Panama Canal!!

Dave’s alarm went off at 6, and we were both sleeping very deeply at that point, and I was hoping maybe there would be nothing happening. But Dave went out on the veranda and could see a whole bunch of ships waiting to enter the locks. I went out and got to see a pilot come on board. It costs a lot of money to go through the locks, based on gross tonnage, whether or not you have a reservation, and whether you cross during the day or at night. We had a reservation, of course, so we got right into the locks. The ship ahead of us was a smaller ship, the Sea Train, and it shared its space with a tugboat and three sailboats.

Our ship is 104 feet across, and the locks are 110 feet wide. The ship is attached to 4 electric locomotives (called mules), 2 lines on each. The ship moves under its own power; the mules are there to keep it centered in the lock. The transit of the three locks that take you from sea level to Lake Gatun at  26 meters (about 86 feet) above sea level takes about 2 hours; ours was a little slow because of the 5 boats in the lock ahead of us. The sailboats had real people – 2 on each side for all three boats – walking along to keep them centered. So you can imagine the speed of things.

I’ve been through locks before, on the Gothenberg canal, but those were small. These are big, and the ships that go through them are really big. From sea level you can see the ship at Gatun Lake-level in the highest lock; there’s something deeply weird about seeing a huge cargo ship floating up that high above you.

So we dressed quickly and headed out to the foreward deck on our level, which up until now has been secret but had big signs pointing it out this morning. The sun wasn’t up, but it was light out. We got excellent spots on the rail in the center and settled in for the transit. For future reference you should bring a water bottle and your sunglasses, because you’re going to be in this spot for a while. They open the front deck of the ship on level 4 for this, and we could see them setting up the drinks and putting out the “panama rolls”, a special pastry of slightly sweet brioche dough filled with fruit. If you happen to transit the Suez canal on a HAL ship, they are called “Suez rolls” there.

Going through the locks is both exciting and boring; nothing happens very quickly but things keep happening all the time. The lock gates are the original ones from 1914, built in Pittsburg. The gates take about 2 minutes to open or close, and the lock fills in about 10 minutes. Meanwhile the mules are keeping the ship centered in the locks and of course ships are going by in the other direction so you have to do a lot of waving (You’re on a boat! I see you! We’re on a boat! You see us!). The mules have one way radios so the lock pilots can talk to them from the bridge, but they can’t talk back (what? Why? They cost over a million dollars each, could they not have sprung for a 2-way radio?) so you hear them using their bells to communicate with the ships – it’s very quaint sounding. Later on we discovered that it's even lower tech than that – there’s a bell and striker on the outside, and the driver seems to have a foot pedal to move the striker. Another detail is that the gates don’t close perfectly until the water pressure seals them shut, so we can watch the level come down in the lock in front of us once it’s about 2/3 empty.

We were fortunate that it was cloudy for most of the time, and even sprinkled a little on us once. We stayed in position on 6-forward until we got into the 3^rd lock, and then walked around the ship to get a panama roll and see the lock from different perspectives. We ended up back on level 6 in front to watch the double locks open and the mules let us go to head into Lake Gatun, which was formed by damming the Chagres River (one of the most violent rivers in the world, Ryan our cruise director keeps saying, meaning that it would rise and fall 20-40 feet when it rained). It’s peaceful and beautiful, with lush tropical vegetation all around, and surprisingly empty given the number of ships waiting to cross. For this part of the morning we grabbed a little extra breakfast and I settled in on the back Lido deck to get caught up on some blogging and watch the world go by while Dave tirelessly prowled the ship. A big bonus of staying put was that they came by with watermelon shooters, aka chilled watermelon soup, which I snagged two of and enjoyed very much.

Eventually I was done writing and joined Dave in his prowling. We spent a little time walking and realized it could be lunch time. He stopped at the taco bar and I got a salad in the lido, and I found two chairs (no table) in our favorite corner of the Lido, where we ate. Eventually a table opened up and we sat there until it was time to go forward for the Miraflores lock, a single lock. We watched us pull in from 6-forward and then tried to race to the back to see the gate close, but just missed it even doing our best race-walking. They always send someone to walk across the closed gate, and he was just going. We were surprised at how quickly they started draining – basically the gate closes and the water starts going out right away. The Gatun locks have extra drains on the sides; in the Pacific side locks there are only drains on the bottom, and indentations along the sides that look like ships could tie up to them.  It’s very odd to be in low the back of the ship (we were on deck 2) looking at the walls, complete with colored paint scrap marks and several cracks with water coming out of them. My guest services line friends Prem and Aphreen were there too.

Longtime blog readers might remember reading about our solar eclipses on board, which it turns out have a similar rhythm to canal cruising. Everyone is on deck for first contact – when the moon’s shadow first touches the sun. That’s like the first lock. Everybody stays on deck through totality – the Gatun locks. And then people slowly drift away. The number of people on deck for the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks was definitely smaller, and we spent most of the time down on deck 2 aft because it’s shady – it was HOT in the sun, uncomfortably so. We did go forward to watch the men in the rowboats try to throw the ropes to the ship, but we were on 6-forward and the ship curves out. Deck 3 would be better, or maybe deck 2 aft.

So what’s weird is that you get to the ends of the locks – both the Caribbean and Pacific sides – and there are lots and lots of ships lined up waiting to get in. But while we were in the canal we saw maybe 10 ships, and there were no ships in the Pacific-side locks with us in either direction. Ryan says it averages about 38 ships per day – were not sure if that’s each direction or total. Either way, it seemed very not busy to us. Also, like last contact on eclipse day (when the sun completely comes out of the moon’s shadow) by the last lock most of the ship has gone on to other things. Dave even went and took a shower before we crossed under the Bridge of the Americas. I was in the Ocean Bar writing – I’m not sure I’m going outside again for the rest of the trip. I can confidently say that the unleaded margarita, light on the syrup, is the perfect post-canal drink.

So here we are magically in the Pacific Ocean. Our next stop is in Costa Rica, so we have another day and a half at sea to recover from today’s excitement. What a great experience! I’m going to post this now, and I’m sure I’ll have more reflections later.