Here’s the side of the ship as we pass through the Gatun locks. Notice that you can’t see any water. That’s concrete and mule tracks straight down. The Coral Princess is 106 feet wide, the maximum allowable width that’s allowed to pass through the Canal. Given that the locks themselves are only 110 feet wide, that means that there are a mere two feet on each side of the ship before the ship scrubs is sides against the locks’ concrete walls.

The gates to the last chamber of the Gatun locks open for us. Once the next chamber fills and the next set of gates open, we’ll be in Gatun Lake.

In this photo we’re rising up to the level of Gatun Lake. We’ll soon disembark the ship to go on the “ocean-to-ocean” excursion on which we’ll get to go the rest of the way through the Canal and cruise in the Pacific ocean for a little bit before taking a bus to Colón to catch up with the Coral Princess.

This huge crane dredges out the bottom of the Canal. Boats carrying explosives drop charges that are set to detonate upon impact with the Canal’s floor. This crane is used to dredge out what’s loosened by the explosives.

The Chagres River powers the Panama Canal. Beyond the bridge pictured here is the Chagres River. Gatun Lake is on the near side of the bridge. We crossed this bridge to board the small vessel that carried us the rest of the way through Canal.