Panama Canal transit

6 March 2010 - Panama Canal Cruise - Island Princess
We woke up at 6am today to witness our approach to the Locks. It was plenty light enough outside by the time we finished breakfast. We were transiting the locks from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.
We soon discovered that the entire bow of the ship was filled with passengers - seems like the ship would've tipped over forward! We decided to watch the approach from our stateroom balcony, which had a fine view! Well, Jim did, anyway.
Tricia & I headed to the aft of the ship to watch from the decks back there. There were only a few people, so not bad crowds. Plenty of elbow room.
We traversed through the two Miraflores locks that raise you 27 feet each. Then we traveled through Miraflores Lake for a little while. Then locked through the Pedro Miguel lock which raised us another 31 feet. So we were 85 feet higher there in the middle for most of the day.

We passed through Culebra Cut, which is about 9 miles long, and the biggest challenge building the locks. It's an amazing feat of engineering genius that went into building these locks 100 years ago. Someone seems to have really planned ahead. The big ships today - although not all fit anymore - still are able to pass through the locks.
It was, as we expected, extremely hot standing out there today. Sweat just rolls off you - and no one likes a smelly, sweaty monkey!!! We got a break in the action where we went for a nice swim. The indoor pool is really nice an relaxing - it has a Polynesian design. I think Jim likes it most because that's where the ice cream bar was...
In the afternoon, we entered Gatun Lake, which is the biggest water reservoir for the lock operation. It's huge, even though it's a man-made lake. Fortunately, this area gets a lot of rain to keep it topped off.
The last leg of the journey took us through the Gatun Locks, which have three steps back down the 85 feet to sea level. We watched, comfortably, from our balcony.
We got to witness a lot of other activity, as other ships locked through, and we watched the 'mules' pull us through. It's truly amazing how quickly the locks fill with water once the doors are closed. Only took about 6 minutes in the Miraflores Locks!
We had an onboard lecturer, who helped us really appreciate what we were seeing. The size of the locks was designed to accommodate the greatest sized war ships envisaged before WWI. Amazing! Some fun facts:

• The Panama Canal saves 7,800 miles for ships that need to pass from the Atlantic to Pacific or other way round
• The Bridge of the Americas - bridge that connects North America to South America - has 201 ft. of clearance at high tide
• Max ship size that can go through the locks is 964 ft long, 39 1/2 feet deep, and 106 ft. wide. Our ship pretty much met those specs - it was built specifically to travel through the locks. It's REALLY long! Takes about 10 minutes to walk from the stern to the bow. We learned our clearance was 24" on either side. Could've fooled me - it looked like the ship's walls were right against the lock walls.
• New locks are being built - they'll take ships 1200 ft. long, 160 ft. wide, and 50 ft. deep. These will open in 2014
• The fees were a really interesting fact. It's NOT CHEAP to go through the Panama Canal. Our ship's transit fee was about $288,500.00 plus the cost of tugs, so it ended up costing ~$340K!!! And they only take CASH! Can you imagine that wad! And the security - WOW!