Panama Canal - Part 2

I realized last night that I had a video on my cellphone of the car carrier making it's way into the Gatun locks. I hope it works, as it shows the mules as they travel down the rails to the lower lock. 

When I left off yesterday, we were about to sail under the Centennial Bridge. I watched from the buffet until we got closer to the Pedro Miguel locks. I didn't take as many photos here, but there are a few to share.

There's the Amadea again, this time using the left side of the locks. It may be there wasn't any traffic waiting to come through that side, or it might have been due to the weather that was about to blow in.

Look at the difference in the water levels. We were about to enter that last portion of the lock, and the water would be released so we were lowered too to match the open water beyond. Again, magic!

We're in the third lock at this point, with a view to the Miraflores locks ahead. It's not entirely clear, but it was beginning to rain at this point.

The tugs were waiting for us as we exited the locks - their presence turned out to be very important. The Amadea was beginning its progress throught the Miraflores locks, and you can see the rain coming in.

The visibility continued to drop as we waited. The temperature dropped significantly too, probably close to 10-15 degrees C. It wasn't raining too hard where we were (yet), and I stayed outdoors. (I don't melt, I just wish I would.)

We had a brief glimpse of Panama City, as the storm continued to roll in. 

This photo was taken with my cellphone before I fled indoors from the balcony. I was looking towards the Miraflores locks and could see nothing!

There was a single flash of lightning, a loud rumble of thunder, and the rain fell in torrents. I went back to my stateroom for 15-20 minutes (it was on Deck 11 too) hoping that the storm would clear out.

It hadn't entirely but had decreased signficantly. I tucked under a overhang and waited for it to clear.

I heard later that the winds were so strong that the ship was blown sideways and one of the tugs placed themselves between the ship and the wall to keep us from crashing into it! I must say I didn't feel a lot of movement in my stateroom, so I'm not certain of the veracity of that story.

As we made our way through the third series of locks, the Amadea had made its way through and was sailing towards the next bridge.

As we made our way through this last set of locks, we were greeted by a large crowd. They waved and took photos while we waved and took photos of them. There was an announcer explaining the process in English and Spanish. I'm assuming it was a tour group, and not locals.

This local, a brown pelican was waiting for the water to stir up its next meal.

On the other side of the ship, were several birds - two of the pelicans spotted something in the water. I wonder who got there first?

I wasn't able to find any information about this structure, but I'm thinking it was likely used as an observation deck at some point. It didn't appear to be in use now.

Finally, we reached the Bridge of the Americas, the first of the bridges built to allow traffic between North and South America. The bridge was completed in 1962 at a cost of $20M USD. This bridge is 1654 meters (5425 feet) in length, has a main span of 344 (1,129 feet, and a height of 117 meters (384 feet). 

Some other interesting facts about the Panama Canal:

France was the first country to begin working on the canal in 1881. This enterprise failed due for various reasons, including tropical diseases that killed thousands of workers.

In 1902, the United States took over the project. The government eventually spent $375M to build the canal, including a $10M payment to Panama for the rights to a 500 square miles to build the canal, and $40M for French assets.

More than 25,000 workers died during the construction of the canal; 20,000 from the French contingent, and 5,600 from America's efforts. Deaths were due primarily to disease and accidents.

The canal opened in 1914, and in 2010, the one millioneth ship transited the pasage.

While tolls for large ships can be reach $500K, the smallest toll paid was 36 cents, in 1928 by Richard Halliburton who swam the canal.

A maximum of 40 vessels a day transit the Panama Canal, however this number isn't often reached due to water storage limits, and the variety and size of the vessels.

We didn't complete our transit until nearly 5:15 p.m, about nine hours after it began. Despite the delay we were close to our original anticipated ETA. Good thing we got an early start.

I didn't catch a photo of the sunset that evening, as I'd gone to the singles/solo event and then to dinner. It was early night for me again - tired from all the running around the ship!

Next up - Costa Rica

 

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.