Sailing from the Pacific to the Atlantic in only 15 Hours

In April, Jim was able to transit the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the Coast Guard training sailing ship, Eagle. The Eagle was a Nazi ship confiscated at the end of WWII that the Coast Guard uses for training.

So, on my birthday, we were able to transit the Canal the other way - from the Pacific to the Atlantic side. The trainees on the boat had been up to Vancouver with several stops in California and were headed back home to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. The ship didn't only include trainees - they had also invited many tall ship enthusiasts and parents of crew - some of these folks had been with the Eagle for weeks or more, others, like us, were with them only for the day.

We met the ship at 6:30 in the morning at the Rodman port about 20 minutes from our house, and then waited about 90 minutes for the fog to clear. We transited the closest set of locks (Miraflores) about 10:00am or so. It was interesting to see the ships headed the other way in the "pass lane" of Gatun Lake. The last transit was a bit tough - sunny and hot and the Eagle ran out of food - not this time. Everyone came prepared and we were lucky enough to have good cloud cover most of the day. We got hit by a fierce storm in the afternoon which drove us all below decks, where our Coast Guard Attache had a cake for me and his daugher, who also had a birthday on Sept. 13.

We saw great birds and jungle and amazingly big ships. We were tired when we finally returned home at 10pm after leaving home at 5:30 that morning, but we are very glad to have had the chance to cross the Canal in such a cool ship.

Now the photos:

1) This is inside the Miraflores locks - we are transiting one way, the the ship you see above us is transiting the other way (their lock is full of water, we're just entering ours). The guys in orange are "Pasacables" - the Canal Authority folks who board the boat with the captain and handle the lines throughout the passage.

2) These aren't necessarily in order. The sunset on the Atlantic side, as we waited at the Colon port for the Panamanian Coast Guart to offload us from the boat and put us on buses for transit back to Panama.

3) This is the ship waiting for us in the morning at Rodman. Here is a link to the history of this ship: http://www.uscg.mil/History/WEBCUTTERS/Eagle_1946.html

4) Us on the Eagle, waiting to go.