Panama Canal Partial Transit Cruise with Lunch

Culebra Cut, the canal through the continental divide

The Culebra Cut, also known as the Gaillard Cut, is the reason the Panama Canal took so long to build. Here engineers had to carve roughly 13 kilometres through the rocky spine of the isthmus, the continental divide between the Atlantic and Pacific watersheds. French crews began digging in the 1880s, and the American effort that completed the canal between 1904 and 1914 fought constant landslides that refilled the channel almost as fast as it was dug.

Sailing through it today, you see stepped rock walls rising on both sides and huge cargo ships passing a short distance away. The channel has been widened several times so that two large vessels can now meet here safely. Your guide points out Contractors Hill and the old slide areas. For many guests this is the most memorable part of any Panama Canal tour, because it shows the scale of the work far better than a viewing platform can.

Centennial Bridge seen from the water

Shortly after the cut, the cruise passes beneath the Centennial Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge that carries the Pan-American Highway across the canal. It opened in 2004 to relieve traffic on the older Bridge of the Americas, and its name marks one hundred years since Panama became independent from Colombia in 1903. Its tall white pylons and fan of cables make it one of the most photographed structures along the waterway.

Seen from the deck, the bridge frames the channel and gives a real sense of how high the largest ships ride above the water. This is a good moment to move to the open part of the boat with your camera. Your guide explains how the canal and its bridges tie together the two halves of the Americas, and why the land route and the sea route cross at this point.

Pedro Miguel Locks, the first step down

Pedro Miguel is the first set of locks on the southward route and a single step: one chamber that lowers ships about nine metres from the level of Gatun Lake to the small Miraflores Lake. Like all the original locks it opened in 1914, with twin lanes so traffic can move in both directions, and it still works on the same simple principle of water flowing down by gravity, without pumps.

Going through a lock on a passenger boat is a unique experience. You often share the chamber with much larger vessels, watch the giant steel gates swing shut behind you and feel the boat sink slowly as the water drains away. Electric locomotives on rails, known as mules, keep the big ships centred with steel cables. Allow around an hour for the approach and the passage, depending on canal traffic that day.

Miraflores Locks, the gateway to the Pacific

After crossing Miraflores Lake you enter Miraflores Locks, two chambers that lower ships about 16 metres to the level of the Pacific Ocean, whose tides here can vary by several metres in a single day. These are the best-known locks of the canal, and the visitor centre beside them draws crowds who watch from its terraces. On this cruise you see the same spectacle the other way round, from inside the chamber, looking up at the spectators.

People often ask whether Miraflores Locks is worth visiting from land. It is, but crossing the locks by boat is far more memorable, and the visitor centre's opening hours and tickets are not a concern on this trip because the lock passage is included. Your guide explains how every lockage uses millions of litres of fresh water from Gatun Lake, released into the sea each time a ship passes.

Bridge of the Americas and the Amador Causeway

Leaving the last chamber, the boat sails the final stretch of the canal to the Pacific entrance and passes under the Bridge of the Americas, the arched steel bridge opened in 1962 that was for decades the only fixed road link across the canal. Beyond it the bay opens up, with ships waiting at anchor and the skyline of Panama City rising in the distance.

The cruise ends where it began, at the marina on Flamenco Island at the tip of the Amador Causeway. The causeway was built with rock excavated from the Culebra Cut, linking three small islands to the mainland, so you finish on the very material you have just sailed through. It is a pleasant place to linger afterwards, with a seafront promenade, sea views and restaurants facing the city skyline.