The Doors Have Opened

On board Sila, a huge milestone has been passed. The doors have opened and we have entered a new, and possibly more daring, phase in our adventure. We are in the Pacific. A week ago, we went through the Panama Canal. My favorite section was the Gatun Locks but I also found some facts very interesting.

Before I describe my experience, you should understand a few things. The Panama Canal was built going from the Atlantic into a lake in the middle of Panama. This lake, Gatun Lake, was flooded to allow huge boats to pass through its shallow depths.  There are three different sets of Locks: Gatun, Pedro Miguel, and Miraflores that raise ships 26 meters up and lower them 26 meters down. The Gatun Locks have three chambers, the Pedro Miguel has one, and the Miraflores has two.

A lock is used to change the level of water the ship is traveling on. The ship enters a chamber. The doors to this chamber close and water is either added or removed, raising or lowering the water level. The set of doors on the opposite chamber wall open and the boat exits the chamber at a different level.  In some cases, like the Gatun Locks, the boat exits the first lock and proceeds into the next chamber going through one set of doors. If you are going south from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, you start with the Gatun Locks. The three Gatun Locks go from the Atlantic to the Gatun Lake. The Pedro Miguel Lock takes you from Gatun Lake to a lake dug out of the jungle called Miraflores Lake, while the Miraflores Lock takes you from the Miraflores Lake to the Pacific Ocean.

It was silent. Not actually quiet but the quiet where everyone's anxiety, thoughts, and memories suck away the feeling of noise. Then everything happened all at once. We all got up and the canal transit guide came aboard. In a short moment, we were zipping away. It started raining but stopped after a bit. We decided to go look at the new lock doors that will be installed to the new set of bigger locks, while we waited for a cargo ship to enter the first chamber. Eight of the sixteen doors had arrived from Italy where they had been built. The new doors, sitting on land right now, are unbelievably big. I don't have the words to describe how tall they are. Simply put, they are massive and very impressive to look at.

Here is Amanda in front of the new lock doors. At the base of the doors, you can see normal size trucks- maybe that will help you get a sense of how big they are.

The container ship proceeded into the chamber and we followed. A missile flew and landed just above my head. Another one hit and it wasn't until the third that I realized canal workers were throwing us monkey's fists attached to messenger lines onboard. A monkey's fist is a knot tied around stones with a trailing line so that people could throw us thin lines to tie around our docking lines that are too heavy to throw. Four different people walked us through the doors and into the chamber behind a huge ship. The doors were closing before our lines where completely cleated. Our four line handlers were Danny Icaza, who is an HMI alumnus who lives in Panama and who jumped at the invitation to be one of our line-handlers while we visited him and his family, Amanda, our old babysitter from Leadville, Jeff, Amanda's boyfriend, and Mama. The line handlers were the best we could hope for:  happy, somehow close friends, and trustworthy. Daddy was the necessary helmsman. Jack and I were the photographers.

All of a sudden, a whistle started and the water began to come in from below, showing tons of current. The water came in incredibly fast, especially when you consider the size of the chamber that was holding us and the container ship: we rose one foot in 30 seconds. As the water rose, the line handlers pulled in the lines connecting us to shore, taking up the slack. Their attention to detail kept Sila in the middle of the chamber and kept us from banging the sides. Once the Lock was full, the next set of doors opened. The four workers walked us on into the next chamber. We went through it and the third one the same way and without incident but I marveled at it the entire time. During these Locks, we took not a single picture, which may have made this memory special, because it was too dark and late.

This is a picture of us coming into the first chamber of Gatun Locks. I think it is the only picture we took that night.

I smiled looking back. It was dark and wet.  I was hungry and tired but we had left the Atlantic and the next phase had begun. I grinned and agreed with what Danny said, "I have gone to the canal museums a million times and you could too, but it will never be the same as going through the locks." Having gone to the museum, I completely agree and said, "Here we come, Pacific!"

I also loved, absolutely loved and disliked many Canal facts. I want to share some of the most interesting ones. 65 billion current day dollars and 400 thousand lives have been put into building and maintaining the canal. 350 thousand of those lives were lost from mosquito born diseases killing the labor force. The French started and stopped building the canal in the 1800's and the building was only resumed and completed by Americans in the 1900's when there was better equipment. The largest ship that can go through the Panama Canal is called a Panamax and is 294 meters long and 32 meters wide. In a century, the Panama Canal has been closed for only two consecutive days when the lake was too high for operation. When Gatun Lake was flooded, hundreds of thousands of trees died and to this day many people are uncovering huge chunks of beautiful mahogany that has been under water for more than a century. This has nothing to do with the canal but Panama means "An Abundance of Fish" in the language of a native tribe because they lived mostly on fish and seafood.

