Crossing the Panama Canal | Seaman VLOG 024 

I am disabled so these videos make me feel like I am along for the adventure. Thanks Chief Makoi!

Crossing the Panama Canal was definitely one of the best highlights of my voyage on the SS Australis from Melbourne to Rotterdam in January 1972, with a full day of memories which was repeated again in 1989 when I worked as a linesman on a motor yacht crossing the other way. Great fun! All seafarers alike from all nationalities must relate to your wonderful videos. Thanks again from the Train Lord and his filipina wife.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. It's been about 30 years since I had the opportunity to transit through. Like you, we started really early - I think ours was 03:30, so we got an extra hour of sleep I guess. Our trip was reversed, going from the Gatún locks to the Miraflores locks before transiting back to the Caribbean two weeks later. Hard work then but great memories now.

I was in the Canal Zone with the US Army for 2 years. From Ft Clayton, we could see the Miraflores Locks across the way, and I had a tour inside the building. Really interesting: they have a scale model of the locks laid out on a long table inside, where you can watch the operation of the locks. The model locks are controlled by the same system as the real locks outside. I took a ride on the world's fastest railroad while I was there. Atlantic to Pacific in 45 minutes! What I was doing while there was Field Radio Repair, for military and aviation electronics.

Amazing feat of engineering, made journeys from the Pacific to the Atlantic and vice versa so much easier so cool to see the canal in action, always wanted to take a Panama Canal cruise

I would never in a lifetime be able to make a trip like that. By your videos, I can see what it is like. THANK YOU !

I was USN for 20 years, but your videos are totally fascinating! Please, continue!

Hello míster, I am from Panamá I'm maritime managment, thank you for show the functionality the Panama canal 🇵🇦🚢 ❤️

Been there, done that, got the tee shirt......almost 50 years ago to the day. I was a steamship engineer and was below most of the time. Chief Makoi brings back o!d memories with his vblog. I enjoy them as only an of sailor can.

Memories...good memories. I was fortunate to log twelve transits. Our ship was 150 feet. Doing one transit we locked through behind a massive car carrier. A fantastic experience for me in my twenties!

Love it! What a great and beautiful demonstration of the workings of the Panama Canal locks. I was an Infantry Paratrooper who parachuted in with the Rangers on midnight 20 December 1989 to liberate Panama from their dictator, Manuel Noriega. I'd like to go back and experience the locks as your video so wonderfully described. Thanks, Chief.

At first I didn't understand why I keep on watching your blogs lately. Maybe this is an answered prayer that I may fully understand my husband's career path. Thanks Chief Makoi!

Love this video I fished up in Alaska for 13 years I’ve only been through the locks in Seattle so this is very very interesting

Great video presentation, Chief! Nice background music choice too!

It was good for me to watch this as my grandfather and his brother worked on it in the early 1900’s , his brother went to Argentina while he came to the USA ! Thanks for the video !

Panama Canal: is built Suez Canal: Finally, a worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary

thank you Chief Makoi for another fascinating adventure.

I love your videos! They are always so well done and you have such a great attitude and perspective on things!

my dad has told me so many stories of him as a cheif engineer, and the ones i remember being the most exciting was the panama canal storeis. explaining how the locks raised and lowerd the ships. i hope one day to go thru it aswell, and tell my dad about it :) 5 years till im a marine engineer, cant wait

Was in Panama canal last year. What an amazing engineering marvel...

The Panama Canal is one of the world's greatest wonders. It was fun going through the canal on a LCM Landing Craft Mechanized operated by the US Army. I got to see the gigantic car container ships and cruise ships going through Lake Gatun all the way through the Miraflores Locks. I was stationed in Panama back in 1989-90 in the US Army as a Paratrooper. One of the fun places I have been to in the world.

Now that is a nice canal, not a ditch in the desert but a well built road in the tropics. Love the guide tugs on the banks. Gotta keep the paint on the ship where ir belongs. We don't have them here on the Welland canal, my old port city of St. Catharines Ontario. Thanks for the passage video. Was supposed to do that voyage with my wife before Covid happened and she left. Oh well, just might go alone. Thanks

music is relaxing, it makes me keep watching the video ,

I've always loved the amazing history of the Panama Canal construction.

