Part of both the 11 day and 10 day sun farer cruise that the Zuiderdam is making, is the call at Gatun Lake for the overland tour. To get to Gatun Lake we have to enter the Panama Canal as without a Gatun Lake there would be no Panama Canal to start with. The Lake is the reservoir for all the water that is being used in the locks to get the ships up and down. So the Zuiderdam dips into the Gatun Lake, sends the tour guests ashore and then goes out again. As per captain Bart Vaartjes, today was the 171 st. time that the Zuiderdam entered Gatun Lake since 2002. Either to sail through the canal on a Trans Canal cruise or to dip in and dip out as we are doing today. For the Panama Canal Authorities it does not make any difference, what you want to do. They slot you into the morning convoy from the Atlantic and they slot you back into the Pacific convoy coming through in the afternoon. And you pay the full price for a Canal visit, regardless of dipping in and out, or going the whole way; in our case around $ 348,000 give or take a few cents.

In the waiting room, while a very wide Maersk Container ship makes its way through the Canal.

Because we had to slot in with the convoy, we had to be at the Colon / Cristobal breakwater at 05.00 hrs. and then get in line. Once in line we could only be as fast as the slowest ship in the convoy. Today we were a bit unlucky as we ended up behind a Panamax container ship, which means that it takes a long time for such a broad beam ship to push into the lock chamber. The water has very little room to flow around the ship’s hull. That costs us about 30 minutes and we need to start tender service as quickly as possible to ensure that we are finished on time to catch the Pacific convoy to go out again. Today the schedulers had decreed that we should be ready by noon time.

The tender dock in the Gatun Lake. From here the coaches leave for the overland tour.

Thus we made a quick sprint to the designated anchorage area between the old locks and the new locks, lower 5 tenders and started ferrying about 1000 guests ashore who wanted to see Panama from the other side. Although it was only a very short tender distance, the ship had 5 tenders on standby. Two for being ashore to unload and two for being at the gangway to load. The 5th. one is then the backup tender in case one of the other tenders breaks down and to slot in when the tenders go for bunkers one by one. As the primarily function of a tender is a lifeboat, the fuel tanks always have to be full to comply with the requirement that a fully loaded tender shall be able to sail for 24 hrs. with a minimum sustained speed of 6 knots.

The Panama Canal Tender Inspector with the Zuiderdam Safety Team. Made up by the Ships Safety Officer (Yellow helmet) and the ships bo’sun, While the cadet (with the two helmets) is trying to learn as much as possible.

Because we are “messing” around in the backyard of the Panama Canal with our own boats, the tenders have to be inspected by the local authorities to see if they will not sink while in operation, that they will not leak oil and that they are manned with qualified drivers so they will not cause damage to anything that belongs to the Canal. Thus every tender driver has to carry his tender driving license on board the tender and show it to the inspector.

Because we stay at the anchorage (normally we do not anchor for such a short period but drift on the engines) Pilots and Panama Canal crew leave the ship once we have stopped and rejoin when we get under way again. Then we get different pilots to the ones of early in the morning as the Panama pilots work in shifts and are also engaged in getting more ships from the anchorage or to the anchorage. Not every Panama Canal pilot does the whole transit every time.

The pink slip which each cruise ship captain signs to get through.

Something not everybody realizes is that apart from all the ships having a Panama Canal Tonnage certificate (used to calculate the transit fee) the Canal also has regulations for the ships structure. Especially about things sticking out. With the Panamax Cruise ships, those that are the maximum size that fit in the Canal as the Zuiderdam is, there is always something sticking out. To be allowed in, the captain has to sign a pink waver declaring that any damage to the “sticking out parts” is not the fault of the Canal or its pilots.

By the way, it seems that all the Web Cams in the first locks, the Gatun Locks, have been broken since a few months, so very little chance to see the ship coming through the Locks, for those who were planning to have a look at the Zuiderdam.

By 11.30 we had all 1000 tour guests off and the tenders back on board again. And by 13.00 hrs. we were back in the locks. If all goes well, we will be dock by 1600 hrs.  at Colon 2000, the cruise terminal of Colon / Cristobal.