Transit of the Panama Canal

Panama Canal - April 10, 2014

Before entering the locks, we passed under the Bridge of the Americas. Until 2004, it was the only non-swinging bridge connecting North and South America.

As we approached the Panama Canal at daybreak, we received the following alert from the officers: "The heat and humidity could be intense today. Take caution, avoid strenuous exercise and drink plenty of liquids." Since our most strenuous activity will be releasing the shutters on our cameras, we should be OK!

The Panama Canal is a 50 mile canal that cuts across the Isthmus of Panama to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It officially opened on August 15, 1914 and will celebrate 100 years of operation this summer.

That orange and green arrow situated between the locks indicates that Queen Victoria will be transiting these locks in the right lane.

Queen Victoria is a Panamax ship, which means that she was specially designed to fit through the canal's two existing channels. The  locks will accommodate ships no larger than 965 ft long and 106 ft wide. A third lane of locks is now under construction that will accommodate much larger ships.

The following photo is one that daughter Courtney emailed to us from the canal's webcam site and shows us coming into the first lock in real time. Not much room to spare!! (We only hit the wall a few times!)

Tight squeeze.....

....so tight that the stowage position of the ship's tenders had to be adjusted to slightly reduce the width of the ship.

The Panama Canal is one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. Loss of life was huge, primarily due to malaria and yellow fever. It is estimated that every mile of the canal cost 500 lives.

The transit will take our ship an entire day.

Lots of people came out to watch us transit the canal....

Although animals were never used to pull ships through the Panama Canal, the sturdy vehicles...shown below... that keep the ship aligned are still referred to as "mules."

Approximately 52 million gallons of water were spilled into the sea to move Queen Victoria through the locks. We were told that the amount of water consumed in the operation of the Panama Canal in one day would supply the city of Boston for two weeks.

And now we're in the Atlantic and on our way home!!