Panama Canal
During the Western Caribbean run on the Constellation, we would stop at the port of Cristobal in Panama. It was one of those ports where I would get off the ship into the pier, buy my juice ~ fantastic juice ~ and then return to the ship. The one time I had been off the ship was when we went into town to deliver the gifts for Christmas.
Cristobal is at the eastern side of the Panama Canal. Despite being so close, I never saw the locks. When the alarm when off at 6:30am for Akis to get up and do the night audit, I flipped on the TV to catch us going through the first of a set of 3 locks.
Some Canal info:
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.
To see how it works: http://www.panamacanal-cruises.com/panama-canal/howitworks.htm
As part of the cruise experience, the ship had someone brought on from the Panamanian Canal Authority who made announcements on the locks as we travelled through ~ here is what I learned...
It costs 2 million dollars to purchase a mule. (Mules are the devices that hold the ship in place while in the lock.) 8 mules are required to move the Infinity, or rather, hold her in place as she travels under it's own power, and the mule is used only to guide the ship. The mules have cables which are attached to the ship ~ the cables are held tight to keep the ship from moving in any direction other than foward and the mules travel with the ship along the tracks.
The span of the lock is 110 ft. Celebrity's Millenium class ships ~ which is what Infinity is ~ has 2 ft of clearance on each side of the ship while in the lock.
Fire Brigade travels with the ship through part of the canal ~ this is at an additional cost to the company. However in the event of a fire while in the canal, the amount of water these things pump was astronomical. I can't recall the figure, I want to say 4,000L per minute but I'm not sure if that is correct.
Tolls ~ Regal Princess paid $189K in tolls and it is shorter than Infinity, so our bill was larger as the Tolls are paid based on Tonnage. We are 89K tonnes. The cost for container ships is $49.00 for each 20' container on a barge. Here are some shots of the Princess in the lock.
The doors to the locks are moved with a motor that has the same HP as a lawnmower. This can be done as the door is hollow in one half, and the other half has water in it. This causes the door to float and therefore doesn't need to have much power to move it.
Water fills the lock at a rate greater than what you can fill your bath tub. The water level Raises/Lowers at 39 inches per minute or 1m per minute. Takes 8 minutes to drain and lower the 21 feet we dropped in the second lock.
Looking at the third set of locks ~ the most westerly pair, this is what it looked like approaching.
Maintenance on the locks is planned each year. They shut one set of the locks for 10 days every year reducing the capacity by half. The cost of the maintenance is in the millions of dollars ~ but hey, I guess when you are collecting tolls of $200K, that isn't too bad.
The locks operate by using fresh water to fill and empty the locks. Thus the lock system is heavily reliant on the capacity of fresh water that can be collected in the lakes and reservoirs. Currently the Infinity is one of the largest ships that can pass through the Panama canal ~ also called Panamax. All larger ships such as the Freedom, known as post-Panamax, to move from one ocean to the other, must sail down around South America. To increase the capacity of the Panama Canal to allow for these larger ships, they are looking to build another set of locks with wider capacity. This also requires more water. To increase the amount of water to meet this demand, they are currently dredging the canal with the machine below to increase the capacity of water that can be held. Also the new locks are proposing to empty 60% of the fresh water back into the reservoir so it can be recycled. Comment made by a fellow crew member was what kind of environmental impacts would increasing the canal and reservoirs cause ~ the increased need for water all for the sake of the mighty dollar.
Here are the remaining photos of ships that were with us as we passed through the Canal.
Once through the canals, we anchored off of Panama City. We decided to head out to Nikos favourite restaurant here and have dinner. The menu consisted mostly of meat products, but it kept the gang happy.
Nikos decided a bit of rest/relax was in order and made way for the massage chair. Doesn't he look happy!!
Cristobal is at the eastern side of the Panama Canal. Despite being so close, I never saw the locks. When the alarm when off at 6:30am for Akis to get up and do the night audit, I flipped on the TV to catch us going through the first of a set of 3 locks.
Some Canal info:
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.
To see how it works: http://www.panamacanal-cruises.com/panama-canal/howitworks.htm
As part of the cruise experience, the ship had someone brought on from the Panamanian Canal Authority who made announcements on the locks as we travelled through ~ here is what I learned...
It costs 2 million dollars to purchase a mule. (Mules are the devices that hold the ship in place while in the lock.) 8 mules are required to move the Infinity, or rather, hold her in place as she travels under it's own power, and the mule is used only to guide the ship. The mules have cables which are attached to the ship ~ the cables are held tight to keep the ship from moving in any direction other than foward and the mules travel with the ship along the tracks.
The span of the lock is 110 ft. Celebrity's Millenium class ships ~ which is what Infinity is ~ has 2 ft of clearance on each side of the ship while in the lock.
Fire Brigade travels with the ship through part of the canal ~ this is at an additional cost to the company. However in the event of a fire while in the canal, the amount of water these things pump was astronomical. I can't recall the figure, I want to say 4,000L per minute but I'm not sure if that is correct.
Tolls ~ Regal Princess paid $189K in tolls and it is shorter than Infinity, so our bill was larger as the Tolls are paid based on Tonnage. We are 89K tonnes. The cost for container ships is $49.00 for each 20' container on a barge. Here are some shots of the Princess in the lock.
The doors to the locks are moved with a motor that has the same HP as a lawnmower. This can be done as the door is hollow in one half, and the other half has water in it. This causes the door to float and therefore doesn't need to have much power to move it.
Water fills the lock at a rate greater than what you can fill your bath tub. The water level Raises/Lowers at 39 inches per minute or 1m per minute. Takes 8 minutes to drain and lower the 21 feet we dropped in the second lock.
Looking at the third set of locks ~ the most westerly pair, this is what it looked like approaching.
Maintenance on the locks is planned each year. They shut one set of the locks for 10 days every year reducing the capacity by half. The cost of the maintenance is in the millions of dollars ~ but hey, I guess when you are collecting tolls of $200K, that isn't too bad.
The locks operate by using fresh water to fill and empty the locks. Thus the lock system is heavily reliant on the capacity of fresh water that can be collected in the lakes and reservoirs. Currently the Infinity is one of the largest ships that can pass through the Panama canal ~ also called Panamax. All larger ships such as the Freedom, known as post-Panamax, to move from one ocean to the other, must sail down around South America. To increase the capacity of the Panama Canal to allow for these larger ships, they are looking to build another set of locks with wider capacity. This also requires more water. To increase the amount of water to meet this demand, they are currently dredging the canal with the machine below to increase the capacity of water that can be held. Also the new locks are proposing to empty 60% of the fresh water back into the reservoir so it can be recycled. Comment made by a fellow crew member was what kind of environmental impacts would increasing the canal and reservoirs cause ~ the increased need for water all for the sake of the mighty dollar.
Here are the remaining photos of ships that were with us as we passed through the Canal.
Once through the canals, we anchored off of Panama City. We decided to head out to Nikos favourite restaurant here and have dinner. The menu consisted mostly of meat products, but it kept the gang happy.
Nikos decided a bit of rest/relax was in order and made way for the massage chair. Doesn't he look happy!!
posted by Carrie @ 7:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home