Crossing the Panama Canal

Crossing the mighty Panama Canal that connects the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans was one of my dreams just like many out there and in February 2020 I had this exciting opportunity to fulfil it. We started off from Trinidad, sailed through the Atlantic to the Caribbean sea and then crossed the canal to reach the Pacific ocean. This 85km long manmade waterway was one of the most challenging engineering projects in the whole world. It is believed that almost 5600 people lost their lives while achieving this monumental accomplishment. France started the construction, however United States took over and completed the task. I am not going into the details, please check the links at the end for the history of the construction.

Although any ship can travel through this waterway, but they just cannot cross the canal whenever they desire. The crossings are done on schedules and each ship has to wait for their turn. We took almost 10hrs to accomplish this elating mission.

There are mainly 3 locks and two lakes and manmade waterways in between the two mighty oceans.

1. Gatun Lock, near the Atlantic

2. Pedro Miguel Lock, near the Pacific

3. Miraflores Lock, near the Pacific

Our ship Seabed Constructor sailed through the Caribbean sea and reached Limon bay near the Gatun lock in the evening. A large body of water called Gatun lake occurs after the Gatun lock. The Gatun lake is approximately 26m above the mean sea level and the three chambers of the Gatun lock will lift the ship step by step to the Gatun lake water level. Each chamber is 304.8 m long and 33.5 m wide and it takes approximately 8 minutes to fill the chamber. The ship was attached to mules (which looks like locomotive engines) by steel ropes and the mules guide the ships along the canal. There were two in the front and two at the back on, each side. This is to ensure that ships will bepositioned centrally within the canal and prevent any collision damages to either the ship or the canal.

We travelled through the Gatun lake, cruised around the Barro Colorado island and reached Charges river. It was almost midnight when we reached the locks near the Pacific side, sailing through a narrow manmade waterway. First one to cross was Pedro Miguel lock, which has only one chamber. The Pedro Miguel lock lowers the ship down 9m, to the water level of Miraflores lake that occurs between Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks. The Miraflores lock exist after a 2km voyage and the two chambers of the lock will lower the ships 16m to the mean sea level. Then we sailed to Panama bay and to the Pacific.

Sorry for the shake in the videos, as they are shot hand held.