Sunday, April 30
At 6am this morning the pilot came aboard to guide our ship through the Panama Canal. A narrator also boarded and his commentary began at 6:40, which woke us up! It was very interesting so we got dressed and went out on deck to see this engineering marvel first hand. The ship had opened the doors to the bow so we were able to get to the very front of the ship to observe proceedings. The crew were set up there with juice, coffee and Panama rolls for breakfast, which was very nice.
The first set of locks we arrived at were the Gatun Locks, which took nearly 2 hours to get through. Clearing these locks put us in the Gatun Lake, which is huge and took us nearly 5 hours before we reached the Pedro Miguel Locks. These locks took less than an hour to get through, then it was about 45 minutes before we reached the Miraflores Locks, which took about an hour to get through. At each set of locks it was the same procedure - line the ship up straight, connect to the mules (mini trains that keep the ship in line), enter the lock, be raised or lowered to the height of the next level, and then the reverse before exiting the lock!
This way the ships can travel from the Caribbean/Atlantic Ocean side over the 85 feet (26 metres) above sea level of the continental divide before being "lowered" to sea level again on the Pacific Ocean side near Panama City (or the reverse direction). The Canal is 80 kilometres long and we didn't exit it until about 5pm, so it was nearly 11 hours to transit through this amazing piece of engineering. Newer, bigger locks were started in 2007 and completed in 2016, so the really big ships use these locks - we could see why when you saw about a foot or two clearance on either side of our ship! Nearly 30,000 people died constructing the original Canal, and when you see the amount of earth and rock moved to build it, and the set up of the locks, it really was an amazing feat but came at a huge human cost.
We had an early dinner and we're amazed at the skyline of Panama City as we passed it - it looked like Hong Kong's skyline! There is obviously a lot of wealth in Panama City as a result of the Canal and the number of ships that go through it each day. We loved transiting the Canal and it was a highlight of the trip.
At 6am this morning the pilot came aboard to guide our ship through the Panama Canal. A narrator also boarded and his commentary began at 6:40, which woke us up! It was very interesting so we got dressed and went out on deck to see this engineering marvel first hand. The ship had opened the doors to the bow so we were able to get to the very front of the ship to observe proceedings. The crew were set up there with juice, coffee and Panama rolls for breakfast, which was very nice.
The first set of locks we arrived at were the Gatun Locks, which took nearly 2 hours to get through. Clearing these locks put us in the Gatun Lake, which is huge and took us nearly 5 hours before we reached the Pedro Miguel Locks. These locks took less than an hour to get through, then it was about 45 minutes before we reached the Miraflores Locks, which took about an hour to get through. At each set of locks it was the same procedure - line the ship up straight, connect to the mules (mini trains that keep the ship in line), enter the lock, be raised or lowered to the height of the next level, and then the reverse before exiting the lock!
This way the ships can travel from the Caribbean/Atlantic Ocean side over the 85 feet (26 metres) above sea level of the continental divide before being "lowered" to sea level again on the Pacific Ocean side near Panama City (or the reverse direction). The Canal is 80 kilometres long and we didn't exit it until about 5pm, so it was nearly 11 hours to transit through this amazing piece of engineering. Newer, bigger locks were started in 2007 and completed in 2016, so the really big ships use these locks - we could see why when you saw about a foot or two clearance on either side of our ship! Nearly 30,000 people died constructing the original Canal, and when you see the amount of earth and rock moved to build it, and the set up of the locks, it really was an amazing feat but came at a huge human cost.
We had an early dinner and we're amazed at the skyline of Panama City as we passed it - it looked like Hong Kong's skyline! There is obviously a lot of wealth in Panama City as a result of the Canal and the number of ships that go through it each day. We loved transiting the Canal and it was a highlight of the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment