Transit the Panama Canal.

Tweet

Our original itinerary we were supposed to calling into Curacao but with the invasion of Venezuela imminent the itinerary changed. Because of Maritime law we had to call into a port outside the North American coast to be allowed into the USA so we went to Cartagena in Colombia for a two hour stop despite no passengers were allowed to leave the ship. That was ok but disappointing we could not get off as it is a beautiful city but very hot in fact it was sweltering while we were there. We then headed towards the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is a man-made structure that cuts through Panama 51 miles long. Before it was built ships used to have to go around the Cape Horn which was quite treacherous & added several weeks to a journey not to mention having to pass the hazardous Drakes Passage, Straits of Magellan & the Beagle Channel. France started to build the Canal in 1881 but due to engineering problems & the high mortality rate of the workers stopped in 1889 after 22,000 workers died through accidents or after catching Tropical diseases such as Malaria & Yellow Fever or being bitten by venomous snakes. In 1904 the USA started to build the Canal finishing 10 years later. The canal opened in 1914. The manmade Gatun Lakes were formed to help conserve water. There are three sets of locks Starting at the Atlantic/Carribean side The Gatun Locks raise the ship from sea level up to the Gatun Lakes 85 feet above sea level. This took roughly three hours to pass from the Caribbean to the Gatun Lake. The ship carried on through the Gatun Lakes to the next set of locks which help lower ships, called the Miraflores locks (& New Cocoli Locks for Panamax ships opened in 2016) finally San Pedro locks. Carrying on through the canal we sailed under the Bridge of the Americas to the Pacific Ocean. Queen Mary 2. History in the making! Captain Hall has been planning this cruise for over 4 years with the authorities as Queen Mary 2 was deemed too big to traverse the Panama Canal. It is not so much a problem since the Cocoli Canal opened in 2016 but the problem was passing under the Bridge of the Americas as the ship is too high. We had to spend a night on the Miraflores Lake waiting for the tide as there is only a short window to pass safely under the bridge. Many of us were standing on the top deck to watch us pass under it & we lived to see another day! Usually it takes 12 hours to sail through the Panama Canal but as we had to wait for the tide on the Pacific side to be able to pass under the Bridge of The Americas it took us 2 days to pass through from the Caribbean Sea on the Atlantic side to the Pacific Ocean.