Panama Canal gets bigger…..

I was reading an article about the Panama Canal that I found really interesting.  I have to be honest it’s not a place that I have had the urge to visit but I must admit I think it would be amazing to sail down the canal on a large cruise ship.

The Panama Canal celebrates its centenary this year.   The Government of Panama are investing at least £4 billion to expand the canal.   There will be two new sets of locks – eight at the Atlantic entrance to the waterway alongside the Gatun Locks and eight at the Pacific inlet adjacent to the Miraflores Locks.  This new single-lane of locks will be 65% larger than the current chambers and will double the canal’s capacity by allowing for the transit of larger and wider vessels.

At the moment workers are working around the clock pouring tens of thousands of cubic feet of concrete into the three-step lock chambers and the most powerful dredging equipment in the world is deepening the waterway’s entrances.  Huge excavators are creating nearly five miles of access channels that will join the new locks with existing shipping lanes.

The length of the canal from Limon Bay to the Bay pf Panama is 48 miles, with 14,000 number of vessels passing through the canal each year. 

So how do these big cruise ships sail down the Panama?  The pictures do look amazing, but it must be more prominent when you are actually witnessing it for yourself.  I found this when I sailed into Venice, what a truly wonderful experience and difficult to put it in words, you must see it to understand the feeling and emotion you get .  Apparently the Panama Canal is the same.  Pilots will come on board the ship to supervise the navigation, at this stage you will find that passengers are making their way to outside viewing areas to have prime viewing position for the entry into the first of the three locks.  22 million gallons of water will flood the lock in less than 10 minutes without the need for pumps or any  mechanical aid.  It takes around an hour for the ships to be raised through the locks before arriving into Gatun lake where you sail between luxuriant island and rainforest national parks.  You also sail past the infamous El Ranacer prison, where ex-president Manuel Noriega is held after being convicted of drug trafficking and murder.  Cartagena is a port that is a must to visit, the old walled city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there is a museum filled with reproductions of the torture implements used during the Spanish Inquisition.  Some ships will only complete a partial transit, but I do think it would be a shame not to complete the whole canal. 

Of course this expansion will have a huge impact on the local economy, and the ports are ready to handle an influx of passengers. 

A good time to sail the Panama is between September and April, some ships will go through to May and June, but with very high tempretures it is better to avoid the summer months!