First Transit

How does this work? Going west, the ship enters at Colon on the Caribbean side and transits the three Gatùn Locks which raises the ship 26 meters to the level of Gatùn Lake (a large artificial lake). Wending her way for 33 km through the lake the vessel navigates to the Culebra Cut. It is 13.7 km from the entrance of the Culebra Cut to the Pedro Miguel Locks. These locks lower the ship one step to Lake Miraflores. Then it is just a little under 2 km farther to the two step Miraflores Locks where the ship is released into the Pacific. This whole process takes 8 to 10 hours

Ship ahead of us lifted up in the first Gatùn lock

Gatùn is where the three locks for the Panama Canal are that lead from the Caribbean up to the central lake. . All the traffic that goes through the Canal comes through these locks. The maximum size of ship that can be accommodated is called a Panamax. A Panamax cargo ship would typically have a displacement of around 65,000 tons. The maximum dimensions allowed for a ship transiting the canal are:

Container Ship-Panamax in Lake Gatùn

• Length: 294.1 metres
• Beam (width): 32.3 metres
• Draft: 12.0 metres in tropical fresh water (the salinity and temperature of water affect its density, and hence how deep a ship will float in the water)
• Air draft: 57.91 metres measured from the waterline to the vessel's highest point

I suppose everyone knows the history of the Panama Canal. How the French failed to build a sea level canal, and how President Theodore Roosevelt was convinced by Chief Engineer John Stevens that a lock system would be better. One of the main obstacles to building the canal was the mosquito borne illnesses of malaria and yellow fever. Major Walter Reed expanded the work of the Cuban doctor, Carlos Finlay, and proved (by experimentation) that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes (and not by infected bedding or bad air). The person who ultimately enabled the canal to be built was the person who drained the swamps and installed mosquito prevention measures - another US Army doctor William Crawford Gorgas. This enabled the final project engineer Colonel George Washington Goethals to complete the job.

During the transit, there is a Guide who explains about what is happening on the closed circuit TV (in the room) or on the ship speaker system if you are outside your room.

The Panama Canal narrative came on in the cabin at about 5:30 for the beginning of the transit. I turned on the bow camera on the TV. It was still dark, but I thought I saw a flashing light, so I got up and put on one of the ship's terry cloth bathrobes and went out on deck barefooted.

Red ATON (Aid TO Navigation) at 6 am

It was just a regular red buoy with a flashing light on top. The channel seemed to be marked about every 100 feet on both sides.

Aids to Navigation- Looking ahead atthe red channel lights

Looking East to Colon at 0600

The sun was coming up (it was just about 6 am by now) so it was getting lighter.

Sunrise

Then I went in and got dressed and put on my slip-on shoes. and went out again, but I forgot my hat. I took some pictures of a

Range marker from the promenade deck

Range markers (which come in pairs) need to be lined up to keep a ship on the range i.e. in the channel. There are numerous ranges to guide ships through the Panama Canal. Then I went up to the Lido, snatched a couple of rolls and a cranberry juice and went forward and up to the Crow's Nest on deck 12 which is at the forward end of the ship. They had coffee and Panama buns here which they were giving out, so I took a bun. The recipe that was printed didn't mention the filling that was in it. Kind of a lemony custard.

Panama Bun in the Crow's Nest

People had staked out all the forward looking chairs, and were understandably quite territorial about anyone sitting in front of them, so I sat on the banquette behind a ladder and looked through the rungs. Which was perfectly comfortable, and really a quite good view. I stayed here for about an hour, taking pictures of the locking of the boat ahead.

Ship ahead of us in the first lock

Then I went out on the Sports Deck (outside of the Crows Nest) and sat on the shady side of the ship (which was the center of the two locks) and took more pictures for another hour.

Area between the two parallel locks

Lock next to us

Lock next to us with entrance gates open

Barge in the next lock

Gates opening in next lock

Gates closed in next lock

First set of gates - with bridge in front

Water gushing in

Before you get to the lock, you see

Atlantic Entrance Range Middle Light sticking up over the trees

After you get past it you can look back

Looking back at the Atlantic Entrance Range Middle Light

and see the whole lighthouse. Next to the third lock is the big (89 feet tall) Gatún Northbound Rear Light which looks like a lighthouse and is right in the middle of the locks. It is much photographed because it is right next to the ships going through the locks.

Gatún Northbound Rear Light

It is also the tallest and most conspicuous lighthouse of the Canal.

