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

Suez: Sailing Across the Desert

The Corinth: Beyond Imagination


Erie Canal: The Long and Winding Road

The Kiel Canal: Through the Backyards of Germany

Cape Cod Canal: The Safe Shortcut

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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