Transiting the Panama Canal (MAR 01)

We got up at 0500, having been told yesterday evening that this was when the action would start. A quick check of my Navionics chart app showed we were still about an hour from the Colon breakwater, so I reset my alarm and went back to sleep. No harm / no foul since the 0500 statement had been accompanied by the caveat that things could change and often did. 

By 0600 there were things to see even though there was not much of a moon for natural light.  We were passing through anchored ships awaiting their turn to transit the canal.  Some ships would have a long wait.  

The canal handles about forty ships a day. It is not a first come - first serve system.  For example,  ROTTERDAM had payed a substantial extra fee to receive a specific daytime transit slot. Presumably ships that do not paid any extra fees gradually work their way up the queue in the order they arrived, but that is speculation on my part. Something we were told on our last transit; no ship goes through until all fees have been deposited and verified.  For ROTTERDAM, the total was upward of $300,000.

Several boats came alongside offloading two pilots, a narrator and various officials. 

As our ship drew closer to land we had been told that we might possibly hear howler monkeys; a monkey capable of making the loudest natural vocal sound of any mammal. This morning the jungle was silent of monkey howls within our audible range.

We passed under the Atlantic Bridge about 0630 entering the Gatun Locks at 0700.

This was our fourth time through the canal. It still captured our interest much of the day, however, having written a long post about transiting it in the same direction we went today (click here to read it), for the rest of this post, this time I'm just going to go with just some pictures and an occasional comment.

It is always interesting where in the canal TITAN (aka Herman the German) will be located. Built in Germany 80 years to service submarines, it remains the biggest floating crane in the world.

We passed the mouth of the Chagres River that provides the water for Lake Gatun which in turn provides the immense amount of water needed to operate the locks. The lake was about two feet low, so a low water fee - for ROTTERDAM about $35K - was currently among the fees each ship must pay. Hopefully the money was earmarked for environmental projects to help sustain water resources (says he with some skepticism).

The Culebra Cut is generally regarded as the single biggest engineering challenge when building the canal. It also identifies where the Continental Divide crosses Panama. 

Watching a "pan-max" (maximum size that will fill in the locks) ship enter a lock, the designator is definitely accurate descriptor. 

At the Milifores Locks a crowd of spectators (from who knows where) at the Visitors Center awaited ROTTERDAM going through the chambers. Actually, they were there to see any big ship go through, but let's pretend we had our own cheering gallery...and they did cheer us. 

When the gates to the bottom chamber of the locks opened, ROTTERDAM was in the Pacific Ocean.

We went under the Bridge of the Americas about 1600 and soon passed the Bio-Diversty Museum of Panama designed by architect Frank Gehry with Panama City in the background. 

We passed an anchorage full of ships waiting their turn to go the way we had just come. We continued generally south through the Gulf of Panama into the night. 

     - - - - -

Anyone transitng the Panama Canal for the first time would be well advised to read McCullough's The Pathway Between the Seas.