The Panama Canal - What Would International Trade be Without It?

I just returned from scuba diving in the beautiful reefs of Little Corn Island in Nicaragua. Since I was heading to Central America, I decided to stop in Panama to take a ride through the Panama Canal. It was awesome!

As I enjoy looking at large ships, seeing the multitude of vessels everywhere was fascinating to me. For a live view of the canal, click here.

SEA VICTORY VALLETTA - NYK DEMETER - MAERSK HONOUR SINGAPORE - NCC SUDAIR PANAMA - AS JUTLANDIA - these are just a few of the ships I saw while going through the canal!

Starting from the Pacific Ocean in order to cross to the Atlantic Ocean, we approached the canal and waited with many other boats for our turn to enter the canal at the Flamenco Station.

During this time, a Panama Canal Officer comes on board to both direct where to drop the anchor and to advise how long the wait will be. This is because on average, the wait can be up to 24 hours unless a reservation is made in advance for a specific date and time for entry in to the canal, which can be done up to a year and a half in advance.

Of course, a hefty premium must be paid for booking ahead of time, and in the event the ship arrives late – which is always a possibility with ocean transit - the toll is forfeited, payment to cross through the canal must be made again, and a ship must wait for its turn in the line up anyway. According to the tour guide, the average cost to transit through the canal for a commercial vessel is $120,000, with the most expensive crossing being $437,000 in 2009.

The cost of crossing the canal depends on a ship's weight and size, as well as the type of cargo it is carrying, and a captain must show the ship's manifest to a Panama Canal Officer to verify what type of cargo is on board. Dangerous cargoes, such as fertilizers or other chemicals, cost more as do cruise ships carrying people (since “people are the most valuable cargo” the tour guide explained).

For vessels who only have partial cargoes that need to cross through the canal, they have the option to dock at the port of Panama Ports Co. to unload only that portion of cargo and thereby save the cost and time of crossing.

For ships making the transit, once clearance to enter has been granted, a Panama Canal Pilot boards the vessel and takes over its control in order to navigate it safely though the canal’s locks. Every ship must have a pilot on it during the entire duration of the transit, and large vessels such as container ships or oil tankers must also hire a tug boat at a cost of $3,000 per hour. A tug boat is not optional but rather is a safety measure required by the canal operators.

The “locks” are steel gated chambers which fill with water in order to raise ships up 80 meters to a man made lake called Lake Gatun. It is roughly a 50 mile distance between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and ships must ascend up 3 “steps” in order to get to the Lake, which is 0.5 miles wide and made from excavated land.

The first two (2) steps take you to the Miraflores Lock, with a third lock, the Pedro Miguel Lock, being the final third step before arriving at Lake Gatun. The journey requires three (3) steps up on the Pacific side, and three (3) back down on the Atlantic side.

It takes roughly 8 minutes to fill the chamber and unload it. For the average container ship, there is only 24 inches (that is, 12 in. on either side of the ship) for the vessel to fit in the chamber. To ensure that the ship remains safely in the chamber, electric “mules” (which sort of look like a modern day mini-version of a locomotive) are connected to either side of the boat for this purpose.

Ships are to use their own power to travel through the canal, so it is just a matter of maintaining a position where movement through the locks can be done without hitting the sides of the chambers, and thereby avoid causing damage to either itself or the canal locks themselves.

There are 46 boat transits that happen every 24 hours and 52 million gallons of water are required to fill the lock’s chamber each time a vessel goes into it. Water for the chambers is supplied by Lake Gatun and this water is thereafter released into the Pacific Ocean. As Panama has roughly 60 ft. of rainfall each year, it depends on this rain to provide water into Lake Gatun.

Interested in traveling there? Check out the company I went with called Panama Marine Adventures.

For more information on the history of the Panama Canal click here.

Questions/comments? Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com