Monday April 13th, 2026 Queen Anne, Panama Canal, Panama
- Neil Wylie
- Feb 3
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 20
Today we experienced our third transit of the Panama Canal going from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea which sounds like west to east but is actually more south to north. The canal cuts across the narrowest point, the Isthmus of Panama; completed in 1914 it consists of a set of locks at each end that lift ships up to an artificial freshwater lake. In order to accommodate larger ships a second set of locks, 3 at each end of the canal, were constructed and began operation in 2016. This would be our first transit though the new locks.
Around 6:30AM the Queen Anne passed under the Bridge of the Americas and began her approach to the Cocoli locks on the Pacific side of the canal. We had gathered, along with quite a sizable crowd, on the forward part of deck 5 – an area not normally open to passengers. After picking up our pilot, along with our leading and following tug boats, we waited patiently for the ship currently in the first lock to clear. The old locks use cute little electric trains called mules that run on tracks along both sides of the lock, ropes attached from the ship to the mules enable them to keep the vessel centered in the canal. In the new locks we have a tug at the front and back, each attached to the ship with port and starboard ropes to perform the same function.
The ship in the lock gently rose and was soon slowly creeping forward into the next lock; there are three of the new locks at each end of the canal. Once the water level in the lock had dropped back down to sea level the gate began to open and I noticed another difference; the old locks have gates like you’d see on any industrial canal from the 19thcentury – one gate attached to each side of the lock swinging out to meet in the middle. The gates in the new locks only attached at one side and slide out at 90 degrees – they also move much faster than the old gates, about 3 minutes to open versus about 10 minutes for the old ones. With a loud engine roar and a cloud of diesel smoke our leading tug set off and we slowly followed into the lock. Once perfectly centered in the new lock, and with the rear gate safely closed, water was once again reintroduced and we began our ascent.
There is a big difference in water flow design and reuse in the new locks versus the old ones. The old locks operated by simply letting the water flow by gravity from one lock down to the next; this simple design, along with the small size of the locks, enables them to empty (or fill) in about 8 minutes. But none of the water is recycled and so for every transit a large volume of fresh water is lost from the upper lake to the sea; in drought years this limits the overall capacity of the canal. The new locks are larger and use 3 water holding ponds for each lock; instead of allowing all of the water the flow down to the next lock a large portion is moved to the holding ponds and this water is used to refill the lock for the next ship; some fresh water is lost, but it is a lot less than in the old locks. Unfortunately with this design a small amount of sea water ends up being cycled up to the freshwater lake and this is slowly raising the salinity of the lake and beginning to affect the flora and fauna of the delicately balanced ecosystem. With the larger size and complex flow system the new locks take about 15 minutes to empty (or fill) but reuse about 60% of the fresh water.
Even though this is our third passage of the canal, as an engineer, I still feel a bit giddy when sitting on the balcony I can slowly see the side of the lock coming into view as our gigantic vessel is lowered into the lock. In the old locks the gap between the side of the ship and the lock wall was very small, perhaps 1 foot but no more than 2; today we were several yards from the lock wall. Each of the new locks is almost identical, same size and with the same set of white-painted support buildings; the new locks also operated with far fewer workers on the lock sides. This arrangement creates an almost “factory like” experience, our ship is just one of many being processed down the production line. Contrast this with the old locks; a hive of activity on the lock side with the mules running on their tracks and workers shouting instructions, the locks themselves evoke a time before “industrial design” and, I feel, are much more pleasant on the eye. One last thing; the new locks are a single set, in other words ships can only go in one direction at a time, whereas the old locks are in pairs and offer the option of bidirectional operation.
We progressed through the famous Culebra Cut; this was made at the top of the mountain range and as it was excavated the sides had to be moved further and further out until they could create a stable hillside. Technically, this is our 4thcrossing of the isthmus as we originally did it by train along the rail line that was installed before the canal. The Renacer Prison was clearly visible from our balcony, and it reminded me of our first train based transit when, as we slowly passed, the prisoners who were taking their open air showers decided to show us “the moon” through the wire fence – I thought some on the train were going to pass out. This prison is famous as the place where Manuel Noriega the one-time drug lord / president of Panama died; after he was “extracted” by the US military in the 80s he was sentenced to 20 years for murder but returned to the prison when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
There is a massive floating crane on the canal just past the cut, again we were fortunate that it was visible from our side of the ship. The Titan crane, or Herman the German as it is more popularly known, was seized from the German navy at the end of World War 2 and put to use at the port of Long Beach in California before being transferred to the canal in 1995. The crane is still used today to lift lock gates for maintenance, a true testament to the design and construction of this massive beast.
Beyond the cut we entered Gatun Lake, created by damming the Chagres River. It’s a beautiful lake with many tropical islands; tour companies run boat trips out to the islands to see the wildlife. It’s a quite bizarre experience to be taking in the wonderful view of the island studded lake one minute and then to have it blocked by a wall of shipping containers the next as a gigantic cargo ship passes by. I have often used my binoculars to scan the islands in search of a monkey or two, I do like monkeys, but so far, I’ve not been lucky enough to see one (or two).
Approaching the Agua Clara locks on the Pacific side the ship slowed to a stop as we waited to pick up our pilot for the final transition; the canal pilots operate in two groups one based on each coast. We waited and waited, it took 3 hours for the pilot to turn up – I can’t imagine this is normal and certainly didn’t happen on any of our previous transits. Finally, around 4:30PM, the tugs boats assigned to us took up station fore and aft and we began to edge forward to the first of the three locks. One of the things we always enjoyed about the old locks was the visitor center at the Miraflores Locks on the Pacific side; as we passed the crowd on the balcony, and in later years the purpose built viewing stand, would wave and cheer – and the passengers would return the favor. In fact when we did the transit by train, we were part of that crowd on the balcony waving like heck and dreaming of doing the transit by ship. It was disappointing to enter the Cocoli Locks on the Pacific side this morning and not see a visitor center. However now as we entered the new Agua Clara locks a brand new gleaming visitor center and viewing stand could be seen high up on the stepped hill; the hillside was covered in a concrete like material to prevent erosion, laid on like fondant on a cake but already showed signs of failure. Unfortunately there were only about 4 people in the viewing stand, but they were waving and shouting enthusiastically.
The Agua Clara lock transit was pretty uneventful, and it was now I realized how much I missed seeing the activity in the adjacent lock when going through the old system – marveling at the intricacy of the plumbing on a huge oil tanker, or waving to the “young folks” on a tiny yacht bravely making the transit behind a massive container ship. After about 2 hours we emerged from the final lock and soon passed under the Bridge of the Atlantic and out into the Caribbean Sea bound for Curacao.
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