World Trip – Stage 51, Panama Canal

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23 July 2023

A 9.30 morning rendezvous saw us get up early, after a bad night, both of us suffering from food poisoning in David. A slow walk towards the American Trading Hotel, with a stop off for a morning coffee and breakfast bun for Peter and a simple croissant for Lynne. Our first, careful meal since breakfast the day before.

A minibus picked us up with a number of Australians and Americans, dropping us off after 45 minutes at Gamboa, approximately half way of the inter-oceanic route. We were to board the Pacific Queen, a 36m boat, built in Norway in 1970, named Hansaline. In 1989 it was sold to a German shipping company to work the Baltic, and then to Panama in 2003. 

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She set sail, figuratively speaking, fully laden with tourists, about 200 of us – many jostling for seats in the shade, with a view. As we made good speed, everybody moved around, losing any sense of order. We soon settled down into a pattern of groups talking loudly, individuals trying to sleep, children running around frantically, fending off boredom.

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A couple of hours into our journey, we were offered a cooked lunch – we decided not to indulge, except for having a cookie, offered as dessert. Coca Cola was free, and Lynne gratefully had a small beaker or two, to settle her stomach. Shockingly, for Peter, coffee was not offered.

A guide held an ongoing commentary in both Spanish and English, covering all aspects of the canal. Though the loudspeakers were good, it was still a challenge to hear what he was telling us due to the excited passenger hubbub.

In no time, we found ourselves at the first Pacific side lock, Pedro Miguel. This is the lock limiting the width of all shipping passing through the canal. Originally intended to be 100 foot wide (30m), the US Navy made a last minute demand to change the lock width, as they had just built a battleship that was 107 foot wide. The resulting width, 110ft – 33.53m, is called ‘Panamax’, which was surpassed in 2016 by a second parallel route called the ‘New Panamax’, one and a half times the old width.

The Pedro Miguel lock maximum water depth is 76ft-23m, with a length of 1,050ft-320m. It is incredible to think of the volume and weight of water entering and exiting at each passage. Opened in 1914, it remains one of the greatest engineering feats in modern history.

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Our little Pacific Queen was too small to operate the lock just for us, so we waited for a proper ship to enter, behind us. The Federal Izumi, is a Panamanian registered bulk carrier with deadweight tonnage of 63,454, length of 200m and width (beam) of 32.24m. That leaves only 0.64m space on each side! No margin for error!

The locks are too narrow and shallow for these big ships to use their own propulsion, so each ship is ‘tugged’ into the lock by two cog-wheel ‘Mules’ on each side. Two Mules are at the stern, to halt the ship, when properly in position. These Mule beasts are a marvel of engineering, apparently costing 16,000 USD back in 1913 – now costing nearly 2,000,000 USD.

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Touching on climate change, currently, there is a lack of rainfall, resulting in that the mid-lakes are shallower than normal. This reduces the draught of passing shipping, and thus the load they can carry.

We went through the next locks, the Miraflores, watched by a large crowd on land! Next, under the beautiful Bridge of the Americas, which we crossed the day before on the bus, past a rugged shoreline with crocodiles. Finally, after 6 hours we pulled into a marina on Flamenco Island, disembarked, and were driven back to near our hotel over the Amador causeway and the amazing Cinta Costera bypass.

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An interesting day, surrounded by a noisy crowd of mainly bored tourists, witnessing and travelling through one of the greatest human engineering feats.

Lynne performed her own amazing feat – surviving the day, after severe food poisoning. Helped, by establishing a strategic position in a relatively quiet air conditioned corner, with a good view of both the canal and the (wonderfully clean) toilets, and with room to lie down.