The Panama Canal

“The Panama Canal is a big canal.” (this is Marques’ contribution to the blog). 

A Brief History of the Panama Canal

In 1879, Colombia, which controlled the state of Panama, granted a French company the rights to construct and control the canal for a period of 99 years, when afterwards, it was to be reverted back to the Republic of Colombia.  Due to harsh working conditions, tropical disease, and financial ruin, the French did not succeed, and lost a staggering 20,000 lives.  The French sold their equipment and the rights to the Canal to the United States.  Colombia, unhappy about the sale, demanded the United States pay more for the property, and a higher percentage of their earnings.  At the same time, the state of Panama wanted to secede from Colombia.  With the backing of the United States, the seccesion was an easy feat, and Panama gained their independence in 1903.  Soon after, Panama and the United States signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, giving the US total rights to the construction and control of the canal.  In 1914, with the help of 750,000 laborers, and $400 million, the Panama Canal finally opened.  Under the treaty, the US transferred ownership and control back to the Panamanian government on December 31^st, 1999.

The Panama Canal

On May 2^nd, two days earlier than expected, we began our trek across the Panama Canal.  It was to take two days, going through 6 different locks: 3 the first day, and 3 the second, while overnighting on Gatun Lake.

Before we entered we were joined with our Pilot for the day, Dean, who was an old American man, and has lived in Panama for the last 40 years.  He is the second longest working pilot on the Panama Canal.  He was quite the character, and incredibly knowledgeable and helpful to Marques.  Not a second was wasted once Mr. Dean got onboard, and promptly at 5:00PM we headed towards our first lock.  

Marques, Dean and Ben 

Our Pilot Dean

As we approached the first lock, a dilapidated mono-haul filled with a handful of equally dilapidated shirtless Frenchmen, tied to our port side.  Small boats are often rafted together through the locks.  We felt lucky that we did not have a boat on both sides of us.  We entered behind the M/Y Afric Star, a huge “reefer ship” (refrigerated ship) which was empty, but planning to take a ship full of bananas to Russia.

The Frenchman

The Afric Star

The massive locks are 110ft wide, 1000 ft long, and are made of concrete.   As we entered the lock, we were greeted by two linemen on either side of the lock.  Each linemen threw us a rope, which we tied to our own ropes, one on either side of the bow, and one on either side of the stern.  They walked alongside us as we crept up to our position, then pulled our lines up with their rope, and looped it onto a cleat.  

The lineman pulling our line up to the cleat

The Linemen walking along the boat

An alarm was sound, and the gigantic steel doors closed the waters of the Caribbean behind us. 

The first three locks, called the Gatun Locks, were raising us up three levels and a total of 84 ft. So as the water filled below us, it was my job to pull any slack in as the boat was being raised.  There was an immense amount of tension on those lines.  I kept imagining what we would do if one of those lines snapped…we would have crushed the Frenchman for sure.  As we were being raised we enjoyed the view of the massive ships that were going to enter the lock behind us.  Then, another alarm was sound, and the doors opened in front of us to the next lock.

The linemen untied the loop, and walked alongside us to the next lock.  We repeated this process two more times, and once the third door opened, we set the Frenchmen free, and made our way into the crocodile infested waters of Gatun Lake, where we were to anchor overnight.

Captain Marques at the helm

Gatun Lake, our anchorage for the night.

The next morning we were joined by a new pilot, a small Panamanian man named Manuel.  Manuel was not helpful in the slightest, leaving Marques to do everything himself.  He was thankful to have had Dean the first day.  Even without help, Marques handled everything flawlessly.  Off we went across Gatun Lake.  Gatun Lake is a man-made lake, covers an area of 116 nautical miles, and was created after building the Gatun Dam across the Chagres River.  At the time of its construction, Gatun Damn was the largest damn, Gatun Lake was the largest man-made lake, and the Gatun locks were the largest concrete structures in the entire world.

Our pilot Manuel

Gatun Lake

An island of Gatun Lake

Once we crossed the lake we entered the Gaillard Cut, a 7.4 nautical mile cut that lead to the next set of locks.  The Gaillard Cut is where most of the Panama Canal excavation took place, and it continues to be problematic.  Over the years there have been many landslides, and therefore, Panama has had to widen the cut quite often.  Surprisingly and impressively, the canal has been shut down only once, in 1915, due to a massive landslide.  Because of the cuts relative narrowness, Panama is working on widening the cut even more, and creating even larger locks to accommodate Panamax vessels, thus increasing the canals capacity and making even more money.  Our first pilot, Dean, told us the canal rakes in over $100 million a day!  The Panamax project is estimated to cost $6 billion.

Where the Chagres River flows into Galliard Cut

The bridge to signify the Continental Divide

Before we reached the Pedro Miguel Lock, our first lock of the day, we were joined, once again, by our favorite Frenchmen, who had requested they transit the last set of locks with us.  The procedure for these last three locks were the same as before, with the main difference being we were dropping levels, and therefor, had to let the lines out, rather than pull them in.  It was a small crossing over Miraflores Lake, and then we entered the remaining two locks, the Miraflores locks. 

Entering San Miguel Lock

Miraflores Lake in the distance

A Tourist Watchtower

Rather than linemen, these railcars are what's used to pull and control the cargo ships through the Canal.

It was a pretty spectacular feeling once the gates opened to the Pacific.  Marques immediately handed me the helm, so that I was the first person to captain the boat in the Pacific Ocean!

The view of Panama City as we entered into the Pacific Ocean