One of my favorite stories is about the crane that cost one dollar. During World War II, Americans captured a crane from the Germans. The crane is on a barge and is used to maintain all the different parts of the canal. They wanted to give it to Panama as a gift but Panama refused. Wanting the crane but not wanting to be indebted to the United States, Panama bought the crane for one dollar but had to pay 150 thousand dollars to ship it to Panama instead of splitting the price with the US, a good deal for Panama.

When a Panamax or smaller ship approaches a lock, a rowboat with two people in it goes out to meet it. One man is rowing while the other is prepared to catch the line. A line is thrown to the two men and they row back ashore and connect the line to a cable capable of withstanding 5 thousand pounds of force. In one hundred years, a better way has not been found and the canal workers have tried a variety of different approaches. The cable is connected to an electric car. It works the same way as a subway but a driver controls it more directly and four of these cars pull a ship into the actual Lock chamber.  It was one of the most incredible things to watch the tiny rowboat approach a giant ship. When we are out sailing, we try to stay more than two miles away from ships this size, or four miles away at night. So to see a tiny rowboat right next to it was a little daunting. I certainly don’t want that job!

Here are Daddy and Amanda waiting for the ship to be secured. You can see the locomotive with the cables running to the ship.

The doors are designed so that the water holds them closed. They are designed to swing inward into the Lock chamber. If water in the chamber is higher than the water below them, then the water's weight would need to rip the door off its hinges before the gates would open. I think this is a smart idea and made me feel more relaxed. I was nervous that the gates might open before we went through until I learned how they worked.

These are pictures of us going through Gatun Lake.

 Mama unties us from the buoy that we stayed on for our night in Gatun Lake in the early morning.

 Amanda sits on the boom while I pause from searching for crocodiles for a picture as we motor through the lake.

 Daddy smiles as we laugh about a previous post where we went within a mile of some container ships. We are a little closer this time!

 The canal is expanding so there is a dredging operation in which they make the sides of the canal deep enough for big ships to pass through. Behind me and Amanda, you can see one of the dredging machines at work.

 I pose with a container ship that would normally be given four miles of sea room.

 Daddy motors cleanly under the centennial bridge which dwarfs even container ships.

Danny sits on the doghouse roof as we approach a new set of Locks. Jeff stands ready at the bow.

We enjoyed lunch tied to a buoy while we waited for our turn to go through the Pedro Miguel Locks. Clockwise from Daddy are: Daddy, Danny, Freddy (the guide), Amanda who is coming on deck, Jack, me, and Jeff.

As I wrote above, we went through the first set of locks, the Gatun Locks, with hand liners. For Pedro Miguel and Miraflores Locks, we were tied up to a tourist boat that transits the canal. The tourist boat would go into the lock and tie up to the side, and then we would tie Sila to the tourist boat. Then the line handlers on the tourist boat did all the work and we got a free ride down, no letting out slack on shore lines.

 In this picture, we are tying up to the tourist boat.

Jack talks to one of the many curious tourists as we wait for the large ship to enter the locks behind us

 Sila entering the Miraflores Locks

 Daddy and Mama watching as the ship comes in behind us

 Jack, sitting on the boom, waiting for the ship to come in behind us.

 The boat is finally coming in behind us, and another one in the lock next door.

For the last lock, we had an ore carrier behind us. You can tell just how close it is to the back of Sila

 The tourist boat and the ore carrier follow us into the Pacific

I sat watching the water get closer and closer to the ocean level. An egret sat on the Lock doors. The tourist boat seemed to be one solid click because there were so many cameras snapping away. I hoped nobody else would ask me about our story and what we are doing on Sila as the water stopped going down. Then it happened, they opened. A feeling of excitement raced through me as we slid smoothly forward.

"Here we come Pacific!"

As if welcoming us to the Pacific, egrets lined the wall next to us. I ran to the bow so that I could be the first one on Sila to reach the Pacific Ocean. In a couple of days, we will celebrate one full year on Sila. Between that milestone and crossing the Panama Canal, it seems like we have just passed a major turning point. I am ready for the next chapter of this adventure. – Porter