Panama Canal - still a magnificent sight

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Panama Canal, 16th January Lot of excitement on board today as we transit the Panama Canal.Of particular interest to us is the new sections which were being built the last time we came through and were opened in the summer of 2016.We were transiting through the older section as a Panamax ship, that is the largest to fit through the original locks. So out on deck early for me as we approached the first set of locks. The Gatun Locks has three chambers which lifted us to 85 ft above sea level. From here we enter Gatun Lake, created when the Chagres river was dammed. The lake is over 23 miles long. We were held here for an extra an hour as the ships coming the opposite had precedence to enter the locks before allowing Arcadia to proceed.In all it takes about 9 hrs to reach the Pacific Ocean so the delay added a little extra to our crossing.The Gatun lake has numerous small islands and the channel is constantly being dredged, the maintenance is continual. After crossing the lake you enter the Gamboa mooring and then into the Gaillardia Cut, this stretch of the canal (9 miles) slices through the Continental Divide.The next landmark is the Centennial Bridge, completed in 2004 it has a clearance of 262 ft and is a 6 lane highway built to relieve the pressure on the Bridge of Americas. The next lock, the Pedro Miguel is a single chambered lock which lowered us some 31 ft into the Miraflores Lake. Another man made lake, a mile long it provides the water to operate the locks. The final lock, the Miraflores, has two chambers and we were lowered 54 ft to sea level and were then able to sail into the Pacific Ocean. The Miraflores lock gates are the heaviest on the system, 82 ft high and weighing some 730 tons. Before heading out into the Pacific, we had to negotiate the Bridge of Americas, now a sticking point for larger cruise ships to pass under. For instance, the Queen Mary 2 cannot enter the canal because she is too tall to pass under the bridge. Whilst transiting, we only saw glimpses of the expansion project which I said opened in June2016. The new lanes have doubled the canals capacity. Here's the technical bit. The existing locks allow the passage of ships that can carry up to 5000 TEUs. Since the expansion Post-Panamax can transit with up to'13000/14000 TEUs thus doubling the canals capacity. A TEU is a measurement of the number of containers a ship can carry. The was plenty of wild life to see and other passing ships in the lakes, including 2 cruise ships, the Marina and Norwegian Jewel heading to the Atlantic. And guess what we get to do it all again in April. By the way, it cost P & O $300,000 to put the Arcadia through the canal, paid in cash 48 hours before transit. I suppose they don't like cheques that bounce!!!!

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Comments

[Jane]

Panama
We went through the canal a few years ago and saw the gates for the new section, great experience.