The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal isn't actually a canal in the sense of canals in France. Rather, it's set of waterworks that connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via locks, a large reservoir, and a "cut," which is the most canal-like feature. Our ship, the Coral Princess, is a "Panamax" vessel; that is, it's the largest size of ship that will fit in the current locks. We started from the Atlantic side and crossed via the canal to the Pacific, a route that, counterintuitively, runs from north-west to south-east because of the geography of the Isthmus of Panama.

The ship entered the canal through the Gatun locks, which have two parallel sets of three locks that connect the Atlantic Ocean to Gatun Lake. A freighter in the left-side lock, going in the same direction as we were, had already been raised to the level of the next lock.
With our ship middle lock, passengers could see the third lock, with Gatun Lake beyond. Next to the locks are cogged railway tracks on which run "mules," railway engines that help guide the ships.As our ship is raised in the third lock to the level of the lake, yours truly beams in a yes-I'm-here moment.
Now at the level of Gatun Lake, our ship passes out of the lock into the lake to begin the main part of our crossing of the Isthmus of Panama.
As the ship motored out of the lock, I could see one of the dams built to create Gatun Lake. It's hard to see in the picture, but the dam's gates were allowing a lot of water to spill out. The week before, unprecedented heavy rains had raised the level of lake so high that, for the first time in its history, the canal was closed to ship traffic because of natural causes. The rainwater draining off the canal's muddy slopes also turned the canal's water brown.
After crossing Gatun Lake, our ship entered the cut, a giant trench, and the most canal-like part of the crossing, that leads from the lake to the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks. The cut twists and turns through the Isthmus's topography, so the adjacent slopes have lots of navigation markers on them.
Because many modern ships are larger than Panamax vessels and because the canal is so important to world trade, the canal is being enlarged. New, much bigger locks are being built at Gatun and Miraflores, and the cut is being deepened and widened. As the Coral Princess passed through the cut, we saw dredging all along the way.
On the Pacific side, the canal also has three locks, although they're not all grouped together like the series of locks at Gatun. First there's the lock at Pedro Miguel, and then there are two more locks at Mira Flores. As we motored toward the Pedro Miguel lock, our ship passed under the Centennial Bridge, opened in 2004. The bridge is only the second permanent crossing of the canal and serves as the main crossing for the Pan American Highway. When we were there, though, landslides from the recent deluge had wiped out the approaches to the bridge, which will be closed for months while the approaches are repaired.
As we neared the Pedro Miguel lock, off the right side of the ship I could see construction for the new larger locks on the Pacific side of the canal. These locks will be longer and wider than the current locks, which will stay in use. The new locks will also be taller: there will be only two locks at each end of the canal, where the current system has three.
As the Coral Princess eased out of the last lock at Miraflores, our ship was again at sea level, and no gates stood between us and the Pacific. The ship could have cruised straight to China.
As the ship made its way to the ocean, it passed under the Bridge of the Americas, the first permanent bridge across the canal, built in 1962. With the temporary closing of the Centennial Bridge, the Bridge of the Americas has to handle much more traffic than usual.
After passing under the bridge, I could see the highrise buildings of Panama City visible over the lush vegetation of the side of the channel.
To transit the canal, ships have to pay in advance and have a scheduled slot. Reduced waits and faster transits are more expensive. For the the Coral Princess, the transit fee was a staggering $330,000, which was based on the ship's number of occupied and unoccupied berths. For freighters, typical fees are in the mid-tens of thousands. On the Pacific side of the canal, in the waters off Panama City, freighters by the score wait at anchor for their transit time.
Our crossing started before dawn, and by the time we sailed into the harbor at Panama City the sun was setting. I could see the highrise buildings, which had gleamed in the afternoon sun, now tinted with the colors of dusk.
The next day Susie and I went on an excursion to Gatun Lake and the Miraflores locks, and I'll write another blog entry about what we saw.