Panama Canal (Tuesday, February 20)

There is so much information available about the Panama Canal that this post is not going to be heavy with it.  The best read we've found on the construction of the original canal is McCullough's Pathway Between the Seas.

It was a humid day that created considerable haze, but thankfully it was not brutally hot given the amount of time I spent outside during SIRENA's transit of the Panama Canal.  Pam & I had been through the canal twice before, but still found the passage fascinating.  Since it was built, it has retaining a place on Man-made Wonders of the World.

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Entering the Atlantic (north) of Panama Canal

Passing Colon, whose duty-free zone is an economic powerhouse for Panama.

Two pilots coming aboard.

Part of the sizable dredging fleet needed to keep the canal deep enough for even the new Panamax ships.

Any time is a good time for yoga on the putt-putt course?

The new Atlantic Bridge at Colon that will open up opportunities on the west side of the Canal.

We passed a huge crane aptly named Titan. It is used to lift things like lock gates.  It was built in Nazi Germany and moved to USA after World War II.

Lines are still rowed out to each ship, no other way having been found to be more dependable.

Lines are only rowed out to the bows of a ship.  Once a ship is far enough into the lock entrance to receive stern lines, these are thrown aboard.  At each set of locks are a target

and a bar.  The line throwers have contests for throwing accuracy and height. 

The lines are used to bring aboard cables from each 'mule'. Contrary to popular belief, the mules do not pull a ship through the locks.  Their purpose is to keep a ship properly oriented in a lock and to break a ship's forward momentum if necessary.  Ships propel themselves through the locks.

Coming from the Caribbean, the Gatun Locks lift ships up to Gatun Lake.  

We passed this ship descending the Gatun Locks to the Caribbean Sea.  It was an expensive transit for this ship, which was empty, because it makes no difference in the transit fee, which must be paid to Panama Canal Commission in cash two days before a transit.

SIRENA having no place to get an unobstructed forward view, I improvised.  This is a picture of the bridge picture on our stateroom TV.

We proceeded up the locks, with Titan following us.

Variation on the "I'm flying!" bow scene in Titanic?

Pilots working a down-bound ship through the locks.

Mules at work keep a ship's stern equidistant from the sides of the lock.

We pulled out of the top lock into Lake Gatun.  

Gatun Lake is the supply for the 53,400,000 gallons of water required for each ship transiting the canal, and that's just the ships that use the only locks.  It is a man-made lake.  Once the Chagres River was dammed, it took Lake Gatun three years to fill.  It is where north- and south-bound ship often anchor before continuing on the begin their descent through the locks.

SIRENA did not anchor in Gatun Lake, instead proceeding on towards Pedro Miguel Locks, along the way passing through the Culebra Cut which bisects the Continental Divide.

Just before we reach the Culebra Cut, the channel forked.  The left fork led to the Pedro Miguel and a mile further on the Miraflores Locks.  The right fork led to the new, much larger locks.  More on those locks in my next post that will include a visit to the larger locks at the north end of the canal.

In this picture, it appears the channel leading to the Pedro Miguel Locks is lower than the channel leading to the larger locks.  It is an optical illusion that becomes reality as ships descend the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores Locks.  Exiting the Miraflores Locks, the left channel is 85-feet lower than the right channel because the larger locks are closer to the southern end of the canal.

Leaving the Pedro Miguel Locks, we were already about 25 feet lower than the other channel.

At the Miraflores Locks we descended the rest of the way to sea level.  Contrary to popular belief, the level of the Atlantic and Pacific are the same.  The height of their tides is different.

A web camera is mounted (on the red & white antenna) at the Mirflores Locks visitor's center.  Our daughters were able to watch SIRENA transit the lock.  The resolution precluded seeing us standing on the top deck. (To see real-time images of ships transiting the Panama Canal, visit... http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html )

SIRENA arrived in Panama City as evening fell, passing under the Bridge of the Americas and rounding up into the anchorage where we would spend the night.  

You may recall that earlier in this post I mentioned that a ship transiting the canal had to pay the fee in cash in advance.  For SIRENA, a scheduled daytime passage cost $185,000.

Tomorrow Pam & I return by bus/train to the Colon end of the Panama Canal to visit the site of one of the new, larger locks.

(February 23:  I've gotten a little behind in posts, so please excuse the possible presence of more than the usual number of spelling errors and grammatical speed-bumps as I hurry to get caught up.)