Matthew's Journal

Sunday night, the Ronald Brown went through the Panama Canal. Just about everyone aboard was disappointed that we were not able to make a daylight transit as there is much more to see when the sun was out. Nevertheless, despite starting our trip through the canal an hour or two after sunset, it was still the event to witness on the ship. We lowly scientists were crowding the upper weather decks and taking in the process of crossing mountains in a boat while the ship's crew and the Panama Canal's staff were busy making it happen.

The day started with our arrival to the canal waiting area in the early afternoon. Before you can pass through the canal, there is paperwork to be done, instructions to receive, and, mainly, a lot of waiting to be done. Thus, we spent most of our day holding station in the harbor until we were finally informed that we were next in line to pass right around dusk.

Entering the Panama Canal behind the USS Roberts

The first lock fills

Looking down into the first lock from the second

We made the trip through the lock right behind the USS Roberts. The locks are somewhere around 1000 feet long and both their ship and ours fit with room to spare. The locks themselves, despite the fact that they contain a very large volume, fill very rapidly via gravity fed culverts from Lake Gatun. Each lock takes only a few minutes to fill before you're on to the next one. Passing through the entire canal takes several hours and includes a trip through the inland Lake Gatun. We passed through the canal and finally docked in Rodman, across the channel from Panama City, at 6:00am under the shadow of the Bridge of the Americas. The Bridge of the Americas connects North America and South America.

The Bridge of the Americas and the USS Roberts