I thought transiting the Panama Canal would be a cool experience, but it wasn’t very high on my list. So I was not expecting it to be as awesome as it was. It was absolutely fascinating to watch the entire process unfold and I still feel so lucky I was able to experience such an engineering feat.
We arrived on the Caribbean Sea side of the canal and went thru the newer locks, the Agua Clara Locks, as our ship was ginormous and doesn’t fit thru the old locks. They have a (mandatory) Canal Pilot that comes on board then the ship is hooked up to a tug boat in front and a tug boat in back. The gate for the first lock is opened, then we move into the lock before the gate is closed and mooring ropes secure us to the sides. Next, the lock is slowly filled with water over 8-10 minutes to raise the ship up about 30′. Then the gate between lock #1 and lock #2 opens, we move into lock #2, then repeat the process. There are 3 locks in all that raise the ship up a total of 85′ to the level of Gatun Lake. Then you sail thru the lake and repeat the process to be lowered 85′ over 3 locks to the Pacific Ocean level.
We had a 7:30am arrival time to the first lock, so I got up at 6:30am and headed out to the bow of the ship. I was in awe watching us slowly approach the first lock.
There was someone on a loudspeaker announcing what was happening and walking us thru the entire process. It is so perfectly choreographed which just added to the marvel of it all. As we got close, the first gate opened and we arrived right at 7:30am to lock #1.
Gate opening:
And in we go:
I then headed up to the atrium to watch our entry into Lock #2.
Funny enough, there was a crocodile swimming in lock #2:
Then I headed back out to the bow to watch the entire process for Lock #3.
Opening the gate:
Entering the lock:
Filling the lock with water:
Opening the final gate:
And right after 9am, we were thru the locks and into Gatun Lake.
Then it was finally time for breakfast. After that, I spent most of the day in the Atrium watching us sail thru Panama and past the Continental Divide.
Around 2:30pm, we approached the old locks on the Pacific Ocean side.
And around 3:30pm, we arrived at the newer Cocoli Locks to begin our transit thru the 3 locks to the ocean.
I even watched us go thru one of the locks from my balcony! Very cool to watch the scenery slowly rise up as the ship is lowered.
Lowering, lowering, then onto the next lock:
And that was it. We left the last gate at maybe 5:30pm, so the whole process took us around 10 hours. Although there was a bit more sailing to do as we had to sail thru a 7 mile channel before we were officially out.
And just as evening hit, we sailed under the Bridge of the Americas!
I really can’t overstate how cool this whole experience was. I found the whole thing fascinating and the precision of it all was impressive. So if you ever get a chance to go thru the canal, I highly, highly recommend it!