Lock mule

The engines (Mules) that pull the ship through the locks

Line handlers waiting on dock

We had three donkey engines on each side and the line handler's job is to attach the metal cables to the boat from each engine to pull the boat through the locks.

Line Handler adding a line to the Mule

Line handler

Lock headquarters from the ship

Wheel to operate the lock by hand

Originally, the lock gates were operated by a huge drive wheel, powered by an electric motor, to which was attached a connecting rod, which in turn attached to the middle of the gate but when the system went down, it was possible to operate the locks using the big wheel manually. The mechanism has now been replaced by hydraulics.

One of the tow motors called 'mules'

Looking back at the third lock-gates opening

Lock gates closed

Lock cat

In the Locks

Going Up

Rescue Boat

Looking back at the Gatun Locks

Dam

After we passed the dam, I watched the line handlers jump off our boat. I had worn a blister on the back of my heel from the shoes, so I changed shoes

Lake Gatùn

An hour later, I saw a lighthouse pass our window, and ran outside and took pictures of two lighthouses and a range marker. The front lighthouse was white and the back one was kind of grey.

Distant Peña Blanca Northbound Range Lights

Range with old marker painted black in the back

I put the picture up and one of the guys who was a lighthouse expert identified it as the Peña Blanca Northbound Range Lights.
These lights are missing from my page, because Google has no satellite image from their location and I was unable to verify their continued existence. Of course the shorter white lighthouse is the front light of the range. The gray lighthouse in the back is the original rear light, but it has been replaced by the pyramidal skeletal tower. It is customary for inactive lighthouses along the canal to be painted black rather than demolished.

Range markers

I ate lunch in the dining room (Bob ate in the Lido) while we went through the Pedro Miguel Locks.

Table flowers

Tour boat from lunch

I had

Roast beef rolls

(which was roast beef slices rolled up - no bread involved), and baked

Mac and cheese

Mixed berry crumble for dessert.

Looking at Pedro Miguel Lock

Beside the lock house

Tour boat in the lock

Shore Lake Miraflores

When we went through the Miraflores Locks, I watched on the bow camera in our room.

Bow camera view

Then I went out and took a picture of the Miraflores Northbound Rear Light which has a green light in it.

Miraflores Northbound Rear Light with a green light

The shore behind it was decorated with candy canes for Christmas. It started to rain a little, but I stuck my head out and watched the line handlers leave the boat. I counted 20 line handlers leaving the boat - 18 with white hard hats and two with red hard hats. To get out of the rain, they all squished into the cabin of the little boat

Boat with line handlers

A couple of minutes later, we passed the VLAANDEREN XIX,

Green dredge

VLAANDEREN XIX

It had three lights vertically (red, orange, red) and three day-shapes (round, diamond, round). The lights (for night) and the dayshapes (for daytime) indicate the status of the boat or ship. In this case they mean that the vessel is Restricted in ability to maneuver

Lights and Dayshapes

Then we went under the bridge

Bridge of Americas

and passed an anchorage area.

Anchorage

Sailboats in the anchorage

Anchorage in Fuerte Amador from the Crows Nest

We played trivia but didn't win again. I absolutely could NOT remember the Spacely Sprockets rival firm from the Jetsons (Cogswell Cogs) . Dolly from Pennsylvania knew what was transported to Allentown for safe keeping in 1777 (the Liberty Bell) and I knew that the organ that the Plains Indians used to make yellow paint was the gall bladder, and we knew that the Tennessee Tornado was in Dollywood. But we didn't know that VW Beetles are now made in Mexico or the uniform number worn by Larry Bird (33)

When we finished playing trivia, it was really raining hard and there was lightning.

Rain

When I went past the pool (where they were going to have a BBQ - it was covered from the rain)

Buffet around the pool

I commented that I didn't think they would do the bunkering (which was scheduled) if there was lightning (this is taking on fuel)

I had

Steak for dinner

which was good but was too much to eat, so I didn't eat it all. Bob had

Coq au Vin

and he commented that there was no discernable form to the chicken - it seemed to have been hacked up at random. I had

Bananas Foster

for dessert, and it was OK but not spectacular and Bob had the sundae as usual.

Towel burro

Our towel animal was a burro.

Bob said the locking was like watching grass grow. He loved it when we had done locks on our own when we rented a narrowboat in 2002, so now he wasn't really interested in the big ships. He went out about 10 and watched them doing the bunkering operation but didn't take any photos