Panama Canal Transit

Finally we are ready to go through the Panama Canal. This was the main reason we took this cruise. We had previously been on an excursion boat that went through two of the locks, but that was a nightmare. (another story) I was really looking forward to going all the way through the canal.

Our transit began early and I set the alarm clock for 5:30am. Here is daybreak over Colon, Panama, the Atlantic gateway to the Panama Canal.

As we come to the first lock, Gatun Lock, we get our first look at the actual locks. Most ships take anywhere from 8 to 12 hours to transit the canal.

Additionally, we find the electric engines, or mules, that help the ship through the locks. This is the third version of the mule since the locks were originally built. The ships use their own power to go through the locks while the mules help keep the ship from hitting the sides of the lock. By the look of the sides of our ship, they could have worked better. Our ship is pretty scraped up. We only had about 2 feet on each side of the ship in the lock.

As we continue out of Gatun Lake and into the Culebra Cut, we pass under the Centennial Bridge.

This area is the site of the two largest land slides in canal history. Notice how Gold Hill has had metal rods and plates to keep the hill from falling into the canal. This is only one picture, but the entire hill had these rods and plates.

As we are passing under the bridge, one of the tugboats began reversing alongside of us. He did this for about two miles. I guess he was bored.

These tugboats escorted us throughout the canal area. As we entered a lock, our escorts would turn around and head for another boat. As we came out of the lock, there were more tugboats waiting to escort us to the next place.

On one of our turns, I took this shot of the ship that followed us all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Because of landslides, they are continually working on the sides of the canal. While they are building larger locks, we were unable to actually see them since they are not right next door to the old locks.

We come to the last lock, Miraflores Locks, we see the mules waiting for us again.

 The canal has their own fire department and almost all of the equipment is yellow. What was amazing, is that almost all of the work trucks, fire trucks, etc. were new. I saw no old equipment anywhere. I guess that us what Chinese money does for you. Currently, the Chinese have replaced the USA as management of the Panama Canal.

 Here are workers getting ready to grab the rope from the ship and attach it to the mule.

 The mules are especially designed to go up the 45 degree inclines at the actual locks. They can pull 70,000 pounds if necessary. We usually had four mules attached to us through each lock.

Here is an old swing bridge that closes to allow traffic to go across the locks. I am not sure this is in use today because no vehicles were parked on the roadway waiting to cross this bridge after we completed the transit.

 

As we exit the last lock, you can see two of the mules have released their ropes and are waiting for the last two to finish before waiting on the next ship.

The city of the pacific side of the canal is Panama City. Like most ports, containers seem to rule the ports.

Even workers on the docks watched as we finished our transit of the Panama Canal.

As we near the Pacific Ocean, we cross under the Bridge of the Americas.

Panama City is in the background and is a very modern looking city.

I have no idea what this structure is, but everyone on board was taking its picture. You could see it for miles.

The last piece of land signals our entry in the Pacific Ocean. We now begin heading towards Puntarenas, Costa Rica.

I must be off!