Our number one reason for taking this cruise was experiencing the transit through the Panama Canal. After attending two presentations regarding the history and mechanics of the canal, we were ready for the special day. On day 10, we got up at 5 am and were out on the front deck by 5:45 with hundreds of fellow passengers. The sun was just starting to rise, and it was a beautiful morning. Our entry was from the Pacific Ocean, passing Panama City.
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| Entering Panama Canal under a full moon |
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| Entering the canal at dawn with a pilot ship off to the side |
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| Panama City at dawn |
Here is a diagram of the transit through the canal. Starting from the Pacific, you go through two sets of locks called the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks. The Pacific Ocean fluctuates with the tides up to 18 feet. The Atlantic Ocean side only changes about 3 feet. Therefore, the locks had to be built to raise the ships up into the canal to a point of 85 feet in the center at Gatun Lake. Then the ships go through the Gatun Locks to lower then to the Atlantic Ocean level.
The French tried to build the canal in the late 1800s using the same method they had successfully used building the Suez Canal. Their engineers were flawed in believing they could just dig straight through without any locks. Over 22,000 people died during that time from accidents, but mostly from malaria and yellow fever.
In 1904 the Americans took over the project from the French. US engineers designed the lock system. Also, they had doctors familiar with tropical diseases, and were able to deal with that problem. The canal was finished in 1914, and basically still operates the same as originally built. There are two sets of the original locks. Amazingly, in over 100 years, the canal has never been blocked and only closed one day in 1989.
The US had a pact with Panama to own and operate the canal until the 1970s when President Carter signed a treaty turning it over to Panama by the year 2000. In 1999, Panama took complete control of the operation and maintenance of the canal.
When we entered the canal, a small ship came aside us and a crew of over two dozen Panamanian pilots and technicians boarded our ship to guide it through the canal. Our captain did some of the navigating, but mostly it was the Panamanians.
There are three bridges across the canal. The first one we passed under at dawn before getting to the locks was the Bridge of the Americas.
Our ship is considered a Panamax, meaning it was the largest ship that could go through the original locks. The locks are 1,050 feet long and 110 feet wide. Our ship was 965 feet long and 106 feet wide. That's only 2 feet margin on each side. We were close!! Here we are entering the first lock. You can see in the second picture that we are below the lock doors. The chamber fills with water and the doors open. You can see the ship next to us just left the lock on that side.
Our ship had four mules (silver train type cars) attached on the corners with cables. These mules gently moved along with the ship to keep it centered within the canal. They used a system of bells ringing to communicate with each other.
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| Mule guiding us through lock |
After going through the first two sets of locks, there is a narrow section of the canal that looks like a river. The ships have to navigate through here on their own. This area originally had some hills that had to be blasted away. This hill is the continental divide for the canal. Do you notice how they terraced it when they cut into it?
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| Continental Divide |
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| Narrows with large cargo ship in front of us |
We passed under the Centennial Bridge which is part of the Pan American Highway that starts in Alaska and ends in Argentina.
In 2016 a new set of locks were opened for the larger cargo ships. These locks are 180 feet wide. Tug boats steer the large ships through these locks. I guess they built them extra large for even bigger ships in the future. Here's one going through near us. It's amazing to me how they built it uphill from the current canal.
Next we entered the man made Lake Gatun. This lake was created when the canal was built and the Chagres River was dammed. There were many ships sitting in the lake waiting for their turn to enter the Gatun Locks. Some of them had their anchors down. We sat in the lake for four hours.
We later found out that earlier in the day there had been fog in the narrow section of the canal. This backed up traffic and caused the delay. Cruise ships have priority going through the canal. It normally takes 8 to 10 hours. It took us 12 hours.
Here's our Captain Stig on the bridge.
Entering Gatun Locks
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| In Gatun Locks |
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| Gatun Locks gates opening |
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| Atlantic Bridge visible from Gatun Locks |
We went inside to have dinner. As we were sitting in the dining room, I glanced up and saw us down inside the lock through the dining room window. Normally, when we looked out the dining room window, we saw the ocean. It was strange to see a concrete wall.
After dinner, we went back outside. We saw the Panama Canal offices and an osprey. We were just sailing under the Atlantic Bridge.
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| Canal de Panama Offices |
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| Osprey on top of one of the cranes |
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| Jupiter is the star in the upper left corner |
As I looked down, I saw the pilot boat along side with the Panamanian crew leaving us.
And, so after a full day, we were now in the Atlantic Ocean. The canal is about 50 miles wide. Before it was built, ships had to sail an extra 8,000 nautical miles around the southern tip of South America. What an astonishing accomplishment this canal is. Some say it is one of the eight modern wonders of the world. It was an amazing experience!!
Royal Caribbean left these certificates in our cabin that evening. If you look closely it says our entire trip is 4835.1 nautical miles. That's 5,564 miles. Wow! No wonder we had so many days at sea. It sure is a luxurious way to travel.
