Look Who's in the Panama Canal today...

[ski ww]

Great pictures, seeing these always wants me to do another canal cruise.

[Essiesmom]

Nov. 26  Crystal Serenity on full transit westbound.  She has an awesome bridgecam, too bad it seldom updated.

 

Entering Gatun Locks

 

 

 

 

At Pedro Miguel Locks

 

 

At Miraflores

 

 

[Essiesmom]

Nov. 27  Coral Princess is doing a partial transit from the Pacific side.  She will go through the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks and continue on to Gatun Lake, where she will spend the night.  

Approaching and passing under the Bridge of the Americas:

 

 

 

Note the dividing channels here.  In the second pic you can clearly see down the Cocoli Locks to the left (port) with a ship in them:

 

 

 

Entering Miraflores

 

 

 

 

 

Entering Pedro Miguel

 

 

Return trip tomorrow.  EM

 

 

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for the pictures.

[Essiesmom]

Nov. 28, Coral Princess making her way back to the Pacific side.  Approaching and into Pedro Miguel Locks.  Sharing the voyage with a gray ship that AIS says is 'US Warship'.  No other identifiers.  

 

 

 

 

 

Now entering Miraflores Locks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Essiesmom]

Nov. 30  Viking Star and NCL Jade.  Star is drafting behind Jade at Gatun Locks.  She is on a full westbound transit; Jade is on a partial transit.

 

 

 

 

By the time she got to Miraflores, she had run out of sunshine

 

Jade

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading back out to Colon

 

 

[Essiesmom]

Dec. 1 NCL Sun and Zuiderdam both doing partial transits.  I missed Sun going in...she was into the third lock by 0730!  

 

 

Looking at entrance to Agua Clara locks with visitors center up on the hill

 

 

Going back out

 

 

Zuiderdam not quite so early...

 

 

Shots of Zuiderdam from NC:\L Sun bridgecam

 

 

 

 

 

Darn container ship getting in the way...NCL Sun in last lcok

 

[Essiesmom]

Dec. 2.  Norwegian Pearl Gatun Locks partial transit;  Black Watch (Fred Olsen) westbound on world cruise.

 

Approaching Atlantic Bridge; Agua Clara Locks (new) to port, Gatun Locks starboard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time to go back out to Colon

 

 

 

 

Black Watch

 

 

 

A view leaving Gatun Locks, courtesy of NCL Pearl

 

 

 

 

Weather deteriorated at dusk

 

[Essiesmom]

Two little girls in the canal today:  Windstar's Star Breeze, and Ponant's Le Champlain

 

 

 

Not the usual practice for the canal to put them side by side, but they did it again at Gatun.  And they have repositioned the came at Gatun: It's now looking straight at the third lock.

 

 

 

 

[puppycanducruise]

That was very interesting seeing those 'little' ships.

Thanks for posting.

[ski ww]

It's been awhile since I looked here, thanks for posting. 

[trbarton]

Thanks for taking time to post your photos. Any photos from the NEW locks?

 

Thanks!

 

Tom😀

[Essiesmom]

The only photos from the new locks come from the bridge cams of the ships.  If you scroll back through I think you may find some from Bliss and Caribbean Princess.  Go back one page to post #136 when Bliss transited eastbound last fall.  The Canal company had plenty of cams up during construction, but when the new locks were finished, the shut them all down.  The cams are still there, but not online.  EM

Edited February 28, 2019 by Essiesmom

[trbarton]

On 11/15/2018 at 6:01 AM, Essiesmom said:

On Tuesday we had two ships in the canal, NCL Bliss transiting through the new locks, and HAL Volendam in the original locks.  Both traveling eastbound.  This is kind of a mash-up of their transits.  First to enter a lock was Bliss, at the Cocoli Locks.  She has a very nice bridgecam, and notice how early those folks were to see this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, if anyone asks 'Can we see the old locks from the new ones?', it depends.  You probably can't see the locks themselves, but it you are up as high as the bidgecam on Bliss, you can see the ships in the Miraflores Locks.  In the next picture, about 2/3 of the way up the right side, you can see the Volendam in the Miraflores Locks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Volendam in the Miraflores Locks.  She paused nearly all the way up in the second lock to either take on some people, or take some off.  There did not appear to be an ambulance involved.  Then she removed the gangway, rose the rest of the way up, and carried on:

 

 

 

Again from Bliss you can see her continuing on toward the Pedro Migual Locks

 

 

 

 

 

 

And later in the Gatun Locks

 

 

Meanwhile, Bliss continues to the Agua Clara Locks on the Gatun Lake:

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, here their weather package 'cloudy but dry' apparently timed out...

 

 

 

And the last picture (finally, you say) has Bliss capturing Volendam in the upper left, having left the Gatun Locks:

 

 

 

Thanks for posting photos with the new locks. 

 

Tom😀

[Essiesmom]

I will treat you (?) to some as yet un-posted pictures of my transit last year on Carnival Splendor from Miami westbound to Long Beach.  This one is where the two channels divide, new locks to port, old locks starboard.

 

 

The Gatun (old) locks as seen from the new channel:

 

As opposed to the Agua Clara (new) locks:

 

 

 

 

When they were designing the new locks, they were not sure there would be enough water in Gatun Lake to service both sets of locks, as in the old locks, the lake water flows out into the ocean as the ships move through.  So they designed these basins so that the water could be re-used.  But it hasn't proved to be necessary,

 

 

In this picture and the one above, you can see the two gates that slide back into the banks, like pocket doors.  The gates are the brighter green.