Another cool vlog. I have been thru the canal on a cruise ship in 2002. And while in the U.S. Navy in 1985 I was stationed at Rodman Naval Base which is on the Pacific side of the canal near the entrance. Saw alot of ships go thru.

Chief beautiful video from the crossing of the Panama canal. I recently watched your channel. It is substantive and didactically valuable. I wish you a safe and peaceful watch. Greeatings from Poland.

This was a GREAT video ..... So COOL to witness the canal working, and all that it takes to "make the canal journey", successfully !!!

Did 20yrs US Navy, than the rest of my career Stationary Steam Plant in hospitals in Virginia and Texas. It is good to see the new technology. I do miss it sometimes especially the Engineers I worked and served with. I can see still a bunch of crazy Guys. The baywatch scene was funny. Lol. People do not realize if you stay away from it a couple years how fast technology changes. I wish you Fair Winds and Following Seas always. Be safe out there.

These are very informative videos on the life of the merchant navy & all the lovely things you see on your travels 😊👍

I visited the Miraflores locks one time and while you watch the ships being raised or lowered, an announcer gives details about the canal, and he mentioned that to fill the locks to raise a ship, water flows in around 12,000 gallons, or 45,425 liters a minute! That was amazing, and all those locks walls and doors are over 100 years old. Our predecessors had more vision, and were more intellectual than moist people today, even with so much high tech. Great video.

Excellent video, up to your usual high standard. Thank you.

Hardwork comes with a price awesome vlog chief....thanks

My favorite place in Panama is Penonome, but the canal is amazing. What an incredible country. This is a great video, really enjoying your channel.

Another outstanding video!!!! Thanks again Chief!

Another excellent and educational video, Chief. Bravo!

Wow another amazing video thanks Makoi

Another nice video. You are starting to make me homesick. I've been thru the Panama Canal many times on a car ship just like you showed on the video. We usually went ashore on the Pacific side while at anchor before going thru the canal. It is very nice there.

Super interesting. Thanks for making this.

Excellent videos - very interesting and well done. Thanks for posting.

Good job Chief keep it up, that sound track you use makes this worth it, great music, makes it easy to understand life on the seas , very educational

Thank you Chief, I designed a number of the video systems used on the canal, but had only seen still shots. It was nice to see some of the lock names that I had on my drawings.

Nice one! lots of memories came back.

Humans are nuts if you think about it. “I don’t feel like sailing around this continent.” “Ok, let’s dig a big ass ditch through a jungle mountain chain.” Very cool to see this

Recently discovered your channel, very professional and relaxing. This was another great video, I really liked the music.

memories..good memories,we transit four times,,from venezuela with aluminum block going japan then back to caribbean island with cars,then to quayaquil Peru from new orleans,then to st john new brunswick,i also transit the great lakes with more than twenty locks going duluth minnesota,going down the niagara falls,,also pass the suez canal from jeddah s arabia to aviles spain,,thats the good memories on a tramp cargo vessel,,telfair challenger,,telfair pioneer,,

Beautiful scenary

My grandfather was on the first ship to go through the canal. After it was done.

Love your videos

Hi Chief I hope you had your bag of 🥕🥕🥕🥕s ready to feed the Mules 👍👍😂👨‍🍳👨‍🍳 love going through the Panama. We even went swimming in the Gatun Lakes on 1 trip safe sailing 👍

Tremendous video. Thanks for share it

You really do a fantastic job on your videos

Never made it there during my Navy years! These are very interesting videos!!

In my 20 years in the U. S. Navy I never got to see the Panama Canal. Twenty five years after retiring from the Navy my wife and I took a cruise into the Panama Canal. It was a partial as we only went into Lake Gatun. We went through the locks to Lake Gatun and anchored for seven hours then turned around and went back out to the Atlantic (Caribbean Sea). One big reason I never got to go in or through the Panama Canal while I was in the Nave was because I was on an aircraft carrier. It was a little to large for the canal. It was nice to finally get to be in the canal but once was enough. It was very interesting though.

So amazing video.. !

excellent documentary

I have only been thru locks on the Ohio river (USA) and that was in a small pleasure craft. This and the Suez footage was incredible.

