The Canal

The announcements on the PA began at 5:30 in a variety of languages alerting us that we would soon be in the canal. We were on approach to the first of a series of 3 locks at Gatun on the Caribbean side of the canal. I listened for a while watching off my balcony, then headed for the bow to get a better look at our approach. The bow areas were full of people with cups of coffee in their hands staring at the eighth wonder a few hundred yards away. This enthusiasm made sense since this was the featured entrée of the trip and nobody wanted to miss the big entrance.

Since most of the folks were standing watching the approach unfold, I knew that all I had to do was wait until someone was tuckered out and had to retreat to the comfort of a chair. Trying to capture a time elapse night photo on a moving vessel proved futile no matter how clever I thought I was being with the digital camera settings, so I gave up and waited until sunrise when we were on final approach to gate 1.

There are a series of lit red buoys that from a distance looks like the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. All the various ships wait their turn for entry and this goes on for 24 hours a day. Before the first lock there is a neon sign with an arrow pointing you as to which lock you were supposed to glide into. When I saw the sign, all I could think of was the movie “Porky’s” as it flashed and wondered why there wasn’t something more high tech to point you there.

The Locks are 1,000 feet long and 110 feet wide. All this was built during Teddy Roosevelt’s time at the turn of the century by the US after the French millions of dollars and thousands of bodies screwing it up. It is hard to believe what was accomplished nearly 100 years ago. There was so much to organize with comparatively primitive technology and no ipods for the workers.

After going through the three locks at Gatun, you arrive at a big lake roughly in the middle of the country. From the ship deck it resembles Lake Minnetonka only deeper and loaded with freighters just sitting waiting their turn. The lake is much larger than I expected but it was strange having it populated with dozens of ships.

It was hot and in the 90’s and I had a ferry to catch that was going to take us to the Pacific side. Mom decided not to go at the last minute because of the heat. The intension of our cruise was not to pass to the Pacific side, but rather to head for the lake, circle around, then return through the Gatun locks and dock near Panama City. My ferry tour took us through to the Pacific side, where we caught a bus and returned to the mother ship.

Each lock moves about 26 million gallons of fresh water and moves you up or down 27 feet. You are charged by the ton, so a typical freighter would probably be in the range of 100k to 200k to pass through. Not cheap, but far better than cruising around the horn.

The definitive book on the Panama Canal is “Path between the seas” by David McCullough. He goes through is great detail about the construction and politics of what it took to put this project together. Worth a look if considering a trip.