Tuesday, February 7, 2006

104) Panama

Panama City, Panama
Balboa Yacht Club (on a mooring) 8° 56.318 N 79° 33.531 W

My final moments aboard Amor Fati went smooth and without fanfare.  The sun had set and it was eerily smooth, warm, calm and peaceful.  My bags were already packed and I was eager to go.  The water taxi was waiting at the mooring ball and helped us retrieve it.  He took Eric and his four 125’ dock lines to shore first and then came back.  Nancy and I loaded our luggage, Alan stayed on board for the night and the 3 of us went to shore.  Our agent was there and greeted us on the curb and guided us to the cab.  It was odd dragging luggage around and knowing that I was going to sleep in a real bed this night. 

     Moored at the Balboa Yacht Club, Panama City, Panama. 

We traveled approximately 6,388 miles (give or take a few) from Fiumicino, Italy to Panama City, Panama.
Balboa Yacht Club, Pacific side of the canal
Although this journey is over it is not without genuine gratitude.  Everybody involved took risk in each other and the outcome was ultimately rewarding.  Along the way I read a Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities, and discovered the closing line is one of his most famous oft quoted lines that I generously apply to my current thoughts.  My only hope is that there will be many more experiences of adventure to come.


It is a far far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.
                                                          Charles Dickens



PS:


























103) Panama

Colon, Panama
Panama Canal Yacht Club
9° 20.939 N 79°  54.189 W

Shows track from Columbia, San Blas Islands, Portobelo and thru the canal.
Our route thru the Panama Canal.


When the agent returned with our stamped passports yesterday I was very relieved.  With the tires attached as fenders and the many 125’ dock lines onboard we were ready to transit the next morning.  Glomildo did not show.  I think he had too many responsibilities and could not leave.  John did tell him that they were going to take his passport to the US Embassy in Panama and verify its validity as well as that John was in charge onboard and maybe those things didn’t sit well.  At least we had Eric as an ace in the hole.

Eric, a hired line handler, showed up around 7am well in time for the proposed pilot pick-up at about 9.  Eric has transited the canal over 1,200 times in 22 years.  He was a good guy and well prepared before anything happened.  He was a great help to relieve those of us with, uhm, concern.  After all, we were going in close quarters with ships, tied to concrete walls and supposed to slide up and down them.  I have heard too many stories of freighters breaking free in the lock and running over yachts.  Small vessels are being phased out soon and will eventually be loaded onto a barge so they can move thru like the bigger vessels.  The large ships go thru in the first part of the day and small boats get to share the lock with them.  Then later in the day the smaller ships go thru.  Vessels transit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The canal is also in the initial stages of widening the narrowest gap so that ships can pass thru simultaneously.  All in the name of progress and the almighty dollar.

Eric on the left, not the pilot on the right.
We followed this freighter into the chamber.

Going up












We left the dock and headed over the to ‘flats’ where the small boats anchor and that is where we were to pick up the pilot.  He would be on a launch and they would approach us to make the transfer.  Since a pilot was hired the transit happened quickly.  If Amor Fati took an advisor the transit would have been in March.







 
                                     We lost a tire and some maintenance workers on the gate retrieved it.
First chamber on the Atlantic side heading west.  Looking east towards Colon in the background to the right.

Most of this canal transit has been hurry up and wait.  To up-lock (gaining altitude to Gatun Lake) we have to wait for the freighter to tie-up first.  Then the tug went in and we got to side-tie to it.  We were prepared to tie to the wall and side-tying to the tug was the easiest way to transit.  Lots of bells and horns and whistles later and the doors closed.  The water intake is 18 feet in diameter and filled the tank in about 10-15 minutes or maybe less.  The tug had to keep pulling in dock lines as we climbed. After doing it 3 times over about 2 hours we were at lake level.  We were finally able to make way and did so at almost 8 knots.  We were required to do that speed in order to make it in time for the locks on the other side.  We took a couple lanes across the lake that were different than the freighters and it was odd seeing them in the distance between the islands in a tropical freshwater lake.


Gatun Lake







Passed by a freighter in the lake.






