Brian’s bucket list adventure: The Panama Canal
On December 3rd we will be setting off for Brian’s ‘Bucket List’ adventure, on Silverseas’s stunning Silver Moon sailing from Barbados to Lima, via the Panama Canal.
A Panama Canal crossing is quite unlike any other seafaring experience available. From the moment the ship glides into the narrow lock to cross from one ocean to another, it becomes clear that the most dramatic way to experience the Panama Canal is on the water.
The construction of the Panama Canal took more than a decade and cost nearly $400 million. By the time it was completed in 1914, the Panama Canal had created a shorter and more economical shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, dissecting Central America to simplify the transportation of goods. Today, ships pass through the 48-mile-long waterway about 11,000 times each year without the need to navigate around Cape Horn or the Straight of Magellan. It was a bold project made possible by ground-breaking engineering, and there’s still nothing else like it on earth, making it a bucket list experience for so many.
The Panama Canal works by moving ships from one ocean to another through inland waterways. However, as these waterways lead down to sea level, six lock chambers (three on the Pacific side and three on the Atlantic side) each work as elevators. Gatun Lake holds the massive amounts of water needed to operate this system that raises and lowers ships from sea level up to the level of this reservoir and then back down again.
We will cross the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific on December 14th, the crossing will take around 8 to 10 hours, and I will be going live on Facebook to share this amazing experience with you!
Traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific, our ship, the Silver Moon, will first enter the three Gatun Locks, which will raise us 85 feet (26 metres) from sea level to reach the level of Gatun Lake. The process will be slow and smooth that it will feel like nothing at all is happening, but we will be watching the walls of the lock, to measure our ship’s steady progress. After navigating across Gatun Lake Silver Moon will enter the Pedro Miguel Lock, where it will be lowered 31 feet (9.5 metres). The two Miraflores Locks do the rest of the work, moving our ship 54 feet (16.5 metres) back down to sea level. This process reverses when traveling from the Pacific to the Atlantic, though we will be flying home from Lima!
As Silver Moon enters each lock during our Panama Canal cruise, it will seem like a tight fit, but these ships are built precisely to lock dimensions that leave just inches between the sides of the ship and the massive concrete walls of the locks, so we’re expecting it to be incident free!
Brian Bachelor, commented:
‘Each Panama Canal crossing brings history and physics to life, and this really is a bucket list trip for me and I’m excited to see this engineering marvel. It’s incredible to think that this waterway is more than 100 years old, and much of the infrastructure is original. It’s wonderful to be able to do this incredible crossing in six star luxury on the Silver Moon, enjoying the passage with a glass of champagne in hand, and Gilly by my side.’