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Published: April 4th 2009
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We stepped on board the Princess Queen at 7am just outside Panama City - to our surprise a kind of Latin Manhattan with tall skyscrapers lining the coast.
Our boat made its way past a flotilla of massive containers ships and oil tankers waiting their turn to enter the Canal. With the Pacific Ocean behind us and a Panama Canal Company captain on board (every ship has to have an official Company pilot to steer it through the Canal), we passed under the Bridge of the Americas and entered the Miraflores Locks, the first of three locks we would go through on our journey.
In simple terms, the first two locks lift ships from sea level to the level of the main stretch of the canal crossing the country. At the other coast, a third lock lowers ships back down to sea level.
When I first laid eyes on the locks, I couldn´t get over the size. They are absolutely huge. Picture yourself as a Ken or Barbie doll sitting in a toy boat inside a lock on the Grand Canal in Dublin or the Caldon Canal in Stoke. That thought might give you an idea of the
Holding back the water
Notice the man walking over the walkway, it gives you an idea of the size of the locks. scale of the Panama Canal. Each lock has two lanes and is 33.5m wide by 305m long. That´s over twice as long as the pitch in Croke Park! If stood on end, a lock would be taller than the Eiffel Tower! Man is but an ant in this scene.
Our boat was about 40m long by 6m wide yet we shared one lock at Miraflores with a big tug boat and a French cruise liner. Watching the enormous gates closing behind us was amazing. They are the original ones used since the canal opened in 1914. They made things to last back then. I can't help but think if the canal was built nowadays, it would have to close every second summer to replace the gates.
The whole process of passing through a lock runs like clockwork. From the moment the gates close behind the boat, it takes about ten minutes to rise up to the water level of the following stage. The Miraflores locks lifted us a total 16.5m over two stages. The next set, the Pedro Miguel locks, raised us the remaining 9.5m needed to cross Panama.
The Gaillard Cut was up next - the
biggest obstacle in the building of the canal and the biggest headache for the engineers. Yes yes I am well aware this blog is full of facts and figures, but it is unavoidable. Here´s another...In order to dig a channel from one side of the country to the other, it was necessary to carve a 14km slice through the Continental Divide (a virtually continous line of mountains that run from northern Alaska to southern Argentina that separate whether rainwater drains into the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans). Despite all this, the largest vessels using the canal (called Panamax ships) can only pass one at a time through Gaillard´s Cut. So in practice, although the locks can handle two-way traffic, from early morning to afternoon ships travel from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and the other way round from afternoon until late evening.
After passing through the Cut, we then reached Gatun Lake which was artificially created to serve the purpose of the canal. At the time it was the biggest man-made lake in the world. When traversing the lake, it felt as if we were floating along with a breeze, driftwood on the open sea. As soon as we approached
the outer wall of the last set of locks, we realised we had been travelling quite fast. And so we reached the Gatun locks, the largest of all three locks as it lowers ships back down to sea level in three stages. Its walls are 50 feet thick - over kill!
The process of going through the locks was familiar to us at this stage: gates open, enter the chamber, boat stabilised and tied with ropes to the side, gates close behind us, water fills up the chamber from below, when correct level is reached an alarm sounds and the front gates open to the next chamber. This is repeated three times in the Gatun locks alone!
The complete Canal transit cost our modest vessel US$36,000. A large container ship would be charged in the region of US$200,000. A bit of a money spinner. But the Canal Company´s argument is that it actually saves ships money and time by not having to round the tip of South America.
The Canal is an amazing sight and even with all the statistics it is hard to convery the size of it. A result of blood and guts - daring
Gatun locks
52 million gallons of fresh water are released into the ocean with every transit. engineering and back-breaking labour. Over 27,000 lives were lost during the construction. The numbers in every aspect are staggering.
After ten hours on board we reached our ultimate destination, Colon, a menacing port city on the north coast of Panama. It was a long day but well worth it. We made an incredible journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean and a journey through history.
And to top off a great day, our friends let us know that the boys in green won the rugby Grand Slam - enough to make any proud Irishman cry!
From James
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gerardy
gerardthompson
hi....
have just caught up with you guys again. C and I are back in Skiathos after a very intense winter. Thanks for the pix of your darling sisters....you are both looking very well and obviously enjoying the 'canal' as we travellers call it.....keep well and happy!