Look Who's in the Canal Today (part 2)

[Essiesmom]

Nov. 7 MS Europa of Hapag-Lloyd

Gatun

 

Pedro Miguel

 

Miraflores at dusk

 

Today (Nov 13) was Serenade of the Seas Westbound (WB)

 

Gatun

 

Pedro Miguel

 

Miraflores

 

Three ships tomorrow, all eastbound (EB)

EM

Edited November 13, 2023 by Essiesmom

[BillB48]

The last shot of the Serenade entering the west chamber is a perfect example of the locks holding the fill of the east chamber so that it could be partially with water from the west chamber.

[BillB48]

Arrgh! I can never catch my errors until I leave the page and return later.   It is supposed to read ...partially filled with water...

[Essiesmom]

Well, Encore started the transit much earlier than usual.  I saw that she was spending the night in Balboa, I thought perhaps she had to get under Bridge of the Americas at low tide.  But apparently they had an 0400 transit time and I missed her at Cocoli.  She was beyond Centennial Bridge by 0700:

 

 

 

If they hadn't made her wait outside Agua Clara she could have been through by lunchtime...

 

 

 

 

 

[Essiesmom]

Second in line today was NCL Sun.  Her bridgecam needed time to dry off or sober up...  At Miraflores Locks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty much sober by Pedro Miguel

 

 

 

Gatun Locks

 

 

[Essiesmom]

Last in line today was Oceania's Vista

Miraflores Locks

 

 

Pedro Miguel

 

 

[BillB48]

The Encore sort of tip toed through Cocoli before daylight and she was almost out of the Cut by dawn.  Just don't understand that, just about every other ship does a true daylight transit.  I would think that the passengers would like to see things in daylight. I thought at first it was because they may have wanted to clear the BoA at low tide, but she went under the bridge almost at high tide.  That theory shot to hello and back!  Who knows, maybe NCL cheaped out and skipped the $30K daylight fee??

[Essiesmom]

Royal Clipper went through Friday 11/17

Its my fate to have a big cargo ship block the best view…

 

[Essiesmom]

Four ships today, 11/19.  Three cruise ships and a military ship.

Rotterdam partial transit through new locks;

Royal Clipper full eastbound transit; 

Viking Mars partial transit old locks;

MV Cape Orlando, Ro-Ro part of the US Reserve Fleet.

[chengkp75]

I remember when the MV Cape Orlando was the MV American Eagle.  I served on two of her sister ships, the American Falcon and American Condor.

[Essiesmom]

Three ships today.  Emerald Princess doing a partial through the new locks, Oosterdam and Hamburg westbound through original locks.  emerald was first, Oosterdam following slowly, and Hamburg pretty much opted for a night transit.

 

[BillB48]

I have noticed some of the smaller ships will sometimes wind up completing at least part of transit at night.  While it would not be my first choice, the Canal is attractive at night, particularly the Cut.

[BillB48]

I was curious, the fee for daylight transit for the larger cruise ships is $30K, I did not know if there was a lower fee for small ships such as the Hamburg.  Well, there is just one fee only... $30K!  If a smaller ship were to opt for a daylight transit, the daylight fee would be a much higher portion of the total transit cost. Possibly that is the reason they transit whenever the transit gods permits?

[Essiesmom]

Ruby Princess today.  With shore excursions cancelled, I’m sure the entertainment staff rushed to plan activities for what was mostly a sea day.  It was a bit damp, too.

 

[dmwnc1959]

Serenade of the Seas passed the Amador cruise port area inbound approx. 610am and was at the Bridge of the Americas just before 630am, the Miraflores Locks pier head  by 7am, and was exiting into Miraflores Lake around 820am.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2023 by dmwnc1959

[Essiesmom]

Through the Pedro Miguel locks and heading toward the Centennial Bridge

 

 

[BillB48]

Have been watching earlier, have a good friend doing a B2B on the Serenade.

[Essiesmom]

Gatun cam needs cataract surgery, so we see Serenade out on the Agua Clara cam

 

[Essiesmom]

NCL Bliss kept her guests up all night with a night transit.  
 

[BillB48]

Once again one of the big NCL ships making their way through one set of locks under the cover of darkness, well under glare of the high mast lights anyway.  Tides and the BoA were not an issue as her passage beneath the Bridge occurred a little before high tide.  The mystery continues.

[Essiesmom]

Last locks.  Wonder if those folks out on the bow slept through the Cocoli Locks?

 

[Turtles06]

3 hours ago, BillB48 said:

Once again one of the big NCL ships making their way through one set of locks under the cover of darkness, well under glare of the high mast lights anyway.  Tides and the BoA were not an issue as her passage beneath the Bridge occurred a little before high tide.  The mystery continues.

I was curious about the mystery of a nighttime transit as well. I just checked the Roll Call for this cruise, and someone on board the Bliss reported this today:

 

“They made an announcement yesterday morning. And they posted the revised schedule in the atrium. They said the revised schedule was (at least partially) due to the tides, we had to go when we could fit under the Bridge of America.”

 

That post was in reply to a comment by another guest on board who had said this: 

 

“On the cruise right now and tomorrow is our transit . Well looks like our day light transit is becoming an overnight transit. Information is very scarce sounds like first lock is 2:00 Am . Only noticed by reading the  daily  free style schedule have not heard any announcements about it and I have a feeling tomorrow a lot of people waking up at 6:00 are going to be pissed we were half way through the canal.”

 

😵‍💫😮🙃

 

 

 

[BillB48]

When I first saw EM's pictures from the bridge cam and did a very superficial check of the tides for today which showed a high tide this morning of  5:28AM.  My contact answered back a said that ship (and probably the others in her class) have tide restrictions at the BoA.  So I carefully looked at the time stamps and the first one shows 2:27AM with ship all the way up on the water ready to move from the lower level to the middle level.  What you quoted from the onboard guest noting a 2 o'clock arrival at the first lock gave me a good place to backwards engineer the Bridge time.  I think a best guess for when the Bliss went under the BoA is probably somewhere between 1:00AM to 1:30AM.  That's just a real long way of saying she cleared the bridge much closer to low tide.  Low tide on Nov. 29 was 11:17PM, that would make her clearing about 2 hours past low tide.

 

The tide range from the low tide just before midnight on the Nov.29 and the high tide at 5:28AM Nov.30 was 16.5'.  At that tide range you will have an increase of about 2.5' in the height of the tide each hour.

 

On the bright side (maybe that's not the best metaphor in this case) there certainly were not any issues of sunburn at the first lock!  The last of EM's screen grabs shows the Bliss just north of Cocoli Locks, since there are not any time stamps on the Miraflores cam, time of day is another guesstimate.  Sunrise today was 6:18 and judging by the amount of light I would say it is 6:30ish.  That indicates to me the Bliss probably held on the north approach wall of Cocoli until daylight.

2 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

I was curious about the mystery of a nighttime transit as well. I just checked the Roll Call for this cruise, and someone on board the Bliss reported this today:

 

[Essiesmom]

Time stamp on my Miraflores capture (iPad) 0607.  I missed the best shots…she hung out outside the last Cocoli lock while an LNG tanker came into the third lock, and another cargo was in the second, probably an hour while I waited impatiently.  iPad time stamp for Cerro Luisa cam 0625.  EM

[Essiesmom]

After a few days 'vacation' the webcams are back up in time for NCL Joy to have her picture taken.  Not a night transit, but she got a really early start.  0604 and already in the first lock.  Lots of folks at the rail.  Hope that coffee is strong!

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Miraflores cam

 

 

From Pedro Miguel cam