Panama Canal?

[fred549]

Hello,

 

On the partial Canal cruises, do any of the ships go thru any locks?

 

Thank you.

[Aplmac]

3 hours ago, fred549 said:

On the partial Canal cruises, do any of the ships go thru any locks?

 

Yes. They have to.

Even the Gatun Locks, on the Caribbean side of things,

where locks are minimal

 

There's a LOT more locks as a ship approaches the Pacific side of things

but a partial canal cruise may not get there

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_locks

 

[Aplmac]

Oddly/not-so-oddly, the Suez Canal requires no such locking.

 

You just sail straight thru -but then you're not ascending to a mountain lake

halfway thru the terrain

[Jamman54]

3 hours ago, fred549 said:

Hello,

 

On the partial Canal cruises, do any of the ships go thru any locks?

 

Thank you.

You will sail through the Gatun locks into Gatun Lake. The ship will anchor for a few hours, then go back through the Gatun locks and back to the Atlantic ocean (Caribbean Sea). We covered this process extensively in our Pride repo cruise review, which can be found in my signature. 😎

[chengkp75]

2 hours ago, Aplmac said:

Oddly/not-so-oddly, the Suez Canal requires no such locking.

 

You just sail straight thru -but then you're not ascending to a mountain lake

halfway thru the terrain

Add the fact that the Pacific Ocean is about 40cm higher at the 1000 decibar "sea level" than the Atlantic Ocean.

[MEUB1112]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Add the fact that the Pacific Ocean is about 40cm higher at the 1000 decibar "sea level" than the Atlantic Ocean.

That is very interesting, we were on the Splendor Miami to Long Beach a few years ago. They had a person on the bridge the entire day as a "Tour Guide" explaining the process, history etc. I didn't catch that info. Thanks!!

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, Aplmac said:

 

Yes. They have to.

Even the Gatun Locks, on the Caribbean side of things,

where locks are minimal

 

There's a LOT more locks as a ship approaches the Pacific side of things

but a partial canal cruise may not get there

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_locks

 

Great post

[Aplmac]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Add the fact that the Pacific Ocean

is about 40cm higher at the 1000 decibar "sea level" than the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Strange planet we live on -but not stranger than the others!

[fred549]

Thank you all for the replies.

[jimbo5544]

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Add the fact that the Pacific Ocean is about 40cm higher at the 1000 decibar "sea level" than the Atlantic Ocean.

I beleive you as always....but I would thought sea lever was....well....sea level

[chengkp75]

1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said:

I beleive you as always....but I would thought sea lever was....well....sea level

Well, you have to understand that "sea level" is not really a constant.  Is "sea level" the same at low tide as at high tide?  The actual scientific term is "mean sea level", which means the average of many thousands of sea level readings over a long time.  These readings change due to tides, currents, water temperature (density), salinity (also density), atmospheric pressure, and the rise and fall of the earth's surface (moving the reference point).  Since tides are probably the largest contributor to sea level changes, what happens at the Panama Canal is that the tides on each side of the canal are not coordinated (they don't have high tide at the same time, even though only 40+ miles apart), so the "sea level" is always different between the two.  Tides on the Pacific side of the canal average 18 feet, while the Atlantic side only average 18 inches.  Also, the temperature and salinity of the water in the two oceans makes the Pacific water denser than Atlantic water.

[Aplmac]

3 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

 Since tides are probably the largest contributor to sea level changes,

what happens at the Panama Canal is that the tides on each side of the canal

are not coordinated (they don't have high tide at the same time,

even though only 40+ miles apart),

so the "sea level" is always different between the two. 

 

Tides on the Pacific side of the canal average 18 feet,

while the Atlantic side only average 18 inches. 

 

Geez! That last bit is the shocker!!

18 feet versus 18 inches! Wow!