TRANSIT PANAMA CANAL

SUNDAY 29^th JULY 2012.

After one and a half days sailing across the western Caribbean in calm seas we reached the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal at about 6am in the morning. It was an extremely hot, humid and cloudy day and about 28 degrees on arrival.

You never cease to marvel in the way the canal was built. Virtually nothing has changed with the canal since 1914 when it was built, other than the change to more modern engine mules which keep the ship centrally in the locks. The canal operates 24 hours a day and about 35 ships go through the canal each day.

The Canal is some 80km long and it takes about 10hours to transit from the Atlantic, firstly through the man made Gatun Lake, then the Calebra Cut where the major excavation work took place in building the canal through to the Pacific adjacent to Panama City. The ships enter the canal from both the Atlantic and Pacific side but are not allowed to pass in the Celebra cut which is the narrowest section of the canal, so ships anchor in Gatun Lake, until  ships from the Pacific entrance pass through.

On the Atlantic side there are initially three locks to raise the ship some 87 feet to Gatun Lake and it takes about two hours to go through the locks. Gatun Lake is a quiet and serene place with the water surface like a mirror. It is the biggest man made lake in the world and it took 4 years to fill when the canal was initially built. It has hundreds of small islands throughout and mostly densely unpopulated tropical jungle surrounding the lake. The Celebra Cut is the narrowest section of the canal, which clearly features the enormous amount of engineering and excavation works needed to build the canal. An unbelievable sight. On the Pacific side you are greeted with three more locks, the first called the Pedro Miguel lock which drops you down into another small lake, before entering the final Miraflores Locks to enter the Pacific Ocean, the last of which dropped approx twelve metres. It was another two two hours to pass through the locks.

Currently large excavation works are being carried in increase the size of the canal to take more and larger capacity ships, which is expected to be completed by 2015 and allow the canal to transit up to eighty ships a day. At the moment the Sun Princess is the largest cruise ship to transit the canal, with only 600mm clearance on both sides of the locks.

All in all a magical and memorable experience, which you never get tired of.

Next port of call is Puntarenas in Costa Rica.