Wednesday 11th Mar 2020
The Panama Canal is an artificial 82 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade.
At a ridiculously early time we were rudely awoken by the Panama Canal transit commentary getting going on the open decks, must be the atmospherics making it extra loud today, or are we just too near the speaker on the deck below?
Very soon into the first lock to start our transit.
The three locks at each end of the canal lift ships up about 85 feet above sea level. The three locks use about 28 million gallons of water up and the same down at the other end. The canal authorities are restricting the number of ships to 35 per day to save water, as recent droughts are causing a shortage. The fees for the transit, plus charges for extras, vary depending on the vessel, our ship’s transit apparently costs about $300.00, the largest cruise ship passing through so far, The Norwegian Bliss, paid about $900,000. Fees payable before passage, don’t turn up unless you have the money! The canal’s revenue is currently around 18 billion dollars.
The transit taking about 8 hours, we spent a very pleasant sunny day watching the jungle go by, with lots of birds, a very few crocodiles and just one prison.
Plenty of colourful trees in amongst the green of the jungle. Onward to step down again to sea level. Very tight fit for our ship in the locks, the ship designed as what’s called panamax, there’s certainly not much space left over.
And so it’s out into the Caribbean sea, getting a bit too near home now we are back to the east of the Americas.
Tonight the first real consequence of the coronavirus which directly affects our cruise, we have been in this protective bubble, a strange limbo hearing the news of the pandemic without it feeling real somehow. Tomorrows call at Cartagena, Colombia cancelled as they have decided not to allow any cruise ships to dock. So many cruise ships have been hotspots we are not surprised, the latest news being Princess Cruises taking their whole fleet out of action for 60 days, an example of just how serious they are taking the situation, time to think.
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