Day 5 – Panama Canal Cruise
I woke at 5:45 this morning – hard to believe, but it’s true! This was our day to transit the canal and we didn’t want to miss any of it!
The idea of building a route that would link to the Atlantic to the Pacific back to the early 16th century when Spaniards arrived to the Isthmus. The first real effort to build an all-water route through Panama began with the French in 1880, but financial problems and tropical diseases (Yellow Fever) ruined their efforts. When Panama earned its independence from Colombia in 1903, it agreed with the United States on the construction of the Canal. Construction was completed on August 15, 1914.
As we approached the Agua Clara Locks, we could see the commercial ports of Colon where they load the huge container ships.
We also passed under a couple of huge bridges before entered into our canal lane.
In 2018, our ship, the Norwegian Bliss, made history as the largest cruise ship to pass through the Panama Canal.
The original Panama Canal had two lanes, each with its own set of locks. The expansion project added a third lane with locks on both ends of the canal, allowing it to accommodate vessels up to 49 meters wide, 366 meters long, and 15 meters deep.
Here you can see the part of the old lanes for the Gatun Locks.
It took almost two hours before we were making our final approach to the locks. There was a large container ship ahead of us. Once we made our approach to the Agua Clara Locks, the gate, closed behind us.
Water from three reservoirs that raise and lower the ships comes from Gatun Lake and are gravity fed. The water pours into the locks through a system of main culverts which extend below the chambers of the locks from the sidewalls and center wall. While the new lock is much larger, it actually uses less water than the older locks because the reservoir system recycles 60% of the water used per transit.
Our pilot boat in front of the ship as we approach the first lock gate.
After the container ship exited the lock, we waited for the water level to be lowered again and the double gate retracts when we are able to enter the lock.
This is looking down at the lock gate.
Once our ship entered the first section of the lock, the gates close and it refills with water before we move forward into the second section and the process is repeated.
Once we passed through the first gate and it was closed, we were surprised to see that it is actually a two-lane road! Cars were lined up waiting and were zipping across in both directions.
Looking over the side railing of the ship, you can see that we are not that far away from the sides of the channel!
Here are a couple links to videos of the locks operating.
https://youtu.be/rCMKjGy2cBk and
https://youtu.be/EtMXn4iH7WY
The locks raise the ships approximately 85 feet above sea level to transit the manmade Gatun Lake.
As we entered Gatun Lake, we looked back to see the huge observation platform filled with people watching the ship exit the locks.
There were also several container ships waiting to enter the locks heading east to the Atlantic.
Once in Gatun Lake, we continued the 40 mile journey to the Pacific.
At the western side of Gatun Lake, we passed through the Cocoli Locks and the ship was lowered back to sea level. Our arrival time on the Atlantic was about 7am and our departure on the Pacific was about 5:30 pm!
Once out of the last lock and into the Pacific we could see Panama City in the distance with its huge high rise buildings.
And we even spotted a crocodile sunning himself in the late afternoon sun along the shore!
During our transit, the cruise line brought native Panamanian women in traditional dress.
At the end of the day, we were getting ready to pass under the Bridge of the Americas.
We had a great day and are still marveling at the engineering that went into the construction of the Canal!
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