59. Panama Canal

Panama Canal                   

It felt hotter than F81  (27C)

Arial View, Built At a Cost in 1913 of $639 Million and 27,000 Lives

We were up on our balcony way before 6AM to really get a feel for the crossing of the Panama Canal. The approach on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal leads from a wide channel in the Pacific that constantly narrows and gets more narrow the closer inland we get.  We saw the Panama Canal pilots get on board, a boat approached the Ship and a few men just jumped into our Ship, the pilot boat never stopped, and the pilot boat just peeled off after the pilots were transferred. 

Approaching Panama City In the Early Morning Mist

Pilot Boat

Our approach to the Canal was under the “Bridge of the Americas”. It’s a very high up bridge of the Pan American Highway System. A newer bridge is being built right now, since the old bridge, now 100 years old, has started to show its age. 

Entering the Canal In Early Morning

The engineering of the whole lock system is truly a miracle of modern man. There are so many facets to the crossing that it is impossible to list them in this short blog. If interested, there are many good books you can read on exactly how the whole system works. Knowing something about the way the whole operation plays itself out is helpful though.

Just Past the Bridge of the Americas

Our Ship took the old channel through the locks. We saw the newer, wider, more modern locks nearby but the newer channels are reserved for ultra-wide super tankers and such. Yes, there are 2 separate ways one can cross the strait. The newer system is now open and it was also very busy, but we used the now 104-year-old structures to get across the isthmus. 

It seemed like the whole Ship’s population collected at the bow when we approached the first lock, the famous Miraflores Lock.

 

Miraflores Lock

We were hooked up to the mules, the pulling trains that would now guide us through this lock. All of the vehicles, all of the machinery used, all the gates, all and everything  on the Panama Canal is operated by electric power. The system has its own generating stations and is totally independent of the electric grid. Huge hydro electric dams generate all the power needed to move ships through each lock. 

Four Mules Ready to Guide Us Through the Locks

It is an amazing installation and well taken care of. There is no trash anywhere. Even though the system is now 104 years old, in a tropical climate, all the buildings, the railings, the whole of the operation is in well-maintained condition. Everything has an almost fresh coat of paint. 

Signage guides the crews who move the ships. Lettering is logical; there is order to the system. The people do not hurry but they do not stop walking either. It is a constant flow of activity that leads a ship through the system. I was stunned to watch how the performance was so choreographed. Almost like a dance that has been practiced over and over. Ships are packed into each lock tightly; there is really no excess room. 

Video below shows a mule being turned around to go the other direction.

The mules (heavy, large, electric cars or trucks) hold everything in place and the mules move the ship. They look like old fashioned street trolleys but are super powerful, torqued vehicles with cables that can be extended or retracted, whatever is needed. The main work of moving ships to the lock system is done by those mules.

Huge,Concrete, 7 Foot Thick Gates and 47 to 85 Feet High

Each mule, we were told, costs about U.S. $2 million. We had 8 mules, 4 on each side, moving us through the lock. The cable system from the mule to the ship holds the ship centered within the channel of the canal. The whole affair is very tight; there is no room for error. The operators of the mules are very, very good. I watched them up close; our balcony view was sometimes right at eye level with those machines. The mules have a job to do; they sure did not pay attention to me. But I watched them through my eyes. 

Fits Like a Glove

Just amazing how all of these actions work, how it is done, how it was thought about and laid out and executed. One ship after another is processed through each lock system of the Canal. There is no waiting once you enter the Canal. IF you have to wait, you must wait in either ocean, the Atlantic or the Pacific. Once you are called to enter through the Canal you are processed all the way through.

I asked how much it costs to transship through the Panama Canal and I was surprised at what I was told. For our Ship the cost was US $437,000 dollars (determined by tonnage) plus another $137. - for each person on board. So you pay for every passenger and crew member 137 dollars. We have about 3000 people on board, including crew…so that is $411,000 or so. With other fees that are smaller it all adds up to close to a million dollars for our Ship’s passage, more or less. There are many ships that pay over 1 million dollars for just one crossing.

The whole of the Canal was built in just 7 years, from 1907 to 1914. Sure it was started by the French and when the Americans took over they used some of the work the French abandoned, but it is an engineering wonder.

Gatun Lake

I was dazzled by the complexity of it all. Yet, it works like a charm, it has been running for over a century and I never heard of a shutdown. Day and night, 24 hours a day, ships move back and forth through this narrow landmass. 

Pedro Miguel Locks

  
What amazed me is that the ecology of the Lake, (Lake Gatun) that sits right in the middle of the Canal, or is actually part of the Canal, has been so preserved. Saltwater does not mix with the lake water throughout the whole system. It never has, it was designed that way that the Pacific water stays in the Pacific and the Atlantic stays in the Atlantic. Amazing… truly Amazing!

We passed through the Miraflores system, entered the Lake, and then dealt with the Pedro Miguel Locks. We went under the Centennial Bridge, under rail road bridges; passed a penitentiary, saw the signs that when the crosses are lined up, tell each ship when they are centered correctly within the Canal, etc., etc. 

Centennial Bridge

The whole installation of the Canal is well maintained; sometimes there are glimpses of the newer, deeper canal which runs kind of parallel to the old channel. The storage facilities for the water pumped in and out of the locks were near each lock, too. We watched as millions of gallons of water gushed in to raise a ship within the lock, and then saw how the extremely large lock gates swung either open or closed, depending on what was needed. All electrically operated.

Prison

Signs Show Position in Canal

After passing all the locks which lifted us, then lowered us we finally, after about 7 hours, passed the breakwaters of Colon Cristobal into the Atlantic.

Enjoying the Passage Through the Canal

We dropped off our pilots and were now on the way to Cartagena, Columbia, and our next stop.

The entertainer at night was Michael Minor, a ventriloquist. What a hoot! We laughed like you would not believe. He showed you, when calling on people from the audience ‘you never know what you’re gonna get’ it was hilarious.