January 18th was another big day, the day we crossed from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean via the storied Panama Canal. The length of the Panama Canal is approximately 51 miles. A trip along the canal from its Caribbean side takes you through a 7 mile dredged channel in Limón Bay. The canal then proceeds for a distance of 11.5 miles to the Gatun Locks. This series of three locks raise ships 26 metres to Gatun Lake. It continues south through a channel in Gatun Lake for 32 miles to Gamboa, where the Culebra Cut begins. This channel through the cut is 8 miles long and 150 metres wide. At the end of this cut are the locks at Pedro Miguel. The Pedro Miguel locks lower ships 9.4 metres to a lake which then takes you to the Miraflores Locks which lower ships 16 metres to sea level at the canal’s Pacific terminus in the bay of Panama. Note that ships are raised 26 meters to Gatun Lake and then lowered 26 meters to return to sea level. The elevated lake was created to enable ships to clear the height of land between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Much easier than carving a 26 m deep canal through the Isthmus of Panama!
Our passage through the canal was a full 10-hour day, beginning at sunrise. Our entire party was out on deck for the duration and I got my first picture just as the sun crested the horizon, a great kick-off to this adventure.
We entered the Gatun Locks with another cruise ship, the Zuiderdam in the canal beside us, but one lock behind. Following us through our same canal was a container ship, also one lock back.
My next shot was taken as we cleared the Gatun Locks, entering Gatun Lake. We’re putting some distance between us and our followers, still working their way through the locks.
The following three shots were taken as we travelled the Gatun Lake segment of the trip. The first was shot in the direction of the sun to capture the sun’s reflection in the lake. The latter two are simply ones that I like. The orangish colour of the water is not normal. Torrential rains in December caused a lot of soil to run off into the lake, leaving a huge amount of silt suspended in the water. The water is typically blue, not unlike what you would see in any lake.
I like the variation in luminosity across the above picture, the brilliance of the sun and its reflection on the left and the transition to the dark shadows on the right.
This shot, above also features a luminosity gradient and of course, I really like the interesting water colour.
This picture really isn’t about the ship. It’s about the way the shadows play on the water. That’s the way I see it!
Once we cleared the final set of locks, the Miraflores locks, we passed under the Bridge of the Americas and into the Gulf of Panama, our voyage through the Panama Canal completed.
From the Gulf of Panama we could see Panama City to the east. A little hazy, but still a very nice looking city. If you look carefully to the left of the photo you can see the Bridge of the Americas again.
I was very impressed by the volume of traffic through the Panama Canal. We saw a large number of ships in Gatun Lake, including the lineup awaiting their entry to the Gatun Locks eastbound. As we passed Panama City, I marvelled again at the number of ships queued to enter the Miraflores Locks from the Pacific, also eastbound. I took one last picture, a panorama in an effort to capture some of this lineup. That’s Panama City again, in the distance and to the left.
