We were so fascinated by the Panama Canal transit, that we booked a tour to go back and experience another transit: the old lock with a ferry boat, that gives you a more direct, hands-on view of how things are done to get those ships over the mountain range.

The new locks, operating since 2016, have double sliding doors, which use less water than the old hinged gates. Each time those old gates are opened, 52 million gallons of fresh water from Gatun Lake are washed into the ocean. The new locks recycle 60% of the water, collecting it in 46×46 meter basins. And what fascinates me most: all water movements are done without any electricity, without pumps, but plain gravity! The only electric part of the canal is the movement of the gates!

In case you wonder about how much a transition through the Panama Canal cost: here are the numbers – and please sit down first: the amount a ship has to pay depends on the size of it of course, but also on how many containers it has loaded or, for a cruise ship, how many occupied cabins it has. In our case, the Norwegian Bliss has to pay $480.000 for the transit! A cargo ship with 15.000 containers on board has to pay ~$1million! And that is roughly 1/3 of the cost of sailing around South America, not included the extra 3-4 weeks time and the danger to sail around Cape Horn! So if you do the math and think about 35-40 ships going through each day, 7 days a week, year round, you’ll end up with quite a nice amount of $$$ in your bank. But of course the maintenance of those locks, the administration cost, logistics, etc. eats up a big portion of your income. It takes 150 people to make the transit of a ship possible.

One more fact: Gatun Lake, the man made lake 26 meters above the ocean level, took 3.5 years to fill with water from the river and rain. It rains 8 months of the year, so that is a significant amount of water.

When we transitioned through the old locks today, we and another little ferry boat were lucky to be bundled together with a tanker from Singapore, that barely fit inside the lock! There was about 1 – 1.5 ft space on each side! So they better make sure that the ships are transitioning through without damage. And that is not as easy as it sounds: the movement of the ship due to water and wind is significant, considering the size of it! That’s why those big ships are guided by locomotives on each side of the lock. They strap the ship in between them to make sure no damage will occur. Because Panama Canal Company is responsible for damages that would happen during transition!

And here we are: the Panama Canal, the worlds greatest shortcut! The passage is approximately 80 km long. It is the transition between the Atlantic in the north and the Pacific in the south and named one of the seven wonders of the modern world!

History

The idea of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific originated from the 16th century when the Spanish arrived at the Isthmus, the narrowest point where North and South America meet. In 1880 the French tried the connection, but failed: financial difficulties and tropical diseases made it impossible.

When Panama consolidated its independence in 1903, it agreed with the USA to build the canal which was finished in 1914 and administered until 1999.

Between 2007 and 2016 the canal was expanded to double its capacity. A third lane was added to accommodate larger ships (and they are already talking about another expansion because there are 160 ships who wouldn’t fit through this needlehole)

Challenges

Because of a mountain range between the two oceans, it was difficult to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific. Creating a man made lake was the solution. That lake is called Gatun Lake. But the water surface is 27 meters higher than the sea level, so what to do? The engineers built locks, three on each end, to lift the ships up to the Gatun Lake surface and at the other end, 27 meters down to the ocean level again.

The extension was built as a green construction with sustainable construction: instead of wasting 52 million gallons of water with each transition, they save / reuse 60% of the water now!

Interesting Facts

• The 1 millionth ship transitioned in 2010
• The shortest transition time was 2h 41 min – 1979, a hydrofoil from the US Navy
• Most of the ships going south to north through the canal deliver merchandise from Asia to the eastern United States, and vice versa, ships going north to south deliver LNG (liquid natural gas) from the US to Asia.
• Since 1968 the Panama Canal operates 24h daily.
• The Panama government is not in charge of the canal. It gets the surplus at the end of the day, but the Panama constitution protects the canal being influenced (or taken over) by the government.
• There are many tugboats moving around those locks, helping those ships to maneuver through the transition. They don’t pull or push, they just guide. One tugboat is on each end of each ship inside the locks. Price tag of 1 tugboat: $11,000,000 (yes, $11 million!) Panama Canal Operation bought 14 of those tugboats when opening the new addition in 2016. According to our captain, “the only thing those tugboats cannot do is fly”!