Jan
2
The Panama Canal
Filed Under Panama Canal 2009
7:22PM
At Sea, along Colombia’s north coast
Passing through the great engineering feat that is the Panama Canal yesterday was quite the experience. As I said yesterday, I was awake by 6:15 in time to catch our pass under the Bridge of the Americas which is part of the Pan-American highway. A number of people had already claimed spots at the bow of the ship on the top deck by 6am, but I weaseled my way to the front and sat on the floor. Deck 14 is the only deck with an outdoor front view (other than Deck 15 which doesn’t extend to the front as 14 does), but for safety reasons it is obstructed with colored plexiglass about seven feet up. The glass panes are spaced apart leaving five-inch gaps for a clear view.
The harbors at both ends of the canal are dotted with many of those dinosaur-looking freight container lifters, and we saw many many containers stacked on ships and along the port. Just before 8am we reached the Miraflores Locks which are on the southern or Pacific side. The canal is built on a diagonal, so we traveled from the southeast to the northwest. All three sets of locks on the canal have two lanes, but the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) allows one-way transit for a set number of hours and then reverses traffic. We were met by a few ACP boats to guide us to the canal. Upon arrival, we were met by eight 
electronic locomotives called mules, four on each side, which are truck-sized vehicles that run on tracks along the locks. ACP workers boarded our ship and hooked one-inch steel cables from each of the mules to the bow and stern of the ship. The mules, with the help of the taut cables, keep our vessel in the correct position while transiting each lock. The Coral Princess is a Panamax vessel, meaning that it was built to maximum size for canal transit. On each end of the ship, we had only two feet of clearance which heightens the importance of the mules.
Once connected to the locomotives, we slowly were pulled into the first of two chambers (and thus two levels of ascendency) of the Miraflores Locks. Once we were fully in the chamber, the gates behind us (height of the gate leaves range from 47-82 feet and are each 7 feet thick) closed. The locks all operate by gravity. In other words, the water level in the next chamber was higher than our chamber, so what needed to happen was for water from the second chamber to drain into the first, making our boat rise until the levels of both chambers match. Once that happened, the gates in front of us would swing open and we would proceed into the next chamber. When the water drains and fills from one chamber to the next, it does so through culverts in the bottom of the chambers. We could actually see water drain, because large oxygen rings the size of the culvers would bubble to the surface. I can’t remember how much water is involved in each draining and filling of the chambers, but it is a LOT. We could actually see our ship, in comparison to our stationary surroundings, rise or fall in the locks. After Miraflores, we proceeded to the Pedro Miguel Locks which houses only one chamber.
During the lock transits, I went about the ship to gain different view points. While in one of the lower chambers, deck 7 of the Coral was level with the top of the lock’s wall. I could have reached out and touched Panama, but I chickened out. While in Pedro Miguel, we had caught up to a ship who was transiting through the other lane. Since we were proceeding at a faster pace, we asked for permission to exit the locks ahead of them. Once both vessels had agreed, we did. Once out of Pedro Miguel, we then sailed through a narrow passageway called the Gaillard Cut. This area was dug out of the highest mountain area of the canal area, right through the Continental Divide, and construction caused many problems. Everytime land was blasted with dynamite or dug by machine, the rains would cause landslides filling in what had just been removed. Even today, landslides still cause problems and the ACP is constantly dredging the canal 24/7. 
We saw a few dredging units at work, the large scoopers afloat on barges and dumping soil in more barges. To me, it seems like a never-ending task. Because the Cut is narrow, visible targets are set up far ahead along the way. The ship lines up its nose to the next target which allows it to sail in the centermost part of the water.
After the Cut, we reached Gatun Lake, the largest man-made lake at that time (I’m not sure if it still holds the record). We traveled about 40 kilometers through Gatun Lake, and it’s amazing how much land was flooded in order to make this body of water large enough to cruise through it. Higher portions of land still stick out from the water’s surface. Before embarking on this trip, I read David McCullough’s “The Path Between the Seas,” a fascinating book about the canal’s construction. He talks about how early pioneers would have a nearly impossible time trying to cut their way through the dense jungle of Panama. I could see why; the area is extremely lush with vegetation.
Finally we reached the northern end of the canal, the Gatun Locks, a set of three levels. At Gatun, we had caught up with another vessel, a monsterous beast that was carrying well over 2,400 cars. This thing was huge and kept my attention. At the back of it was a large ramp that was folded up, the ramp where cars would be driven on and off the ship. The cars were safely inside and couldn’t be seen, so it had a big, tiered, blocky body along the front half. It seemed to be having a tough time moving forward in one of the chambers, because its big smoke stack, which was actually angled toward our ship, kept chugging but the ship wasn’t moving. At this end of the canal, our ship was this time lowered through the chambers so we could exit at sea level out of Limon Bay and into the Caribbean Sea. By this time, I was up at the Lotus Spa taking advantage of a massage discount. When I was done, we had left the canal, but the sea on this side was dotted with ships waiting for the one-way traffic to reverse and for their assigned transit time.
Our transit took 8 hours. The cost for the Coral Princess to go through the Panama Canal totaled at $245,600. The average toll for ocean-going commercial vessels is $35,000. Ships are charged by net tonnage, meaning however much weight the ship can hold (not including the weight of the ship itself), not how much weight it has when passing through. Freight ships are a bit different; they are charged $65 per freight container that it can carry.
The French began their attempt of the canal in the 1880s and failed, mainly because the technology and knowledge of disease (malaria and yellow fever took many lives during the canal’s construction). In 1904, the Americans picked up where the French had left off and completed the modern marvel in 1914. To build the Panama Canal today would cause headlines, even with the advancements in technology and equipment, so to do it nearly 100 years ago is mind-boggling. The rest of the day was low-key. Some people went to watch the Orange Bowl (satellite permitting), while others attended the International Crew Show, which is where you would’ve found us. We were quite entertained by a number of crew members (cooks, bar attendants, engineers, stewards) who either sang or played guitar, the majority of them being Filipino (Filipinos love their karaoke). Bedtime couldn’t have come soon enough after a late New Year’s Eve followed by an early rise for an all-day canal transit, but what a unique treat it was.
FYI: I’ve uploaded more photos on Flickr, so check them out! And thanks to all who’ve left comments on here so far!
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