Day 5 - Panama Canal

Today's the day. We transit the Panama Canal. Six locks, two lakes and 10 hours later  we'll be in the Pacific Ocean.

Here are a couple of Panama Canal tidbits:

The canal runs north/south.  I never realized that!

Engineering for the canal was begun in earnest in 1880 by the French.   The original plan was to make the canal sea level like the Suez Canal.  The rock landscape of Panama made that nearly impossible and the French abandoned the effort in 1903.  The US then purchased the rights to develop the project.  US engineers then redesigned canal to include 3 locks on either end.

It takes 10 hours to transit through the canal.

The cost for the Island Princess to transit the Canal was $483,000, roughly $250 per passenger.  That amount includes an additional $36,000 for a reserved time and another $30,000 for a daytime passage.

Each lock takes approximately 30 minutes from enter to exit. But only 5 minutes for the water level to change.

The actual 50 mile transit began around 7:30 am.  We were dressed and ready to begin the experience.  The Canal pilots boarded the ship - two for the bridge and 1 for the aft.  By 8:30 we were waiting our turn to enter the first lock.   Our room is at the aft of the ship. And we're able to see a lot of the action from out balcony. But we want to see the entering of the first canal from the bow.  So we head forward to the hot, humid and very crowded decks 14 and 15. It was difficult to see anything clearly and there is a blue glass preventing any good photos unless you could squeeze the camera between the glass frames.  After the first lock, hot and sweaty, we walk around to different areas of the ship to get different views and end up back in our room for some shade, water and air conditioning.  The Atlantic, or Caribbean side locks are one after another.  By 10:30 we were sailing into man made Gatun Lake, approximately 150 above sea level.

For the next 4.5 hours we slowly, very slowly sail throughout Gatun Lake. It's a very narrow channel and the ship is always escorted by a couple of Canal Pilot boats. During this time we break for lunch and grab a pizza at one of the restaurants. During lunch our table mates tell us about 2 observation areas just below the bridge on decks 10 and 11.  Most folks don't know about them and there's no plexiglass inhibiting the view.    We decide we'll head up there when we get to the first descending lock.

As we near the south end of the lake, we sail under Centennial Bridge, the only permanent bridge to span the Canal between the locks.  The south, or Pacific locks are in two locations.  The first one, Pedro Miguel separates Gatun and Mira Flores lakes.   So we head up to the newly discovered decks to view the transition of Pedro Miguel lock. It was great!  Minimal people, and a great view.   It was still hot and humid, but a much better than the higher decks.

Hot and exhausted from standing in the 90 degree weather with matching humidity, we head back to our room.  We can watch the view from the front of the ship on TV while seeing the action in the back from our balcony.

Mira Flores is approximately 1.5 mikes long so it doesn't take a lot of time to reach the 2nd set of the Pacific side locks. Roughly an hour later we're through the two Mira Flores locks and we are technically out of the Panama Canal. As we sail toward the Pacific, we sail under the bridge of the Americas and view Panama City on the skyline.  It was a hot and exhausting transit and a lifetime experience.  We feel like we were on a ten hour tour!

Back in our rooms we freshen up for dinner and catch one of the entertainment venues. Exhausted, we head to bed, and remember to turn our clocks back a hour. We're in mountain time now!

Here's a link to some Panama Photos.  I've reverted back to Picasa 'cause it's just the quickest to upload!
Panama Pics