Wednesday , Nov 1 - Panama Canal Crossing

The Captain advised over the loud speakers the Panamanian Authorities have given us our time slot to enter the canal.   The toll must be prepaid ahead then you wait at Panama Bay until you are signal to move forward. The total distance is 80KM and takes approx 10 hrs depending on traffic.  Gary got up before dawn to secure a spot for his camera at the bow.  I laid in bed until I saw the bridge of the Americas was in site.   No need to rush, I’m used to waiting in line.

At the top right side of the picture, Panama City is now within view.  We are leaving The Pacific to crossing over to the Caribbean Sea..  It’s around 6:30 and I see the Bridge of the Americas, I’m up now.

Without getting in to too much technical details, newly constructed locks at Miraflores (beside the 1914 locks) is wider, uses less water and new rolling gate mechanism is easier to maintain.   The older locks can transport 5000 containers and the new locks can hold up to 15,000.  The cost is $5/ton so quick calculation for our cruise ship will cost around $300,000 US.   Not bad for a days work.

Here we are at our first lock-  the Miraflores locks.

How does it all work? The inter oceanic waterway uses a system of locks (high metal doors) with two lanes that operates as water elevators and raises the ships from sea level to the level of Gatun Lake (man made) 26 metres above sea level, to allow the crossing through the Continental Divide, and then lowers the ships back to sea level on the other side.

In order to get a good spot to view this incredible event, Gary & I rented a cabana for the day. The cabana help protect us from the hot sun, sudden rain storms and of course protect my meals from getting wet.   By the time we arrived at the 2nd set of lock - Miguel locks, we had finished ours breakfasts.

The French were the first to attempt the construction of the canal in 1880 but due to financial troubles and diseases they pulled out of the project

Panama negotiated an agreement with the US for the construction and it was completed in 1914.  The Panama Authority now manages this water way.

The Culebra cut is the canals narrowest part and a fifth distance (12.7 KM) of the total extension.  This segment was the most treacherous as rock, limestone had to be excavated for the continental division. Thousands of lives were lost during construction here because of frequent mud and rock slides.

Water is used to raise and lower the vessels in each set of locks is obtained from Gatun Lake by gravity and poured into the locks through a main culver system that extends under the locks chambers from the side walls and the centre walls. The picture above is us at the half way point with the view of the beautiful Confederation bridge ahead.  By the time we reached Gatun Lake our friends Val and Susan whom we met on board joined us for lunch in the cabana. 

At mid day we are almost at the Gatun locks, the largest in the canal.  There’s a new bridge in construction but sorry I missed the name because of too many glasses of sprinklings.  

Hurray! We’re through to the other side by around 4:00 pm. 

Then there was this strange cloud formation that almost says - Welcome to the Caribbean Sea!