I learned recently that certain particularly dedicated people have crossed oceans in rowboats. Let’s say I wanted to join their ranks by rowing around the world in a one-person boat. Would I be able to row through the Panama and Suez canals? If so, what would the canal crossings cost me, assuming the operators didn’t waive the usual fees? In another thread here someone posted a link to the official toll calculator for the Suez canal but I can’t make heads nor tails of the form.
I think you’d have to be very well-connected to get permission to row through either canal. Somebody in a small rowboat woudl be a serious hazard to navigation.
Lots of people have sailed around the world single-handed. SFAIK none of them have gone through either the Panama or Suez canals.
In that case, what’s the smallest vessel that they would accept?
Way off topic, but I must share. My grandparents rode through part the Panama Canal on horseback on their honeymoon in 1911. I’ve seen pictures of it. This was, of course, while it was being constructed and before it was filled with water.
Later honeymooners would have to ride seahorseback.
Well, Richard Halliburton swam the Panama Canal in 1928 (and paid a 36-cent toll, calculate by his “tonnage”) so if his bathing suit counts as a “vessel” …
I have looked at some sailing forums and people take 11 metre boats through with no problems. Of course they have engines. All boats transiting are convoyed and have to be able to keep up, so I think doing it in a rowing boat is not allowed. Of course, in Egypt, almost anything IS possible if the right bribes are paid.
You might have problems with those pirates on the Horn though…
So might the problem be solved by temporarily attaching an outboard motor to the rowbeat?
You can row or at least paddle through the Panama Canal, although you normally have to portage around the locks. In fact, there is an annual Ocean to Ocean Cayuco Race (a cayuco being a dugout canoe). This is a big local event. Up until 1997, and on special occasions thereafter, the race crossed through the locks.
Other than during the Cayuco Race, small craft are not permitted in Culebra Cut (the main cut of the Canal), Miraflores Lake, or around the lock approaches, so you wouldn’t be able to do a crossing without special permission.
Not if your object is to establish yourself as the first person to have rowed around the world!
More to the point, there’s still be an issue about your visibility to other, larger vessels in the convoy.
Back when I subscribed to SAIL magazine, I read some accounts of sailboats going through the Panama Canal. In fact the big lake in the middle has one of the busiest marinas in the Americas. Sailboats, and other small vessels, had to wait until they could share a lock with a smaller-than-maximum-size ship.
As I understand it, no vessel moves through the canal under its own power. They are towed. Every vessel throws lines to the canal crews on both sides, who carefully take up and let out the lines as the ships rise and fall.
Lake Gatun in the middle of the Canal has only a few small marinas at hotels on the lake. However, there are several substantial marinas near the entrances on either side.
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As I understand it, no vessel moves through the canal under its own power. They are towed. Every vessel throws lines to the canal crews on both sides, who carefully take up and let out the lines as the ships rise and fall.
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Not exactly. Ships actually pass through the Canal, including the locks, using their own engines for power. In the locks, however, they are held in place by electric locomotives called mules. The function of the mules is to brake the ship and also belay it to keep it from hitting the walls of the chambers.
To save water, smaller vessels must lock through with larger ones. Sailboats have to be held in place by lines manned by line handlers so they won’t knock against the walls of the chamber because of turbulence when it is emptied or filled.
Because of this, sailboats sometimes post ads for line handlers at the marinas on either side of the canal if their crew isn’t large enough. This is a popular way for people who may want to experience a transit to do so by volunteering as a line handler.
It was high tension time in the engine room of a steam ship going through the locks. The bells came fast and the response had to be fast.
I’m glad you did share-this is fascinating. Do you have any pics at all of the trip? Can you expand a bit on their itinerary, etc…?
Thx,
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Now now, Bryan. That’s *Quite *enough of that! 
Back when I was living in the Canal Zone (mid 70s), the Boy Scouts had a yearly canoe trip through the canal. I remember seeing pictures of a large groups of canoes in the locks, so they didn’t portage. We left before I was old enough to join in.
The Ocean to Ocean Cayuco Race I linked to above is a continuation of the original Boy Scout Race.
Pictures exist of their horseback ride in the canal as I’ve seen them. I don’t have any in my possession, but I’ll see which grandchildren and try to get copies or scans of them.
I don’t recall (or not sure if I ever knew) much of their honeymoon itinerary. They died about 30 years ago so I just don’t remember whether we talked about it or not. I do know they spent some time in London where they purchased a grandfather’s clock as a wedding present to each other. That clock now belongs to me and is currently having a 100 year refurbishing as some of the chiming mechanism stopped working.
UDS Is right. You have to be very very well connected to take a small boat thru the Suez Canal. We did it in a 2 man kayak and were the first to do the whole canal in a small self propelled boat. We were foreign service employees for the Agency for International Development with the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Despite help from various embassy officials it took over 18 months to get permission. Even then we ran into obstacles such demand a fee of $14 cash when we were told no fee would be charged, with in minutes of launching a hugh tug boat tried to sink us.
The Egyptians are wonderful people who hate to say no. They just become very bureaucratic and when that fails they took drastic action to sink us. The reason for all this was to keep us from being killed. At that time there were over 70 ship a day going thru the Canal a very fast speed. The Canal ywas narrow as the IrtraCostal waterway in the states and no place to hide. The sides of the canal were lined with rocks and we had to avoid being smashed on them by the wakes of passing vessels.
A slow moving row boat would not survive 5 miles. We had a very maneuverable Klepper kayak and often had to zigzag between the ships in the convoy. I’m sure the Pilots on the ships were quite annoyed with our paddling right in front of their ships. One ship came so close to the ship in front we believe it was try to ram us. His bow was in the prop wash of the ship in front and pwe were in between.
Forgot to mention one small detail, the banks of the canal were lined with mines!
As far as rowing or paddling through the suez, don’t even think of it.
We claim the record of being the smallest boat thru the canal as well as paying the smallest fee - $14.
I don’t think you could row the Panama Canal because small vessels are required to be capable of 8 knots or else be towed, and are required to have 4 line handlers aboard in addition to the skipper. The reason you need 4 line handlers is because small yachts go through the locks like this, tied to the walls and “rafted” together.
As for cost, there’s no simple answer. For small vessels, the bottom of this page gives prices. Under 50 feet is $800. Simple, right?
Well, you also have to pay fees for everything under the sun. You pay for inspections, paperwork, permits and even lines and fenders. If you want to hire an agent to help with the paperwork, permits, etc, that’s another $300-500, plus the canal charges an $800 deposit if you use an outside agent, although you get that back within 6 weeks.
And all this is not just a “hand over the cash and go though” kind of thing. Once you get there, you have to wait a couple days for inspection, then you have to pay the fees to the bank and later call the canal office to prove you paid, then get put on a list to go through which might take 1-2 weeks in peak season. The reason for all this is that small yachts go through as a group on a limited basis and a tight schedule because they’re sort of a burden. If you fall behind on your transit schedule and don’t make it from one section to another in the allotted time, that’s about $1000 if extra fees.
An Adviser from Panama Canal Authority has to be on board for your entire passage, so that actually makes 6 people minimum on the boat. They are regular canal employees who take jobs as advisers on their days off, and they have to be fed “proper meals.” If you don’t, he will have food delivered by boat for $300.
Something break and you need a tow? No problem, tugs only cost between $200-2000 per hour.
So, what’s the cost? I dunno. I’ve heard people estimating it at $1500-2500, but you’d obviously want to have a little more handy just in case.