Advertisement
Published: February 27th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Up at 6:45 am. We join the other passengers on the front bow of the ship to witness our entrance into the Panama Canal. An unseen narrator provides a blow-by-blow description of what we are seeing.
The locks on the Atlantic side raise incoming boats 85 feet, the height of the inland Gatun Lake, in three stages. There are two separate channels that operate independently but in coordination, allowing two boats to move through at the same time. New, larger locks are under construction just to the left. They are supposed to open in a year or so.
We patiently wait our turn, then enter the first lock. Four so-called "mules" have attached themselves to our vessel by wire cables. These are specialty vehicles that travel on tracks alongside the passage and guide us through the narrow confines. The massive doors close behind us and water from above fills our berth by gravity alone. Behind us, a narrow one-way track swings into place to allow land-based vehicles to cross. Most of the equipment we are seeing–including the doors and the control mechanisms–are original: 100 years old.
Once the water has reached the correct height, the front doors open
and allow the ship to proceed to the next step. We repeat the process three times to finally reach Gatun Lake.
By the way, an interesting fact is that the passage from Atlantic to Pacific through the Panama Canal is not east-west, but rather is in a northwest direction. The price per ship, set by the Panamanian Authority, varies widely. Smaller cargo ships pay by length, larger ones by tonnage. Cruise ships pay per passenger berth. The Veendam has paid about $300,000 for the passage. Clearly one reason the cost of a Panama Canal cruise is fairly high.
The transit through Gatun Lake, formed by the damming of the eponymous river as part of the canals's construction, is peaceful and beautiful. There are a host of islands, all covered by jungle, as are the lake banks. Aside from the steady stream of ships moving in both directions, there is almost no obvious sign of the hand of man. Birds and butterflies abound, and one passenger claims to have spotted an alligator.
Teddy Roosevelt, outfitted in his all-white Panamanian suit and hat, is strolling around the promenade deck. We chat, and I tell him that my grandparents lived
in Ottawa on Roosevelt Avenue, so we're actually old friends. Teddy's real name is Joe Wiegand, by the way.
After just over an hour, we reach the Gaillard Cut, the most difficult section of the canal to build. Here workers dug through 12.6 km of the intercontinental divide to reach the Pacific watershed.
At the far end of this channel we pass under the Centennial Bridge, built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal in 2014. Then we reach the Pedro Miguel Locks, which drop us down 31 feet. At this point we enter a small lake called Miraflores. At the far end of this lake are the Miraflores Locks, which drop us in two stages to sea level. As we exit the final lock to officially enter the Pacific Ocean, a huge crowd of people in a multi-level observation tower on the port side break into cheers and wave wildly at us as we slowly move past.
Another half hour brings us to the Panama City harbour front. The city's towering skyscrapers are visible in the distance to port. We pass under the magnificent Bridge of the Americas, part of the
Transcontinental Highway. Turn left for South America, turn right for Alaska.
This was a fascinating day. I remember that my father, an engineer, had really enjoyed his Panama Canal cruise many years ago. There's no doubt that the Panama Canal is one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century, perhaps of any moden century.
The entertainment tonight is ventriloquist Phil Hughes. He does the standard ventriloquist schtick with his dummy Simon, but he does it very well, and he has the audience howling.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.038s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 22; dbt: 0.0173s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb