't really on top of things as muscling the boat with the lines rather than with the motor is a bit odd. And indeed, this notion turned out to be totally wrong as the boys had winches in the back to pull in the lines. Whereas the girls couldn't pull in the slack off lines around the forward cleats because the ropes were really too large for the cleats and they would stick. So the girls had to totally unhook the lines in order to pull them in. We could let them out no problem, but pulling them in was problematic. The adviser kept telling Melissa to keep the rope around the cleat. She told him repeatedly that didn't work, but he wasn't much of a listener.
The goal in the line handling is to keep the boat centered in the very middle of the lock. The two line handlers should be working in sync to make sure they let out the lines evenly to stay centered. But the adviser kept telling Melissa to take up slack. Holly and Melissa thought the adviser wrong, but followed his instructions. You can see in the picture below the result when the lock doors opened.
On the second lock the wind was blowing hard on our starboard. When we went to let the lines out so that the canal side line handlers could attach our lines to the shore side cleats, we were blowing off the wall faster than Melissa could let the line out. Unfortunately Steve couldn't keep the boat centered in the lock. The canal side line handler was yelling at Melissa to let out more line, and the adviser was yelling at her to stop letting out line. The adviser didn't realize that the shore side line handler didn't have the line over the cleat yet. Melissa lets the line out. Adviser tells her to stop. She stops. Line handler motions to keep letting it out. Melissa lets the line out. Adviser tells her to stop. You see where this is going. Before you know it, we are way over on the port side wall with no line on the starboard side tied off to the shore side cleat. She can hear the adviser yelling at her again, and she finally yells, "ONE SET OF INSTRUCTIONS PEOPLE!" Dave realizes Melissa is in trouble and leaves his position in the aft and comes forward to help as he has realized the adviser isn't paying attention to the fact that the rope isn't on the shore side cleat yet. Finally the adviser comes forward to help Melissa take up the 100 foot of line that was reeled out in this small fiasco. He is again telling her to keep the line on the cleat. Melissa again explains (for like the 10th time today) that she cannot take up slack with the line under the cleat because it just cinches up and she can't muscle it through around the cleat. Sigh. We get ourselves straightened out again and they start to let the water out.
The adviser comes forward at this point to lecture Melissa and Holly on how when the doors open on this second lock as we move to the third lock - this will be the tricky part because there will be a lot of current. Yeah, ok, we know that because this is where Apsaras got twisted up. However, the adviser's explination made no sense. He said it was due to the fresh and salt water mixing at this point in the locks. Well, it might be true that the salt and fresh water start to mix in this lock, but that isn't going to cause any current. The adviser then babbled on for a while about how the lock works. He departs and Melissa turns to Holly and says, "You understand any of that?" to which Holly replies, "Nope."
When the adviser whistled for the line handlers ashore to toss off the lines, all four of the line handlers aboard the boat reel them in like mad. Steve was waiting for the adviser to tell him when to go, but the command never came from the adviser (who seemed to be concentrating on something else) and in just a few seconds, we were spun around like a top. Now we are looking up at our lock buddy and the wind is now blowing us towards him. The adviser started to shout at the girls on the bow to let our lines back out so that the shore side line handlers could reattach us to the shore side cleats. Holly and Melissa reeled the lines out like crazy. But we were so far turned around that Melissa's line became twisted around the anchor, Holly's line was under one of the tire fenders, and Mike's line was wrapped around the BBQ on the stern. Fortunately, even though it seemed like there was no time to get things corrected, in actuality, we weren't drifting that fast and the shore side handlers were able to pull the heavy lines back up to the shore side cleats and then we were able to pull the boat back around and square up in the locks and out went Saltydog, into the 3rd and final lock.
We send the lines back ashore to be cleated off. We go through the same bit with the adviser giving us instructions for when to take up slack and let line out that get us off center. Holly and Melissa are rolling their eyes at one another. The decision is made that this final lock, the boys should come forward and reel in the lines and the girls will be moved to the aft as that way Steve will be able to gun the throttle sooner if the guys can get the lines in sooner. The shore side line handlers toss down the lines. All four line handlers are reeling in the lines like crazy. Dave yells back at Steve to "PUNCH IT!!! Full Throttle" Steve punches it, and we move forward in a straight line, leaving the Gatun locks behind us.
Our captain was a bit frazzled, but still happy to finally be in the Atlantic!
Then it was time to clean up all the lines on the deck.
Meanwhile, Vivi had been put below decks as we knew we couldn't have her running around while we were transiting the downward locks. She was looking very forlorn about this decision and kept sticking her nose through the portal into the cockpit to see if she was allowed up on deck yet.
After we exited the lock, our lock buddy, the Lilly Bolten went zipping by us. The wind was at 25 knots so we had to pound into the waves coming across the bay.
We dropped off our adviser.
Then headed across the bay to Shelter Bay Marina where Dave from Heart and Soul was on the dock ready to help. Dave put it on the dock nice and easy.
Where champagne was in order!
Walking down the dock, we spotted this. Anybody's guess as to what might have transpired.
