At the Pedro Miguel Locks we were still right behind our friends in the USS NoInternet. Behind us the line of container ships stretched around the corner of the canal.

At the Pedro Miguel Locks we were still right behind our friends in the USS NoInternet. Behind us the line of container ships stretched around the corner of the canal.

The middle part of the trip across Panama is mostly take up by sailing through Lake Gatun and then the canal cut as it you pass thru the continental divide and then pull up the the first of the two lock systems, Pedro Miguel Locks, that lower the ship to the level of the Pacific Ocean.

One thing that Beci and I both found very cool was the reaction of the Panamanian people along the shore. The first picture here shows a marine fuel station, and all the people out to look at the Magic sail by. Remember, that these people see 40 ships every day, and every cruise ship that goes back and forth thru the locks, but the Magic is different, and they all came out to see the ship. Just a bit past the fuel station we passed the river that flows into the lake right where the canal starts. The constant flow of fresh water is the engine that fuels the canal. every ship takes a lot of water to raise it up to lake level, and a lot to let it back down to ocean level. None of that water is pumped, it’s all done by gravity feed from the lake. 40 times per day the lake is drained just a bit, and without the constant rains of Panama’s rain forest the canal would cease functioning.

All the way thru the cut, we were shepherded by a tug boat. In this shot you can see a pilot boat bringing us some of the workers who handle the lines as we go thru the locks.  Behind that is a ship, the Genco Warrior, moored safely out of our way. Nobody is allowed to pass a ship as large as the Magic while we’re in the cut.

As we pull up to the Pedro Miguel locks there is a lot of heavy construction off to our right. This will be the new channel for the new larger locks at this point. You can also see a large arrow in the second picture. This is used to tell the incoming ship which of the two chambers to use in the locks. With radio traffic, it’s just a backup now, but at one point it was main method of communication between the locks and incoming ships.

The final picture in this series shows one of the Mitsubishi traction engines with it’s cables attached to the ship.

The middle part of the trip across Panama is mostly take up by sailing through Lake Gatun and then the canal cut as it you pass thru the continental divide and then pull up the the first of the two lock systems, Pedro Miguel Locks, that lower the ship to the level of the Pacific Ocean. < more... >

The first part of the journey is to leave the saltwater on the Atlantic side of the canal. To do that we have to slide our 970+ foot x106 foot ship into a space 1000 feet by 110 feet. The Magic is a “Panamax” ship. It is the maximum length and width for any ship passing thru the canal. We had multiple tug boats escort us into and out of every lock.

Below we have one of our tug escorts, and shots from both port and starboard showing just how close we came to the sides of each lock. Note on the third picture the gigantic rubber bumper wheels at the corner of the lock entry. Several times we came into contact with those wheels.

To guide us thru the locks we had the further assistance of eight Mitsubishi electric traction engines with gigantic winches on the side. Each train, four on each side of the ship, controls two steel cables attached to the ship. The canal pilot instructs each of the eight train operators to adjust the 16 lines, keeping the ship centered in the lock. The train operators respond to each instruction by ringing their bell to let the pilot know that they have received the command. The ship powers itself into the lock, but the trains help to stop it when it gets in. Below you see one of the engines on a roundabout, followed by a shot of the Disney photographers who transited the canal on foot and in cars to get photos from outside of the ship, and another shot of the process from Deck 4, starboard.

As you can see below, the port side of deck 4 was almost empty, and even on the “crowded” starboard side it was easy to find a space. The White building behind Beci is the Gatun Locks control center.

We were the second ship thru the locks in the morning, behind the Nuclear Submarine. Behind us there was a long line of container ships waiting for their turn. About 40 ships make the crossing every day, at a cost of between $75,000 and $400,000. Cruise ships are at the expensive end of that scale, and we were right at the top – $400K – or in the range of $200 per person.

The first part of the journey is to leave the saltwater on the Atlantic side of the canal. To do that we have to slide our 970+ foot x106 foot ship into a space 1000 feet by 110 feet. The Magic is a “Panamax” ship. It is the maximum length and width for any ship passing thru the canal. < more... >

Let me take a moment to apologize for two things. First, the delay in getting this posted, which was caused by an Internet outage on the ship followed by some insane technical problems on my laptop. Second, the fact that some of the web cams were out during our transit. It seems that when a Los Angeles class nuclear submarine is the ship right in front of you odd things happen, like web cams getting turned off, and interned connections shut down. The technical problems were just my own fault.

So without further ado, the pictures from our transit morning:

We got up early and took a few snaps before we pulled up anchor. We have a shot of the refueling barge, a shot of our friendly Los Angeles Class nuclear buddy, and the city of Colon which guards the entry to the Canal.

I popped up on deck to see what it was like, and insane is a good description. I must say that while some people were very willing to let you jump into “their spot” for a moment an take a few snaps, others were very ill-disposed to help out their fellow humans. I found that deck 4 was much more hospitable than the semi vicious throng on 10 forward. Beci avoided all of the crowd problems by putting her feet up and relaxing on our veranda.

The Panamanians have recently restarted work that the United States began in the late 30’s and stopped because of the start of World War II. The first picture below is the entry to the new locks, which are under construction, and will eventually take a ship that is 50 feet wider, and 400 (or 600, can’t remember which) feet longer than the current locks. Cross your fingers for the next two Disney ships.

Let me take a moment to apologize for two things. First, the delay in getting this posted, which was caused by an Internet outage on the ship followed by some insane technical problems on my laptop. Second, the fact that some of the web cams were out during our transit. < more... >