We made this same transit aboard the same liner, Celebrity's Infinity, in 2004. Wonderful voyage. As I remember, Infinity was of the new Panamax class, and we barely cleared the Canal, about a foot or so on each side. More room now, I understand, after the re-shaping of the Canal.
Spent time there during the Viet Nam war. Flew C-97 cargo aircraft on resupply missions. Mostly ammunition and some personnel. The humidity was stifling. Once in the equatorial zone, we stripped down to our skivies and actually opened both over wing escape hatches while in flight hoping for some relief from the choking humidity. It didn't help. We sat in puddles of our own sweat. At night settled in our barracks a large truck drove through the base spraying for mosquitos. There were no windows in the barracks , only screens, the mosquito spray would billow into the barracks. The fans that blew the spray were about 8 feet in diameter. They sprayed each night seven days a week. We would take off at max weight and flew at night. The plane had no way to jettison fuel if you needed to return to base because of engine trouble. It happened once to our crew and we had no choice but to fly around at low altitude in the dead of night until we had burned off enough fuel to allow us to land and repair the plane. The fuel burn took about three hours. The repairs took over a week. We sat in the humidity with nothing to do but sweat.
As one who passed thru the Canal westbound twice in 1970, this documentary is a superb experience! I was on a 38' sailboat and we went through the series of locks in the same locks as a freighter. From my deck the half-exposed propeller of the ship looked huge! But they turned slowly, and did not disturb the lock waters.
Nice video bringing back many memories of my youth in the Canal Zone. I lived on the Pacific side of the canal in Balboa and La Boca from 1953 to 1973 and watched the bridge being built from 1958 to 1962 at the Pacific entrance to Balboa harbor. You do, however, have one error in your description. A canal transit is referred to as a northbound or southbound, not east or west. In fact, the Pacific side of the canal is further east than the Atlantic side is, thus the sun rises first on the Pacific side and then sets last on the Atlantic side. Look on a map and you'll see that. Both sides get lots of rain, but the Atlantic side gets a lot more than does the Pacific side, and rain is necessary for the continuing operation of the canal as it is all gravity flow. There are no pumps. Over 52 million gallons of fresh water is spilled into the sea for each transit through the older locks, and I have not seen the figures for the new locks.
Many thanks for your comment and I do apologise for taking so long to respond. I had trouble logging into my Google account! Thankyou for the correction about the direction of transit and of course you are absolutly correct. I did a southbound transit. Must have had too much sun on the day that I filmed my video. I imagine you must have had a great time living so close to such an amazing construction site and watching it all being built. Thanks again, all the best!
Well, actually no, I did not watch it being built. The Canal was opened in 1914, and I was not born then! My dad did work at Miraflores Locks during my childhood and I spent a lot of time there visiting him at work, and of course, up in the Control House (it was NEVER called a Control TOWER as erroneously stated in some sources) where I was able to operate the gates and valves to put ships through, under his supervision of course. I also went down in the tunnels to see the rising stem valves in operation. As designed, the locks operated electrically, being the first undertaking of this magnitude to be operated electrically, and the Canal generated its own electricity by the hydroelectric power plants at Gatun and the one beside Miraflores Locks. The use of concrete was also radical for the time, and the Locks were by far the largest structures ever built of concrete up to that time. And, as said before, there are no pumps. The water is spilled into the ocean on every transit, thus rainfall is critical to the operation of the Canal. It is definitely the engineering marvel of the 20th Century, and the men who designed it and oversaw its construction were brilliant engineers.
Panama canal is good engineering in invention. The canal links Pacific and Atlantic oceans. There is difference of water levels. There are gates in the canal due to which water is decreased or increased. The vessels are hauled by two locomotive engines when the ships passes the canal. There is complicated process as compared to Sawaiz canal where two oceans water are at the same level. Engr. Nabi Bakhsh Lahore Pakistan
I may be mistaken, the locks are there to raise and lower the ships into and out of the lake which is above sea level? The oceans are at the same levels?
O canal , Hoje com estas tecnologias, que influenciam por completo a demora pelas passagens das embarcações, se precisa ser revisto. Claro! Isto terá um certo gasto. Mas logo, a recuperação financeira.
Like watching grass grow or paint drying. Not a lot going on. Spent time in the Canal Zone during the Vietnam war. The canal is much more interesting in person than it is on this edited video. I remember seeing thousands of black eels inside the Gatun lock after it was emptied. The humidity was ferocious night and day.
Thanks John. My video doesn't really do it justice. You could really hear the expensive scrape of metal on concrete from the ship I was on. All the best.
Great video the odd thing is just before you tube sent me here I was watching this video of the canal from that cruise ship in front of you. I am sure cause that car Carrie in front of you is in their video and your ship is behind their ship.
Thanks for watching my video and I am glad you enjoyed it. How strange that you should be on the ship in front! In the extended version of my video, which has all the usual holiday stuff on it that won't be of interest to anybody but me, I actualy filmed the ship you were on going through the canal ahead of us. I hope you enjoyed the journey as much as I did.
Alex Duff No no I wasn't on that ship. what I meant was that someone else on that other cruise ship also has a video that they made at the same time as your video. I was watching their vacation video of the canal. The you-tube auto player then launch your video. So I just thought what a coincidence.
I see. Apologies, my mistake. How strange that the auto player should pick up two videos filmed at the same time! Maybe its more clever than I thought it was or maybe I am just to far behind the times to understand how it all works!! Life used to be so simple.
Hi Sayo. My apologies for taking so long to reply. I think the music credits at the end of the video will give you the details you are looking for. Hopefully you will be able to find the tunes from there.
Cost is based on length and width.... SV Delos did a video passing through the locks. It is a 53 foot by 20 something wide and is cost $ 2200 dollars US. They said some of the really large ships pay from $ 200,000 to $500,000 dollars to cross. Plus you need four people to tend lines and a pilot from the locks onboard during the crossing that you feed. IF you don't have four lines long enough you must buy or rent them from the Locks people.
