Panama Canal

Ah… The Panama Canal.

                   Easily the most famous canal in the world.

                   The Suez Canal is older (the project was started in the 1850’s) and longer (about 120 miles vs about 50 miles) but as far as an engineering project goes, it pales in comparison.

                   But lets not get too haughty here, there is a canal in China that is both older and longer….. by a lot! The Grand Canal or the Jing-Hang Grand Canal was started in the 5^th century B.C. (Ok, that’s a lot older!) and was completed in about 600 A.D. and from the 1200’s to the 1600’s it was substantially improved and restored. It links the Yangtze River with the Yellow River and runs for an astonishing 1100 miles, employing 24 locks and 60 bridges. The Chinese are credited with designing and utilizing the first canal lock over a 1000 years ago. The Jing-Hang Canal is on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, for all the right reasons.

                   Back to Central America.

                   We barely fit through the locks in the Canal. The locks are 110 feet wide, and our ship is 106, leaving just two feet on each side. This is obviously by design, the maximum beam (width) of modern ships has been dictated by the locks here in Panama. The giant tankers of the world mainly use the Suez Canal which does not have any locks, it is a “Sea Level” canal. A giant ditch was dug between the northern terminus of the Red Sea and the shore of the Mediterranean near the city of Port Said. Large ships can pass through here, even if one must lay up until another one passes. It was not until 2016 when the widening of the Panama Canal was completed that the ships larger than the previous PanaMax size could transit the canal. The new locks are 180’ wide and 1400’ long. Now the Biggies can transit the Panama Canal and all our Amazon stuff from China can get to us that much quicker!

It’s not cheap to use the canal, it cost Princess about $350,000 for us to get through. It’s a good thing that our EZ Pass was in its little aluminum pouch so that it couldn’t be detected as we went through the toll booth!

          We tried our best to find an advantageous spot to watch this entire process and I believe that we were successful. Down on Deck 8, all the way Aft, there is a small deck of sorts that runs the width of the ship and is fully open, with a railing. This allowed us to be up front and personal with the locks and their operation. Most folks were up top looking forward, which I’m sure was fun, but they had to view everything through semi-transparent (because of all the saltwater spray) windscreens. We (as you will see) had a seagull’s eye view of the entire process.

                             It takes the better part of the day to go across from ocean to ocean. Waiting in the locks (and for the locks) takes up a good amount of time. But we needed to cross Gatun Lake and a few other waterways in between, so zooming around at 21 knots is definitely frowned upon. As a matter of fact, we needed to have a Panama Canal Pilot on board for the entire transit. The number of ships, both moving and at anchor, is substantial, so having a pilot who is knowledgeable about the local waters and maritime customs is mandatory.

I will leave you with a few bits of trivia.

          First, the waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea can never mix!

          Why?

          Because Gatun Lake is the source of the waters that gravity feed the locks on both sides. So that means that the waters flow downward from the lake into both the Pacific and Caribbean.

          Second, did you know that when you enter the canal from the eastern side (Caribbean) that when you exit on the western side (Pacific) you are actually further East than when you entered?

          Yup!

Take a look at a map.

Because of the way that Panama is shaped, and where the canal is located on the isthmus, the entrances and exits (depending on which way you are travelling) are actually further east or west than the way that you entered!

                   Now go play that Trivial Pursuit game and don’t shy away from the Geography Category!