Panama Canal

PANAMA CANAL

Today we were up at 5.30am for the approach into the Panama Canal. It was a beautiful early morning and we saw the sunrise over the ocean and the stunning view of Panama City. The harbour was busy with all the ships waiting to take their turn. Only 2 can go through the canals locks at a time and only in the same direction. The cost for the ship to transit through today is 250,000 British pounds !!!!!

The transit took all day and was very slow. A  (Panamanian)pilot has to hop on board and take control of the ship. It’s hard to explain but in short the ship travels along with tugs at the ready on a specific course. Then the ship goes up through 3 locks in a space just wide enough for a ship of this size to get through. The ship is guide by mechanical “mules’ through the locks. This takes quite some time. Once through then it sails through a water way of lakes and manmade canals. Then another 3 locks to take it back down to sea level at the Atlantic end. At the beginning of our journey through the canal the scenery looked  like roads works on the banks of the canal. On one side of the canal there is enormous construction going on to build another canal and lock. So for a part of the journey the scenery was very ordinairey. Further through the canal  we saw beautiful  Panamanian jungle. It was picturesque and we saw monkeys but no crocodiles, lots of birds and colourful trees. That was after we elbowed the Poms out of the way to get a look. I think the whole ship was on decks today. It was very quite inside. It was a fascinating look at an engineering achievement. The whole canal operates today as it did when it was built back in 1913 and looks exactly the same.

It was a long day today but a good one and now we are headed to Antigua in the Caribbean.

These images are not mine but it gives you a look at what it looks like from different parts of the canal.