 There was some confusion after we entered the lake, though.  We unloaded the first pilot on the pier and he forgot his cell phone.  Then a regulatory vessel came out to us to get the phone.  Then we got pulled over by another regulatory vessel because he thought we did not have a pilot on board.  Eric and the new pilot exchanged words with the guy and he left still pissed off.  We were legal and back on our way.  Our biggest concern was being able to maintain this speed in order to go 28 miles and get there on time.  But, the pilot wasn’t too concerned.  He said if we didn’t make it with the boat we came up with we’d just tag along with another ship.  So much for the strict guidelines we heard and read about.

Prop wash from the freighter made us heel and bump into the tug.


Locking down was a bit different.  We were required to go in the lock first and be ahead of the ship.  I’m not too clear on why.  When they spin the prop to leave the chamber while locking up we are affected by the prop wash and it is quite severe. The boat heels over, bumps into the tug and strains the lines.  While locking down we are able to avoid this situation.  




Tugboat exhaust, ugh!  Yuck!

Going down






















The deepest cut and the new suspension bridge.
Where’s Waldo?  Only small boats can touch the wall by hand.


                                                                         
Beyond The Bridge of the Americas is the Pacific

  



 When it was all over and we dropped off the pilot we realized that it wasn’t as difficult as it sounded.  We were lucky and got to side tie and that helped.  But, we were tired mostly because of nervous energy.  It’s a busy, noisy and dirty operation transiting the canal but quite rewarding seeing and touching a part of world history up close.

102) Panama Canal

Panama City, Panama
Balboa Yacht Club (on a mooring) 8° 56.318 N 79° 33.531 W

The Panama Canal is a canal that crosses the Isthmus of Panama, in Central America, that allows vessels to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.  The waterway measures 40 miles, including dredged approach channels at each end.  The Panama Canal handles a large volume of world shipping and enables vessels to avoid traveling around South America, reducing their voyages by thousands of miles and many days.

The Panama Canal consists of three separate canal locks, as well as other artificial waterways.  The canal spans a total distance of 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean through the Isthmus of Panama.  The ship shown here is entering the Panama Canal from the Caribbean, or Atlantic, side.

The canal consists of artificially created lakes, channels, and a series of locks, or water-filled chambers, that raise and lower ships through the mountainous terrain of central Panama.  Built by the United States from 1904 to 1914, the Panama Canal posed major engineering challenges, such as damming a major river and digging a channel through a mountain ridge.  It was the largest and most complex project of this kind ever undertaken at that time, employing tens of thousands of workers and costing $350 million.

The canal cuts through the central and most populated region of Panama, and it has been a point of dispute between the governments of Panama and the United States through most of its existence.  Under a 1903 treaty, the United States controlled both the waterway and a large section of the surrounding land, known as the Panama Canal Zone, as if they were U.S. territory.  Panamanians resented this arrangement and argued that their country was unfairly denied benefits from the canal.  Eventually, riots and international pressure led the United States to negotiate two new treaties, which were signed in 1977 and took effect in 1979.  The treaties recognized Panama’s ultimate ownership of the canal and all the surrounding lands.  More than half of the former Canal Zone came under Panamanian control shortly after the treaties were ratified.  Control of the canal was turned over to Panama on December 31, 1999.

The Miraflores Locks
Tugboats and electric trains guide large ships through the Miraflores Locks near the Pacific end of the Panama Canal.

The canal consists of dredged approaches and three sets of locks at each end; Gatún Lake, one of the largest artificially created bodies of water in the world; and the excavated portion of the crossing, called Gaillard Cut.  At Gatún, on the Atlantic side, the locks form continuous steps; on the Pacific side, a small lake (Miraflores) separates the middle and upper locks.

Because the Isthmus of Panama extends east-west, a ship sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the canal actually travels from northwest to southeast.  To travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a ship enters Limón Bay from the north and anchors behind a breakwater to wait scheduling of its passage.  When ready, the canal authorities send out a canal pilot to take the vessel through the locks.  The canal employs about 240 highly trained and experienced pilots to handle the complex job of steering ships through the waterway.  As soon as the pilot takes over, the ship is under canal jurisdiction.  Very large or hard-to-maneuver ships may require two or more pilots and assistance from tugboats.

