Entries this day: AM About_Panama_Canal Panama_Canal zzz_P

AM

8:30am EST Thursday 28 July 2005

I just woke up after nightmare night with Hitomi, and I'm basically walking around the ship *afraid* to come across her. Not exactly cool, but I'm on the top deck now and we are just leaving the port in Panama to go into the canal.

About Panama Canal

Cristobal

Cristobal itself is not much to look at and there is limited shopping in the city.

The only place to go was the large dockside flea market, which consequently was jammed with people and did rather well. We bought a nice woven basket made by almost clothed Indians from the Wounaam and Embera tribes which inhabit the rainforest in the jungle between Panama and Columbia, and a local Panamanian T-shirt. The Indians favored us with a dance when they were not selling woven ware.

There seem to be no restaurants in the city.

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal extends across the Isthmus of Panama from Colon on the Atlantic Ocean (Caribbean Sea) side to Balboa and the Pacific Ocean.

canal operation

The operation of the locks consumes a prodigious amount of fresh water. Each time a ship passes through the waterway, some 52 million gallons must flow into the locks and out to sea. Most of its comes from Gatun Lake but with the increase of traffic, nearby Madden Lake (or Alajuela Lake) was built, also by damming, in 1936. There are three levels of continuous locks at Gatun on the Atlantic side but on the Pacific side it was necessary to separate the levels. There is only one level change at Pedro Miguel from the 85-foot high Gaillard Cut to 54-foot high Miraflores Lake. Like all Panama Canal locks, chambers are filled and emptied by gravity, water flowing through a series of 18-foot diameter tunnels allowing the filling and emptying of a chamber in 10 minutes!

The lock gates, another marvel of engineering, consist of a pair of towering leaves ranging from 47 to 82 feet high. The leaves are each 65 feet wide and seven feet thick with a weight from 400 to over 700 tons. The lower sections of the gates are watertight flotation chambers. Each set of gates can be opened or closed in about two minutes by 40-horsepower electric motors.

There will be three main culverts extending the full length of the locks, one in each of the side walls and one in the middle wall. The side-wall culverts are 22 feet in diameter from the intake at the south end of the upper locks to a point 320 feet north, where they are reduced to 18 feet, at which diameter they will continue to the end. a distance of about 3,500 feet. the culvert in the middle wall is 22 feet in diameter from its south end to a point 120 feet north, where it also will be reduced to 18 feet, at which diameter it will continue to the end, a distance of about 3,500 feet. Lateral culverts in the form of an ellipse will run in the floor from and at right angles to the main culverts at intervals of 32 and 36 feet, leading alternately from the side and middle culverts. Water will be delivered or collected by each lateral culvert through five openings or wells in the floor. Valves, which may be opened or closed either individually or all at one time, will be located at the intakes and outlets of the main culverts, and at the connections between the center culverts and the lateral culverts. In the center space of the middle wall there will be a tunnel, divided into three stories or galleries. The lowest gallery is for drainage; the middle, for the wires that will carry the electric current to operate the gate and valve machinery, which will be installed in the center wall, and the top, a passageway for the operators.

The locks are given maintenance frequently. If by chance you happen to visit Miraflores locks at that time it is an impressive sight to see the vast empty chamber and its huge gates being cleaned.

An original feature of the locks is the system of electric locomotives better known as "mules". The mules operate along the lock wall and are used to position vessels properly within the lock chamber and ensure they don't bump into the side of the chamber. Each mule weighs 55 tons and is equipped with two windlasses (winches used to hoist or haul), each of which can exert 35,000 pounds of pulling strength, plus a special gear which engages a slotted track between the rails with additional traction if necessary. Small vessels may need up to six or eight mules.

Every ship's captain has to relinquish the responsibility of navigating the vessel through the Canal of Panama Canal pilot. Over 250 pilots move some 14,000 vessels through the Canal each year. Total time spent in Panamanian waters averages about 24 hours.

transit costs

Cargo and passenger ships (including yachts, army and navy transports and hospital ships) pay according to the amount of cargo space they hold.

100 cubic feet of space = 1 Panama Canal net Ton

When carrying passengers or cargo: $2.57 per net ton

Without passengers or cargo: $2.04 per net ton

The average toll for oceangoing commercial vessels is approximately $45,000 but whatever a vessel pays, it can save up to ten times the toll by eliminating the journey round Cape Horn.

Large ships (~105 feet / ~31 meters wide) pay between $80,000 and $150,000 in tolls.

history

The canal was constructed in two stages. The first between 1881 and 1888 by a French company (led by Lesseps, who is credited with building the Suez Canal), then followed by the Americans, with their construction completed in 1914.

In 1883 it was realized that the tide level at the Pacific side was almost 19 feet higher than the Atlantic side. Engineers concluded the difference in levels would be a danger to navigation. It was then proposed that a tidal lock should be constructed near Panama City to preserve the level from there to Colon.

