Some were on deck before 7:00 am to watch the first locking through. Not me. I watched the 2 pm locking through. I have attached 2 pictures so you can see the progress. In the first, see how empty the cavity is forward. That ship has just come out of the locks and we are in the first chamber waiting to go into the second, and them the 3rd chamber. The second shows our entering tnto the 3rd chamber. Notice the beautiful bridge in the background, to the left it leads into the jungle. Also on the first picture, notice the huge container ship going in the opposite direction.
Below is the Panamanian flag.
The canal does not go straight across the isthmus, but at an angle. It is about 48 miles in length, but you are only about 25 miles away, if it were straight across. They have a new and bigger canal that is about a quarter of a mile away from the first. We took the old canal which is 110 feet wide. Our ship is 106 feetwide, so that tells you we had PLENTY of room. Can that be the reason the ship’s crew is always painting the sides of the ship???
Throughout the 1800s Americans and British leaders and businessmen wanted to ship goods quickly and cheaply between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Construction on the canal began in 1903 and was finished in 1914. About 14,000 ships transit the canal daily. We were told to make a reservation to do the transit is $35,000.00. Yeah, that is a lot. Maybe Custom Holidays is charging too little for reservations. 😇 the cost per berth is $138 and this ship has about 2000 including the crew, that’s about $276,000. Plus there were other charges, and some of them are in the thousands of dollars. So it is really big business. Actually about 5 billion dollars revenue a year.
It takes about 8-10 hours for a cruise ship to transit the canal. From the Pacific you go up about 25 feet and on the Atlantic side you go down about the same. Our guide from the canal said the water displaced is 26 million gallons each way, which is a total of 52 million gallons. The locks are not operated by electricity. It is all by gravity.
In between the 2 sets of locks, is a huge lake with beautiful scenery on all sides. Actually the best way to learn about the canal is to take a cruise. Should we work on another one next year?
Every night we get a towel animal in our room.
Here are two. An elephant and a bunny.
I did get some sun the first couple of days but the sun has been too brilliant for fair skinned girls these last few days.
There are draw backs to cruising. Way too much gourmet food. This salt air seems to be shrinking my clothes.
Think about doing this 2 week cruise and if a picture is with a thousand words, being there is priceless.
Your friend,
Sue Biggs