Our ship is anchored at the Gulf of Panama (Pacific Ocean side), stayed over night and heaved up anchor going North Bound at daybreak.
Interesting Facts: $2 Billion in Tolls are Collected Annually. It's over 100 years old. It's a short cut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
After the Canal our destination is Colon, Panama. Then onto East Coast United States.
Tug from our starboard side align the ship to the entrance of first locks (there are 3 set of locks aka. gates) into Panama Canal.
Forward tug are also used to pull us towards port side (left hand side when faced forward), on the port side you can see a aligning jetty structure to help align our ship to the locks.
Forward and Aft Tugs are also used for speed and position control, to make sure that we stay in the middle of the locks and not hit the gates.
On the far end of the starboard side (right hand side) you will see three water reservoir pumping water into the lock to float our ship up.
The crew at the forward and aft mooring stations are busy with mooring lines to keep the ship stationary while water is being pumped. Making fast then casting off at each locks.
Contact wit the walls are hard to avoid, luckily there are rubber padding to ease the chaff marks on ship. This angle you can see the water reservoir being pumped
Aft tug controls our ship's stern. From this angle you can see how our ship is now rising above Pacific Ocean sea level and onto the Man-made lake
This is the aligning structure on our port side, to help us align the ship to the Canal entrance. You'll notice that the port side has the most contact between the walls and our ship. There are alot of chaffing that occurs but it is perfectly normal.
View from the bridge. From this height the water reservior can be clearly seen.
Each time a ship transits the canal about 50 million gallons of fresh water are lost through the locks to the oceans. That water comes from the two artificial lakes, Gatún — through which ships pass as part of the canal — and Alajuela. The lakes also provide water for much of Panama's growing population.
The whole journey through the canals is commanded by the Canal Pilot. The captain and officer of the watch assist as required.
You'll noticed that there is two way traffic within the lake. Some are headed towards Pacific ocean but some are also trading within the man made Gatun Lake
The idea for a canal across Panama dates back to the 16th century. More than 25,000 workers died during the canal’s construction due to disease or accidents. Between
Between 13,000 and 14,000 ships use the canal every year. The canal was recently expanded to handle today’s megaships. The route you are watching now is the newly expanded version.
As we approach the Agua Clara Locks (Atlantic side), we dropped anchor and queue up for our turn.
Its a good thing it started raining. The canal relies entirely on rain and the past few years water level in the Gatun lake have been declining, resulting in some ships cannot pass at heavy loads.
One tug on each side to help us align the ship to the locks. You'll notice that there are no aligning structure at this side. It is much more difficult to align so the pilot have to take his time.
The two side tugs will cast off and go away after the ship is inside the locks, only the forward and aft tug will remain to assist.
It is the exact reverse procedure, where water is pumped out into the water reservoirs as we are being lowered to the Atlantic Sea level.
If you notice the short burst of water ripples, they are short kick ahead by the ship's large propeller in order to move forward slowly.
The ship's crew and panama mooring gang work together to use mooring lines to keep the vessel stationary.
It takes about 2 hours for each set of locks, and 3 hours transiting the Gatun lake, so in total it takes about 7~8 hours to get through Panama Canal
Many ocean cruise lines offer increasingly popular Panama Canal itineraries that sail through the canal in the approximately 8 hour passage to their next destination in the opposite ocean.
But you don't have to sail through the canal. If you're visiting Panama City, or taking a resort / beach vacation in Panama, you can take a land trip to see the canal in action.
Once of out the final lock, the canal pilot will depart and hand the ship back to the Captain. The pilots will depart by ladder onto the tug boats, then it is full steam ahead!
Panama Canal affects 6% of the world’s commerce. 90% of the world’s commerce happens by sea, and out of this, 6% of it passes through the Panama canal.
Our next port Colon is just around the corner. A quick shower under the rain and we will take Colon Pilot onboard and proceed to berthing.
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