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Just got back from going through "The Big Ditch" (per Teddy Roosevelt).
Here is an excerpt from an email I wrote to friends.
Then came the main event...in Panama (though no stop there, just the 9? hour canal transit). Amazing.
The actual locks are a tight fit; there is only two (!) feet of clearance on each side of this cruise ship (a106' wide vessel in a 110' wide canal lock, and they told us that a 108' wide US battleship once went through these locks). They use electric cog-wheel locomotives along each side with cables to keep any ship fully centered (though ships advance under their own power in the locks); there are 2 small train-locomotives on each side of the bow and 1 locomotive on each side of the stern... again, using cables to keep centered. On the Pacific side one goesthrough a double lock and then a single lock a mile or two later before entering the so-called Culebra Cut which is a long and rather narrow passage famous for its difficulty in construction... then to the huge man-made Gatun Lake (and this lake is the bulk of the canal - maybe 30 miles of about 50 total for entire passing - there was only the Chagres River there over 100years ago, and the lake is the largest man-made one in the world). On theAtlantic side all 3 locks are together. Anyway, each lock raises the ship 27'for a total of 85' to enter the first cut and then on to the lake (requiring 53 million gallons of lake water per ship per lock). Yep, a ship is elevated 85' to cross the land through the canal. When you first enter the system, it's really weird to see a nearby freighter near the locks that is much higherthan you.
We passed through the old/original canal (for a mere $400K or so, and moved ahead of many freighters that were waiting thanks to our $35K reservation! - thank you Holland America).And speaking of expenses, many freighters unload at the entrance only to load containers onto a train that parallels the canal, and then reload it all back onto another ship on the other side... which I'm told is a little (?) bitcheaper.
We were going"north" from the Balboa entrance (Bay of Panama of thePacific) to the Colon bay entrance on the Caribbean side (technically it was SE to NW transit).
BTW, the new canal, nearby and only a few years old, can accept considerably wider ships (to 160' wide).Technically, the second canal is merely a set of parallel locks at each endwith better gates and other technology, otherwise the lake is shared by all (and there were a few places in the lake where we passed very close to a freighter or two). Also, evidently the Chinese have given Nicaragua a HUGE deposit to put another one there that would rely on large Lake Nicaragua aspart of it... though many say they are nuts due to the nearby volcanoes. But, hey, perhaps they can build it with cheap Chinese labor and rice... like the 19th century US railroads. :excitement: [It was supposed to be completed in 2019 but hasn't even been started yet. May never.]
We passed by many large ships- mostly freighters and one cruise ship. It's all a one way passage through the locks portion for about 12 hours per day. BTW, there is a website where one can watch the up to 40 ships per day entering the original canal! I'm told to go to www.panamacanal.com (then find their webcam)!
Here is an excerpt from an email I wrote to friends.
Then came the main event...in Panama (though no stop there, just the 9? hour canal transit). Amazing.
The actual locks are a tight fit; there is only two (!) feet of clearance on each side of this cruise ship (a106' wide vessel in a 110' wide canal lock, and they told us that a 108' wide US battleship once went through these locks). They use electric cog-wheel locomotives along each side with cables to keep any ship fully centered (though ships advance under their own power in the locks); there are 2 small train-locomotives on each side of the bow and 1 locomotive on each side of the stern... again, using cables to keep centered. On the Pacific side one goesthrough a double lock and then a single lock a mile or two later before entering the so-called Culebra Cut which is a long and rather narrow passage famous for its difficulty in construction... then to the huge man-made Gatun Lake (and this lake is the bulk of the canal - maybe 30 miles of about 50 total for entire passing - there was only the Chagres River there over 100years ago, and the lake is the largest man-made one in the world). On theAtlantic side all 3 locks are together. Anyway, each lock raises the ship 27'for a total of 85' to enter the first cut and then on to the lake (requiring 53 million gallons of lake water per ship per lock). Yep, a ship is elevated 85' to cross the land through the canal. When you first enter the system, it's really weird to see a nearby freighter near the locks that is much higherthan you.
We passed through the old/original canal (for a mere $400K or so, and moved ahead of many freighters that were waiting thanks to our $35K reservation! - thank you Holland America).And speaking of expenses, many freighters unload at the entrance only to load containers onto a train that parallels the canal, and then reload it all back onto another ship on the other side... which I'm told is a little (?) bitcheaper.
We were going"north" from the Balboa entrance (Bay of Panama of thePacific) to the Colon bay entrance on the Caribbean side (technically it was SE to NW transit).
BTW, the new canal, nearby and only a few years old, can accept considerably wider ships (to 160' wide).Technically, the second canal is merely a set of parallel locks at each endwith better gates and other technology, otherwise the lake is shared by all (and there were a few places in the lake where we passed very close to a freighter or two). Also, evidently the Chinese have given Nicaragua a HUGE deposit to put another one there that would rely on large Lake Nicaragua aspart of it... though many say they are nuts due to the nearby volcanoes. But, hey, perhaps they can build it with cheap Chinese labor and rice... like the 19th century US railroads. :excitement: [It was supposed to be completed in 2019 but hasn't even been started yet. May never.]
We passed by many large ships- mostly freighters and one cruise ship. It's all a one way passage through the locks portion for about 12 hours per day. BTW, there is a website where one can watch the up to 40 ships per day entering the original canal! I'm told to go to www.panamacanal.com (then find their webcam)!
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