Drought restrictions

[Petronillus]

I have been reading reports that El Nino has caused a prolonged drought in Panama and that the water level in Gatun Lake has fallen materially. As a result, I understand, the Canal Authority has lowered load limits on some ships and is reducing the number of ships allowed to transit the Canal per day. How if at all is this going to affect cruises into and through the Canal? I would imagine priority would go first to military vessels, second to commercial vessels, and last to cruise ships and other pleasure craft. Does anyone here on CC have the inside scoop?

[CruiserBruce]

Did you look down the board to this thread:

 

 

[BillB48]

7 hours ago, Petronillus said:

I have been reading reports that El Nino has caused a prolonged drought in Panama and that the water level in Gatun Lake has fallen materially. As a result, I understand, the Canal Authority has lowered load limits on some ships and is reducing the number of ships allowed to transit the Canal per day. How if at all is this going to affect cruises into and through the Canal? I would imagine priority would go first to military vessels, second to commercial vessels, and last to cruise ships and other pleasure craft. Does anyone here on CC have the inside scoop?

 

Won't say I have any inside scoop, but I am somewhat in the loop.  As far as pleasure craft I hardly think there will be any impact on pleasure craft since the new measures don't apply until the vessel is over 125'.  Anyone with a yacht over 125' will not have any problem digging down a little deeper!😉  The Canal tolls for yachts is shall we say are rather aggressive that discourages recreational use.  As far as military vessels are concerned their numbers in Canal transits are almost an asterisk and really don't have a significant impact.  Commercial vessels on the other hand have had the number of transit booking slots reduced a little.  These are "reservations" for a transit on a particular day,  just about all cruise ships and many of the large container vessels use this system heavily due to the fact that they are operating on a posted schedule.  AFAIK the restrictions will only apply to reservations made after February.  

 

I touched on the draft issue in the thread that Bruce linked to.  Presently the draft limit for ships using the original locks is presently at the maximum draft of 39'06", which is the normal maximum permitted draft.  So there have not been any drop in the draft limit for the original locks yet.  The maximum draft for ships using the new locks was 50'.  Let me add that the 50' limit has only been permitted one time since the new locks opened and it was for such a short period of time I don't think any ship was able to take advantage of it.  The present draft limit for ships using the new locks is 46', which has been in effect since September.

 

Just to give you an idea of the levels of Gatun Lake in round numbers... Max elevation 88' above sea level.  The lowest lake level in recent times was 77' back in 2016 (I think).  Present lake level, just a smidge under 84'.