Crossing the Panama Canal

Entrance to Panama Canal with large container ship in front

A wonderful day crossing the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.  The canal will be 100 years old in 2014 (work began in 1880) – it is 50 miles long and the locks raise ships up 85 feet above sea level.  It is reputed to be one of the longest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken – the French started an earlier canal at sea level but the project was abandoned and the equipment sold to the Americans who decided on a lock system. The current locks are just about big enough for the Queen Elizabeth with 2 ft. clearance on either side and 30 ft. on the length (she is 965 ft and they are 1000)

Parrots drawn on the Panama Canal

We were up early  (6 am) to watch the ship enter the first of three locks on the Atlantic side – each one takes about 40 minutes – we then sailed, accompanied by frigate birds and pelicans,  through the Gatun lake,  which was created by flooding a valley – amazingly only one dam was needed – the lake  goes on for about 20 miles -  superb views of dense jungle in steamy jungle heat  and lots of islands created by flooded hill tops, with the sailing route marked out by bouys -  before we entered the second part of the canal and finally came back down to sea level through three more locks.  Out under the new Bridge of the Americas which connects north and south America and final tantalising views of the city of Panama and large numbers of moored ships – maybe waiting their turn at the canal – there are time slots for going each way and the canal operates over 24 hours.   Our ship paid 400,000 dollars for the crossing!

Looking Back on Panama

We were on deck for most of the day up to 6pm, but we needed a few breaks to get out of the heat and we did find time to attend a painting class and create the macaws shown in the picture – we say them yesterday at Cartagena!  We are now sailing north towards San Francisco – next stop is 28^th Jan in Costa Rica.