The ship travels south-southeast about 7 miles and enters the first lock at Gatún.  Line handlers at the lock attach steel mooring cables that are controlled by powerful electric locomotives, called mules.  The mules guide the ship through the locks and steady it while the chambers are filled with water.  In three steps the ship is raised to the level of Gatún Lake, 85 feet above the sea.
Panama Canal Cross Section
This cross section shows the route of a ship through the Panama Canal.  From the Atlantic Ocean, a ship is raised 85 feet through three sets of locks to the level of Gatún Lake.  It travels through the lake and Gaillard Cut, the narrowest section of the canal.  It is then lowered through a lock to Miraflores Lake, and passes through two more locks before reaching the Pacific Ocean.

The canal’s 12 locks (3 sets of double locks at each end) have the same dimensions: 110 feet wide by 1,000 feet long.  The gates at each end are 7 feet thick.  Water enters and leaves each lock through a system of main culverts or pipes, which connect to 100 holes in the floor of each chamber.  For each ship traveling through the canal, 52 million gallons of fresh water are used, fed by gravity flow from Gatún Lake.  To conserve water, smaller ships often go through the locks together.

At the top of the Gatún locks, the ship drops the mooring lines and proceeds under its own power for 23 miles through the lake, following the former channel of the Chagres River.  Gatún Dam, built adjoining the locks, flooded the river basin and formed the lake, which covers 166 square miles.  The flooding created a number of islands, as the water covered all but the tops of hills.  One of these islands, Barro Colorado, is a wildlife refuge operated by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

The waterway gradually narrows until the river turns to the east at Gamboa, flowing under a bridge of the Panama Railroad.  The canal’s marine division, with cranes, dredges, tugs, and barges, is located at Gamboa.


Lock
A lock is a section of a waterway enclosed by gates at either end to allow ships to be raised or lowered to a different water level.  In this example, a ship enters the upper level and the gates close behind it.  The water is then allowed to drain into the lower level, lowering the water level of the lock and the ship.  When the water level of the lock equals the level of the lower canal, the lower gates will open and the ship can proceed.

South from Gamboa, the canal follows a channel dug through the mountains, which was the most difficult part of the construction project.  Called Gaillard Cut, this section measures 9 miles and traverses the Continental Divide, a ridge made of rock and shale.  Numerous landslides occurred both during and after construction, requiring frequent dredging to keep the canal open.  The channel through the cut is 500 feet wide, the narrowest part of the canal.  Originally only 300 feet, the cut was widened in phases beginning in the 1930s to allow two-way traffic.  In the 1990s it was enlarged even more to accommodate larger ships.

At the southern end of Gaillard Cut, the ship slows and enters Pedro Miguel locks.  Again, cables and mules guide and steady the ship before it is lowered 31 feet to Miraflores Lake.  The cables are released and the ship crosses the lake, which is 1.3 miles long and lies 54 feet above sea level.  The ship then enters the last two locks, also named Miraflores, and is lowered to the level of the Pacific Ocean.  The final stretch of the canal carries the ship to the harbor of Balboa, where the canal pilot leaves the vessel.  The ship sails under the Bridge of the Americas (formerly known as the Thatcher Ferry Bridge) and into the Bay of Panama, an arm of the Pacific Ocean.  Northbound ships anchor in the Bay of Panama while waiting for their turn to travel through the canal to the Atlantic.

The entire trip through the canal takes between 8 and 10 hours plus waiting time.  The canal operates 24 hours a day year-round.  Each ship that travels through the canal pays a toll based on its capacity.


Building Gatún Locks
In this photograph, the huge gates and concrete chamber of Gatún Locks are shown during construction of the Panama Canal, which was completed in 1914.  The canal's locks were the largest ever built at the time.

Rain Forest, Panama
This lowland rain forest grows at sea level on Panama’s Caribbean coast.  The Caribbean side and the eastern portion of the country contain tropical rain forests with varied plant and animal life.  Several rivers traverse the forests and coastal areas also have numerous lagoons and bays.