How long to traverse the panama canal

You are reading this message possibly because you either have disabled Cascading Style Sheets or have disabled them in your browser. This message might be also read on text browsers or non-standards compliant browsers. The contents of this page are still accessible and is displayed below. The length of the Panama Canal is 80 kilometers 50 miles from the deep waters of the Atlantic to the deep waters of the Pacific.

Lake Gatun covers an area of Madden Dam was named in honor of Martin B. Madden, member of the U. Appropriations Committee from Illinois. New locomotives weigh 50 tons each and operate with two traction units of HP each, compared to the HP units of the previous locomotive model.

Each chamber is feet wide by 1, feet long. The total volume of concrete used to build the locks was 3,, cubic meters. All gates are 65 feet wide by 7 feet deep. Their height, however, varies from 47 to 82 feet, depending on their location. Miraflores lock gates are the tallest, due to the variation in Pacific Ocean tides. There are 46 gates, and their weight is of To fill a chamber, the lower lock valves are closed and the upper valves are opened.

The water comes from Gatun Lake through long ducts, and enters the chamber through 20 holes in the chamber floor. The locks each have two lanes that allow multiple ships to pass through at a time, but they cannot handle large vessels going opposite directions. In the day time, the direction of the locks are switched every 6 hours and priority is given to larger ships.

This way large ships can complete their journey in the hour timeframe. At night, two way traffic accommodates smaller ships. All tolls for the Panama Canal must be paid in cash, and must be paid at least 48 hours in advance.

Ships with a few exceptions are charged a toll based on their weight. The cheapest toll ever paid to travel the canal was 36 cents in by Richard Halliburton, who swam the length of the canal. UPDATE: With the opening of the new, larger locks as part of the canal expansion, this record has been significantly broken, as much larger ships can now pass through the canal. You will share locks transit with a larger ship, since it is not affordable for the locks to be operated for this cost.

The 1,, th ship to pass through the Panama Canal was the Chinese freighter the Fortune Plum, which passed through on September 4 th , Ships specifically built to the largest specifications possible to transit the current locks of the canal are called Panamax ships. The can be a maximum of ft long, ft wide, and hold the equivalent of 5, 20 ft shipping containers TEU.

A second set of locks are currently being built to accommodate larger ships. When finished, they will operate simultaneously with the current set of locks and be able to accommodate ships over twice as large 13, TEU vs. The new locks are expected to be operational in the beginning of Michael, this was a great and very informative post. Thanks so much for pulling all this information together. You do a great job. Happy holidays Suzi. Entering the canal was thrilling, stressful, and awkward. Descending the last lock was euphoric.

The Panama Canal is a gem to treasure. Considering the alternative routes, the canal is a blink between oceans. Yet a smooth transit benefits from advance planning. Most of the year, four to six days is typical.

During the high season from late January through May, six to 20 days is the range from completion of measurement and fee payment until an assigned canal transit date. For South Pacific-bound boats, December until mid-January is a sweet spot for minimal delay. The slowdown escalates with the arrival of the World ARC rally. Hiring an agent was our answer to first staying in tune with the length of the delay, then having an advocate who could help us find a slot to get through sooner during the peak-season waiting period.

Mooring options are few on the Caribbean side of the canal: there are a couple of designated areas for anchoring among the commercial stacks and cargo ships, but they come with security risks and limited options for going ashore. Boats waiting longer than a few days often sail either to nearby Portobelo or further afield to the Guna Yala San Blas islands or Bocas del Toro.

The lone mooring option on the Caribbean side is Shelter Bay Marina, where we berthed our Stevens 47 Totem to await transit. Our agent, Erick Galvez with Centenario, met us shortly after we tied up in Shelter Bay to confirm the process. A friendly face at the dock and perfect English softened the news of delays. You have to go through measurement and payment first before entering the ACP system to get a transit date assigned — a transit date cannot be reserved in advance.

Galvez accepted our payment and scheduled an Admeasurer measurements for transit are only done by an official representative of the Panama Canal Authority, or ACP for the next day. In the end doing rigging jobs for Pacific-bound vessels sweetened the deal of a longer stay. Heavy duty fenders are essential for rafting up. Galvez took care of payment as part of his agent services, providing a receipt outlining fees.