Panama Canal - Part 1

This will be a photo heavy post, with explanations as I add the photos...so a long post. It was a long day -  I was awake at 6:10 a.m. and after a quick breakfast, I was outside on Deck 16 not long after.

Our transit was through the old locks which are smaller than the new locks that were opened in 2016.  Princess has only two ships that can transit the old locks, the Island and the Coral.

I didn't make it in time for the sunrise - this would have to do. We were waiting out in the Atlantic Ocean with a large number of other vessels. The transit normally takes from 8-10 hours, our transit took longer due to weather conditions later in the day.

 

The companies that own the vessels pay for the privilege of transiting the Panama Canal. The lecturer  mentioned that our ship, the Island Princess, would have paid a toll of over $360,000 USD for the trip. 

The pilot boat arrived carrying the pilot who would navigate the canal. The ship's captain has to relinquish control of his ship.

This boat brought the men who would be throwing and connecting the lines for the mules that assist with the movement of the ship.

But before we reached the first set of locks, the Gatun locks, we sailed under the Atlantic Bridge. Construction on the bridge was started in 2013, it was finished and open to traffic in 2019. A four lane highway connecting North and South America, it is 2820 meters (abt 1.75 miles) long, with a span of 530 meters (1738 ft), and a height of 212 meters (695 ft.). The Island Princess is 63 meters in height (204 ft.) We had lots of room to spare.

The pillars are massive - I liked the curvature.

For the first series of locks, I started out on Deck 7. I was leaning out over the railing for this photo.  The men in the safety gear were from the second boat. Their job was the throw/pull the lines to secure the cruise ship to the mules. The line-up of vehicles on the track are the mules.

This was taken while we were travelling through the locks, so I'm slightly out of order. You can see the lines that are attached to the ship. On the top of the mule are a series of lights, like traffic lights, that provide needed information to the pilot on the ship. There are also bells that chime quite frequently. There are two mules, one on either side of the ship running on what appears to be a rail system.

Here we were waiting our turn to enter the Gatun locks (after the mules were in place). The ship in the locks ahead of us is the Amadea, a German ship that has a passenger capacity of 904. In contrast the Island Princess holds 2200, though we had about 1700 passengers on board for this trip. I had moved from Deck 7 to the forward public balcony on Deck 11. While it was out in the sun, so quite hot, it truly was one of the best places to view the locks.

The water level had increased in the first lock (don't ask me how it happens) and the gate was opening to allow us to enter.

While the gates are opening wide, you can see the next set of gates ahead, and the hill that the mules would climb as we made our way into the next lock. The water would slowly rise in our lock to bring us up to the level you can see in the photo with the Amadea. I'm not an engineer, nor have any such aptitude so I'll just call it magic. I know it has to do with gravity and water flow and that's about it.

While we were in one of the locks, I went down to Deck 7 again, to get a photo of the wall. There wasn't more than three feet between the ship and the walls on either side. Obviously the connections to the mules are very important.

In this photo I'm on the port side of Deck 14. You can see the lock that allows ships to travel in the opposite direction to the left. We did indeed meet more than one ship as we transited this set of locks. 

I went to the aft of the ship, to capture this photo of the car carrier (the grey ship on the right) as it sailed towards the Atlantic Bridge. As you can see there is another vessel waiting to the enter the locks behind us as well.

We reached Gatun lake about 10:15 in the morning. I don't recall when we first entered the locks, but I know it was early than we had expected, probably around 8:30. In that time, we travelled just 1.2 miles.

At this point we were anchored for some time in the lake, so I took a break from the sun, and grabbed some water, and went back to my stateroom to relax for about an hour. I was able to watch our progress via the Bridge cam on the television.

We were travelling through the Culebra Cut. This is an artificial valley, created to cut through the Continental Divide in Panama. The valley links Gatun Lake (Atlantic), to the Gulf of Panama (Pacific).

I didn't take a lot of photos in the cut, but there were a number of these directional beacons that assist in the navigation of the canal. It operates 24/7 and while the locks have lighting the cut does not.

There was some evidence of soil erosion throughout the cut, and in some placed terraces had been built. I presume those were meant to keep the soil in place.

This is Titan, otherwise known as Herman the German, a 350 tonne floating crane. Built by the Nazis in 1941, it and three others were seized at the end of WWII. It is still in use, by the Panama Canal company for heavy lifts in the locks. I shudder to think what would require its use.

At the end of the cut, we found the Centennial Bridge. The bridge was opened in 2004, as the first bridge (we're not there yet) wasn't sufficient for the level of vehicular traffic. The clearance is 80 m (262 ft.) so not as much head room for the Island Princess.

By this time, it was nearly 1:30 p.m. and the tummy was rumbling. I headed up to the buffet for lunch and kept an eye out the window as we headed towards the second locks, Pedro Miquel.

And it is at this point, I'm going to end this post as it getting very long - Part 2 tomorrow.