Great video, Thanks!

As a chiller mechanic I got ho through the canal on M/S Holiday. Very good! I had the third chiller on line so the ship was finally at full capacity.

very good video..thanks!

Wow.... Didn't have a clue on how it works .. I'm assuming that the deisle on each side keep you straight through the Lock's . Love your channel & the information . I think your a great captain . Keep safe for you & Crew . 👍👌✌️✌️

Very polished : good camera-work and editing. 9:30 I wouldn't fancy that rope ladder, I'd prefer a Bosun's chair.

Great job on all your videos.

I went on the Panama Canal Railway excursion in the dome observation car. Very memorable.

Interesante video gracias chef makoy

I worked there for 6 years enjoyed it very much

Was last in Panama during final year of construction of new locks. Nice to see it open

Editing is amazing. Your videos are captivating!

Hy great Pics 👍👍😎😎 Grüße und all Zeit gute Fahrt aus Germany

Great overview

Ive come across a few of your videos lately. Its been interesting to see what life on a ship is like. I think ill have to subscribe to see more of this.

Hands down you are badass. Now I know why you were the Superman shirt keep up the good work still following you enjoy all your videos Joe Dirt NorCal Nevada City California

Very nice video mr Makoi, very interested to see and know more about the Panama canal passage for those huge ships as yours. That was a long trip as you explain a 10 hours journey from start to enter the Atlantic ocean . Things i did not know before abot this huge Panama canal with its locks etc. Nice watching from Paramaribo in Suriname this video of yours, its was a pleaure !

it was fun seeing one of my previous ships(8.04) i sailed on

Brilliant video, just like all the others that you make. Very well narrated, and brilliantly edited. I find them very interesting and you present them professionally .

world class ang video mo......

My ship, A US Navy Gearing class destroyer passed thru the canal twice in 1967, going to and returning from Vietnam to our homeport at Mayport, FL. I wasn't topside for the full event going in either direction but I well remember Miraflores Lock by name. I heard talk that the cost to transit the canal was $1 per ton, so since our ship was officially a 3540 ton vessel, I assumed $3540 was the likely cost, although I can't confirm that. Still, that amount had to have been a bargain compared to the cost for diesel fuel and crew salary to take the alternative route around Cape Horn.

the mules used to pull the ships threw the panama canal were made in my home town. Sadly that factory closed in 1980.

From what i can tell your all about the oceans but have you ever been in the great lakes?! Also its super cool to see this! I live by a lock and i love watching the ships come through! Great vid keep up the great work!

Amazing episode. plz also try to make some mid ocean vlogs as well. like passing through some famous features like Mariana Trench, mid Atlantic ridge and others, if u ever traverse those places.

I love your videos bro

That's a dam good experience I would love to be on board for a while to see how it all works

free tour.. thank u sir

I've watched a lot of your vids and now i understand why their is a line at which the paint is all scratched, this is very evident in the episode before dry dock vid. good vids keep it up

I'm new to this vlog but it's great to watch

Great content 👍

I like the little tugs helping out.

Very Interesting Chief. Great Video.

You put together great videos. Very informative and well informed. I'd like to see subtitles at times since ship noise can be very loud. Also in transit, distance, location etc. Keep up the good work.

Best video sir 💯💯

The swing bridge at the beginning of the video, was my grandfathers project. He was contracted by the Navy to do the design and construction (he was a civil engineer) My mother graduated from Balboa High School while living in the Canal Zone while the project was going on. The bridge is left open now, but it's still there. Thank you for including it in the video!

Thanks Chief :)

Thk bro leaning new things 👍👍👍

Morning Midas car carrier next you in the locks. Sailed on her back in 2012 on my first contract!

Awesome!

Amazing

NOTE the little Mooring Engines that move with the vessel thru the locks of the canal. Wouldn't want that large ship's propeller to turn and the force damage a lock gate. So the pull the vessel along the transit to open water areas.

Became fan of your channel from india

Such a vital and important link in the world's economy, the Panama Canal. If there is a current list of the seven wonders of the world, surely this would be on that list.

Thanks, we went through the canal in 74 or so. But in the daylight. Sure looks different at night!

EXTREMELY INTERESTING MERRY CHRISTMASS