Eventually, due to some new thinking, and in an effort to do it right the first time, it was decided that the original plan should be modified and a widely accepted lock system should be used.

As an example, when a ship traveling from the Atlantic side reaches the Gatun Locks, a series of three locks raise that ship about 85 ft. to Gatun Lake. Then it's a 40 mile trip to the locks at Pedro Miguel, locks that lower the ship 30 feet. At the Miraflores locks the ship is lowered an additional 52 feet to Pacific Ocean sea level.

The Gaillard Cut, once called Culebra Cut and renamed for Col. David Gaillard the engineer in charge of this section of the Canal work, is the most interesting part of the trip. This portion of the channel is about nine miles long. It was excavated through rock and shale and the endeavor cost heavily in lives and was one of the many reasons for the Lesseps' failure. Its width was originally 300 feet but it was widened later to 500 feet. A new widening construction is actually under way.

(photo: Bas Obispo 1886.
Excavator at work near empire.
Averaging 400 cubic yards a day.)

CNN Panama Canal history

Cucaracha landslide, Gaillard Cut, Panama Canal, in 1913, which occurred during construction of the canal. Note construction railroad tracks on the bottom the future canal. Activity of this 2.2-million-m3 earth slide-earth flow continued during and after filling of the canal.
(used without permission from http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2001/ofr-01-0276/)

October 1986 reactivation of the Cucaracha landslide, Gaillard Cut, Panama Canal. The landslide extended nearly across the channel, but much of the toe had been removed by dredges (in the photo) by the time this photo was taken.
(used without permission from http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2001/ofr-01-0276/)

Since its opening in 1914, the canal has been closed only one day, December 20th, 1989, during the invasion of Panama by the United States, in their successful effort to remove the de facto ruler General Manuel Noriega from office. Managed for decades by the U.S, the canal was returned to Panama on December 31, 1999.

Gaillard Cut, Panama Canal - 16 Feb 2004 11:53:57 EST
(used without permission from http://www.moonrise.ws/Pictures/index.cgi?item=Cruising2b/T1Cut)

The Culebra Cut, where the canal slices through the continental divide; and the beginnings of a huge new suspension bridge, which will link the two halves of Panama.

Balboa

The small town of Balboa is at the Pacific end of the canal and is adjacent to Panama City. Once part of the U.S.-controlled Canal Zone, its former military buildings, barracks and officers' quarters have been converted to shops, offices, schools and luxury homes.

The big buildings and wide lawns of Balboa provide a stark contrast to the narrow streets of the old parts of nearby Panama City. Definitely worth a visit is Balboa's Canal Administration Building. The building's rotunda, which resembles the one in the U.S. Capitol, is surrounded by fantastic murals that tell the dramatic story of how the canal was built. Near the road leading to Ancon Hill is Los Pueblitos, which has replicas of villages of four different Panamanian ethnic groups.

If you want to shop, the folk market at Stevens Circle in Balboa is a good place to buy local handicrafts. It's a small, outdoor market, where no one hassles you to buy. Indians from the San Blas Islands are there with plenty of molas (embroidery pieces) to sell. (If you will be visiting the San Blas Islands during your trip, you may prefer to buy molas there. The selection is better.)

Fort Amador, once a U.S. military installation, is going through a major transformation. It has become a cruise-ship port, and many tours of the city and canal are offered from there. Flamenco Island, where the fort is located, is becoming a resort complex complete with marina, restaurants, bars and shops. (A hotel and casino are in the works.)

The Causeway stretches out from the end of Fort Amador to three small islands, affording great views of the canal, the Bridge of the Americas, which crosses the canal, and Panama City. Several rustic waterfront restaurants are found along the Causeway. Also just past Balboa are the impressive Miraflores Locks, the most convenient viewing point for the canal (with a nice visitors center). 2 mi/3 km west of Panama City.

sources

http://www.africa.com/dmap/Panama/Where+to+Go
http://www.noonsite.com/Countries/Panama/?rc=Formalities
http://www.boston.com/globe/search/stories/travel/cristobal_panama.htm
http://vivapanama.org/PanamaCanal.htm
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/camerica/pncanal.htm
http://www.caribbeanportreviews.com/Cristobal.htm

Panama Canal

12:48pm EST Thursday 28 July 2005

I'm feeling a bit better, though I was pretty distraught for a while over Hitomi situation.

I'm downloading some 220 pictures onto my computer and looking out the window I see we are in Gatun Lake, which looks just like a flood plain (because it is).

zzz P

4:01am EST Friday 29 July 2005

I peed off the side of the boat, marking the ocean as mine. It was just because I could do it and wanted to do it and it was raining so nearly undetectable.