Day 24 - The Canal (Wednesday, December 12, 2007)

Day 24 - The Canal

Unit 17-C, as in "Charlie" is our pilot. We are scheduled to enter Mira Flores Locks, the first set of locks at 0930. This would be my first daytime transit which I was hoping for. It's about a 10 hour evolution. We had been given "special lock" status, meaning that there would not be a ship in the

lock with us, only small craft. Once under the Bridge of Americas we approached

Mira Flores Locks.

Here the pilot is instructing the crew in how to make up to the side wall and tend the lines. You can see the ship in the lock ahead of us, and about 30 ft. above us.

Mira Flores consists of two chambers and a combined rise of 54 ft.

Large locomotive engines on tracks are used to tow the large ships sort of like tugs

Once clear we entered the third largest man-made lake in existence, Lake Gatun, spreading over 163 square miles. Ahead of us is a 2 1/2 hr run across Panama, passing numerous ships close aboard.

Gallard Cut presents narrows where small craft (like us) and ships may pass from opposite directions but deep draft traffic is limited to only one direction. During our transit we would pass close aboard ships moving from the Atlantic side to the Pacific.