I spent a large chunk of January away from my models on a much larger boat (P&O’s MV Aurora), the highlight of which (for me) was a transit of the Panama Canal. It took pretty well a whole day from picking up the pilots and line handlers at 5.15 am (just below our cabin window – thanks guys!) to popping out into the Pacific at about 4.30 pm. A once-in-a-lifetime experience (unless, I guess you do this sort of thing every year, which I don’t!). I thought some of the piccies might be of interest, so here they are –
First, a few for the tug fans – these are the tugs that took us into and out of the locks (plus a couple of pushers – lots of these being used for general maintenance but I didn’t get any good photos of them).
[URL=http://s1293.photobucket.com/user/Greggyp99/media/Cruise%2020126/Tug1_zpsjwrxb9rz.jpg.html]
[/url]
I guess everyone knows that the biggest ships are a pretty tight squeeze in the Panama Canal locks – here’s a couple of shots showing how tight it is –
The big ships aren’t allowed through under their own power – too risky! – and are pulled through the locks with the electric “mules” you can see in a couple of the piccies above. Here are a couple of other shots –
And there’s lots of them –
The lock gates are pretty massive (the locks are 1000 feet long) –
They are moved with just 40hp engines. Also, there are no pumps – all the locks are filled and emptied entirely by gravity, so each lockful of water is ultimately lost to the ocean when it is drained. For those who are unaware, much of the Panama Canal isn’t a canal as we might understand it – a trench dug through the land to carry vessels. For a large part of the transit the ships pass through Lake Gatun, formed originally by a dam and which is 164 sq miles, the largest man-made lake in the world when it was created. As well as a passage for the ships it provides the source of water to fill the locks (Panama gets 120” of rain a year). After sailing through the Caribbean, the water in Lake Gatun is a very odd colour –
A great day, and lots of fun to watch this extraordinary engineering feat in operation. If you ever get the chance to do a transit, I recommend it.
Greg
