Panama Canal

Panama Canal: Eastern Time Zone +0 Hours
AM Portion: Gatun Locks
Beautiful day (overcast so we don't roast in the sun)

The Pilots boarded our ship at 6 AM. The Captain must give up complete control of the ship. This is the only time this happens. Our ship is on its Maiden Voyage so it was its first time transiting the Canal. I also heard it was the first time for our head Pilot. I am not sure if that is true. The Pilots communicate continuously with a control center as well as the linemen, the towing "mule" drivers and the lock engineer.

The Admeasurer also boarded because this was our first passage. It is his job to measure the ship, define its Panama Canal tonnage and from that calculate the toll for each transit. The anticipated toll is in excess of $275,000. (The Suez Canal transit will cost twice that).

We arrived at Gatun Locks at 7:30 AM and began our transit.
Notice the little vehicles next to the building. These are the "mules" that guide us through the canal. If ships drift into the side, the "mule" on the other side will pull its lines tight and pull it
into the center.

The Coral Princess left Aruba about six hours ahead of us. She is in the set of locks next to us. We can't really see what is happening to us, but we can watch her transit which is very interesting. We will have 2 feet of clearance on each side. Look what a tight fit she has.
We are passing from the Atlantic Ocean into Gatun Lake in this portion of
the transit. Gatun Lake is 85 feet above sea level. The principle involved
is simply letting the water run downhill and filling up the next lowest
lock. Every time a ship makes a transit about 52 million gallons of fresh
water is spilled into the sea.

Here is the Coral Princess entering Gatun Lake after leaving the first 3
locks.

We entered Gatun Lake and anchored to wait for the Northbound traffic to pass before the Southbound had their turn. We were surrounded by 17 other ships from cruise ships to freighters.

Around one o'clock we were on the move through the rest of the canal. We ordered a great lunch and had some wine and watched the world go by.

People lined the shores to watch our first transit. About 1000 people were on shore when we cleared the last lock. As the sun set and the moon rose, we passed Panama City and headed into the Pacific Ocean.