 

 

 

The container ship has moved out of the third lock into Gatun Lake, and you can see the gate closing.

 

 

 

A view of the other side of the locks

 

 

A view off the back

 

 

Back in out cabin, the view from our bridgecam

 

 

We are not squeezed into the locks, as most cruise ships are in the old locks

 

 

 

 

I zoomed onto the observation deck at the visitors center...before the rains came

 

 

Gate closing behind us

 

 

The rains have come

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Essiesmom]

After you emerge into Gatun Lake, the transit is the same as for smaller ships, until you leave the channel for the Cocoli Locks.  Here we are approaching the Centennial Bridge, ging through the Culebra Cut and 'crossing' the Continental Divide

 

 

 

The channel divides, and you can see ships entering the Pedro Migual Locks to port.  Channel to Cocoli locks to starboard

 

 

 

 

A distant view of Miraflores Locks

 

 

 

Approaching Cocoli Locks

 

 

The gate is opening for us

 

The weather is getting a little better

 

 

Gates are closing for first lock

 

 

Now we are down and the gates are opening to let us into the second lock

 

 

Gates are opening to let us into the third lock, and we have sunshine!

 

We are in the third lock and the gates are closing

 

Now we are ready to leave the locks and head under the Bridge of the Americas and head out into the Pacific

 

 

EM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ski ww]

Thanks for posting, that's almost as good as doing it for real. 

[BillB48]

8 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

 

When they were designing the new locks, they were not sure there would be enough water in Gatun Lake to service both sets of locks, as in the old locks, the lake water flows out into the ocean as the ships move through.  So they designed these basins so that the water could be re-used.  But it hasn't proved to be necessary,

 

Looks like you were holding back a little... very nice collection of your transit. 

 

Thought I would add a little "inside baseball" on the water saving basins.  As one might expect the availability of fresh water is paramount for the operation of the Canal.  Since during the Dry Season the lack of rain over the Canal area directly impacts the draft that ships can have during their transit.  The maximum draft for ships using the original locks is 39' 6" and for ships using the new locks is 50'.  These higher draft limits can only be maintained while Gatun Lake is at higher levels.  Since water usage was already a concern during the Dry Season when only the original locks were being used, the new larger chambers of the expansion locks were going to increase the demand for water.  To minimize this increase in demand for water, water saving basins were built so the water for transiting ships could be reused before is was ultimately spilled to sea.  The use of the water saving basins at the new locks would mean that the new locks would only use slightly more water per lockage than the amount of water used for a lockage at the original locks.

 

The water saving basin are used, however during periods when Gatun Lake is high and there is ample rain, their use is only limited.  During periods when the Canal wants to maintain Gatun Lake at the highest possible levels in order to maintain draft limits, the water saving basins are used more.  Now the problem... with the increased usage of the water saving basins, there is a marked increase of salt intrusion into Gatun Lake.  There has been enough salt intrusion into Gatun Lake that there is concern that the lake could become brackish.  The most immediate problem here is that Gatun Lake is a major source of potable water for a large portion of the metropolitan areas of Panama and Colon.  In order to moderate the salt intrusion, water is flushed through the new locks.  This is effect just locking water through the locks without a ship.  As a result, the water saving basins are not actually saving as much water as was originally planned.  There are studies underway to identify methods to reduce the salt intrusion, but nothing has been identified as yet, AFAIK.

[ski ww]

Thanks for that bit of information, learn something new every day.

[puppycanducruise]

Thank you Essiesmom.

That was great.

[Essiesmom]

I characterize the difference between the two routes as:

Old locks is like driving down a street is a well established neighborhood with houses from the turn of the previous century

New locks is like driving through a brand new development.    EM

[Essiesmom]

On Feb. 28 we had Marco Polo, sailing for Cruise & Matitime

 

She got most of the way up in the second lock, and stopped.  there was some rocking movement, then nothing.  Then I realized that there were some people on the median:

 

 

 

Gangway out, stayed there about half an hour before they pulled it in, the people disappeared, she did her rocking movements again as they winched her back away from the wall, and off she went.  Of course, I would love to know what they were doing.  Couldn't be a medical emergency, as I don't think you can get a vehicle over there.  They would do an evac from the other side of the ship when in the far lane.    

 

[Essiesmom]

Today, March 1  Wind Star

 

 

Gatun

 

[BillB48]

3 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

Gangway out, stayed there about half an hour before they pulled it in, the people disappeared, she did her rocking movements again as they winched her back away from the wall, and off she went.  Of course, I would love to know what they were doing.  Couldn't be a medical emergency, as I don't think you can get a vehicle over there.  They would do an evac from the other side of the ship when in the far lane. 

 

Certainly not likely a medical evacuation, but it is possible depending the urgency.  More than likely people were place on board or taken off either for Canal convenience or at the request of the ship.  Once the access to the ship is at a favorable angle for the gangway the fill/spill is stopped for as long as needed to get those involved onboard or off.  If the gangway was not placed onboard for Canal convenience... the cost is $632!

[Essiesmom]

Charged to passenger's onboard account, I assume!  EM