After passing the locks at the Pacific end, we sailed for several hours in canals and through Gatun Lake to reach the Gatun locks.  This series of 3 locks took us down from 85 feet back to sea level, so we could so we could continue out to the Caribbean and Alantic Oceans.

This is the Titan crane, one of the largest floating cranes in the world.  There were 3 of these cranes built by Hitler's Germany.  The USA claimed this one as war booty.  The Brittish had one, but lost it at sea in the English Channel.  Russia got the other one, but no one knows its current status. This crane began service in Panama after serving 50 years in Long Beach, CA.  It is used to change the very heavy doors of the locks.  There is a lock door on the crane in this picture.  It was changed the day before this photo.

This is the Centennial Bridge.  It was built to share the traffic load with the Bridge of the Americas.  It was completed in 2004

A boat is towing a tree which apparently broke off and fell into the canal.

Gatun lake was created between 1907 and 1913 by damming the Chagris River.  Over half the distance to traverse the canal is through this lake.  The lake supplies all the water to operate the locks at both ends of the canal.

At the end of Gatun Lake, we approach the Gatun locks.  There are 3 locks here and they lower the ships all the way back to sea level.

In this day of high technology, it is still the most efficient to use a rowboat to transfer lines between the ships and the canal mules.

This is the Aurora.  It was making a half transit, departing from Ft. Lauderdale, passing through the Gatun locks and anchoring in Gatun Lake.  It then reversed course and headed back to Ft. Lauderdale. We were very fortunate to have this ship pass through the Gatun locks alongside us.  It made the passage very interesting to see the Aurora doing what we were just about to do.

The Aurora is in the parallel lock just alongside us.  We could call across and maybe even get an answer.

The Aurora's lock has lowered the ship.

The Aurora is leaving the final lock.

Here you can see just how tight a fit the ship is in the lock.

Canal Expansion

There are now many ships in the world which are too large to pass therough the Panama Canal.  Also, the sheer number of ships using the canal is causing backups and delays at some times.

To alliviate these problems, there is an expansion project underway.  The most major portion of the expansion is to build a parallel set of locks to the present ones.  These will be considerably larger and allow many additional ships to use the canal.  The new locks are being built basically on dry land, and then will have the channel cut through to them.  The new locks will be only one lane wide, which will mean that there will be 3 total lanes available.  Ships which fit the current locks will continue to use them.  Only the larger ships will use the new ones.  The new locks will be more efficient also.  There are large water containment basins being built which will allow using drain water from the upper locks to fill the lower locks.  These will save about 60% of the water.  The new locks will use a sliding door instead of the swingin ones.  This will allow a larger ship in the lock, as there is no need to avoid swinging doors.

In addition to the new channels and locks, there is additional work widening and straightening existing channels and makig the entire canal accomodate ships with deeper draft.

Completion of the canal expansion is scheduled to be in 2014, on the 100th anniversary of the canal.

We could see work underway on the expansion in a number of areas.

Here you can see the new channel on the right leading to the future new Gatun locks.