February 2025: Two Oceans in Three Days

By Corey Sandler

As you read these words, we are packing our bags to meet up with a ship headed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, through the Panama Canal…and then turn around and go back the way we came in.

Two cruises in two oceans. Of course, depending on the nits you choose to pick, there are either five oceans on our planet, or just one.

I choose the second option, since the Pacific, Atlantic (including the Caribbean Sea), Indian, Southern, and Arctic oceans all interconnect. One body of saltwater spreading over about 71 percent of the planet’s surface.

The various names applied to that single ocean serve the purposes of mapmakers and politicians.

Be that as it may: we will sail from the Caribbean (a mapmaker’s subdivision of the North Atlantic Ocean) to the Pacific and back again. Nearby is the Gulf of Honduras, the Gulf of Mexico, the Colombian Basin, and the Venezuelan Basin. You can find the names on maps, but don’t expect signposts in the sea.

The Panama Canal, now in its 111th year of operation, is truly one of the manmade wonders of the world. I have made the transit dozens of times, and it never fails to thrill. It was an amazing technological accomplishment, complex in its planning and construction, but elegantly simple in its operation. It’s all about gravity, using water as its engine.

By my recall, I have made transit or passage of eleven canals. Top honors go to the Panama Canal. Tied for second place are four dramatic waterways: the Suez in Egypt, the Corinth in Greece, the Erie in upstate New York, and the Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts.

Mustn’t overlook the Oswego and the Wiley-Dondero which interconnect parts of upper New York State to the Great Lakes. And in the same region the Saint Lawrence Seaway extends navigation on the Saint Lawrence River along the border of Quebec in Canada and New York. And there’s also the picturesque Amsterdam Canal and the waterways of Venice in Italy.

Here are a few photos from some of those memorable passages.

Panama: The Passage Between the Seas

Preparing to climb the three flights of locks from the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal. At the top of the third lock is Gatun Lake, created by the damming of the Chagres River. Ships sail across the Continental Divide on the lake to reach the locks that descend to the Pacific. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

Suez: Sailing Across the Desert

A cargo ship navigates in the Suez near Ismailia in Egypt. The canal was dug through the desert between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. I clambered up a sand dune to take this photo, one that I had pre-visualized for months. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

The Corinth: Beyond Imagination

This is the stuff of nightmares for ship’s masters. The Corinth Canal connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea to the Saronic Sea in the Aegean, separating the Pelopennese from the mainland of Greece. It is just barely wide enough to allow small and medium-sized ships to squeeze through and fit below the bridges overhead. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
Inhale. On several of my transits, the master ordered huge foam bumpers hung from the sides of the ship; we still managed to lose a bit of paint here and there. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

Erie Canal: The Long and Winding Road

The Ditch connects the navigable top of the Hudson River near Waterford, New York west to the Great Lakes, 351 miles away. When it was completed in 1825 it opened up the trade from the American midwest to the Atlantic, in the process establishing New York City at the bottom of the Hudson as a financial powerhouse. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

The Kiel Canal: Through the Backyards of Germany

Witness to History. The Kiel Canal connects the North Sea through the Elbe River to the Baltic Sea at Kiel. Opening in 1895, it helped fuel Germany’s military expansion with shipyards at Kiel that built U-boats and battleships for both World Wars. Today it is used for commercial traffic, 98 miles through the backyards and farmland of Schleswig-Holstein. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

Cape Cod Canal: The Safe Shortcut

Cutting through the top of Cape Cod, the canal allows small and mid-sized ships to avoid the shoals and other dangers that lie in the waters offshore of Nantucket Island. Just for kicks, though, the canal includes a dogleg that requires expert seamanship by the ship’s master and pilot to avoid swinging into the rock-filled sides of the canal. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

All text and photos are by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved. Copyright 2025. If you want to obtain a copy of one of my photographs for personal or commercial use, please contact me using the link on this page.

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