We arrived at what I think is the west basin of the new Flamenco Yacht Club (most of the photographs from this portion and the next three or four will have to go into a Facebook album. I'll try to label so they are easy to relate to the narrative.) The yacht club is at the sea end of the Amador Causeway. If you have Google Earth you can get a really good view of it and the causeway. Beam up Google Earth, click on where we all know Panama is located on the globe, and keep clicking (even after it tells you you need to upgrade your account), and soon you will be over Panama Bay. The causeway and boat basins are at the west side of Panama Bay.
We checked in at a card table and were told to move over to another area and wait. We moved over to where there were hundreds of people waiting, some in line, some sitting and eating, some standing around and waiting. We had been given green wrist bands to wear, but no clue about what they meant. There were a few green bands visible, but mostly there were no wrist bands. It became apparent that the hundreds of people waiting were waiting to board other boats that would take them to some offshore islands for day recreation. There were spear guns and swim fins and other recreation stuff visible that didn't seem to fit with transiting the Panama Canal. After awhile we got summoned and about 150 or so people were escorted through a gate away from the day trip lines to a dock where our tour boat was moored. I didn't take a photo of the boat and I can't find one on the internet. It looks very much like the Fantasia del Mar but is painted mostly blue rather than white. I suppose it could have been painted, I don't know.
We boarded the boat and found chairs lined up in rows on the open forward deck. We staked out our area but didn't need to because there was plenty of room for everyone aboard. We left the boat basin at about 8:30. It may have been 8 and it may have been 9, I wasn't keeping track of time but just enjoying the surroundings and the goings on.
We had been on the water about fifteen minutes when the launch shown at the left came along side and delivered the pilot. Every boat or ship transiting the Canal must have a pilot. We did see sailboats lashed together going through the locks with just one pilot between them but that's apparently the only exception. There's some goofy ritual about cheering the pilot aboard which most of us joined. (The entire transit is narrated by a man we never saw who keeps up a nearly non-stop monologue first in Spanish and then in English about nearly everything you might want to know about going through the Canal. There was also a narrator who spoke in German for a contingent of about a dozen folks.)
Between taking on the pilot and passing under the Bridge of the Americas, we were treated to great views of the Panama City skyline, views of an abandoned-looking hotel that is just being built slowly, moored sailboats, little boats with people out fishing, debris in the water, Ancon Hill, and much other stuff.
After you pass under the bridge there is simply too much to look at to get it all processed. I pretty much zoned out on everything on the tour boat and tried to take in as much as possible of the sights (there aren't many good sounds) to be seen. The first overwhelming thing to focus on is the gigantic container facility (owned by the Port of Long Beach, we were told) with many groups of colossal cranes. Each group works on the same ship with each crane working on its own section of the ship. You can see the ship being unloaded in one section and simultaneously loaded in another section. The part tilted skyward in the photo is lowered parallel to its adjacent part to
form a flat track out over the ship. Each container is picked up and taken off or put onto the ship. Crews of men bolt (or unbolt) each container to the one below so the result is a continuous column of as many as seven containers above the deck level and who knows how many levels below the deck. Periodically, the towers of containers are also attached to their adjacent containers. These container terminals serve two main purposes. Some ships are too big to transit the Canal so they show up at the Pacific or the Atlantic side, unload their containers, take on another load and go back, without transiting the Canal. Other ships that could transit the Canal, for whatever reason don't. They likewise unload and re-load. The containers are either re-loaded onto ships going through the Canal or loaded onto train cars and moved across Panama by train where they are re-loaded to continue their journey. The other reason for the container terminals is for receiving shipments destined for distribution in Central and South America.
No matter what the mission of the ships, they seem to all need tugboat assistance. Watching the tugboat/ship interaction is like watching a slow motion ballet. The ships are seemingly slow and clumsy, but for something a thousand feet long and a hundred feet wide and about ten stories tall they are remarkably agile. The tugboats are like the mating of a great cutting horse, a great dancer, and a D-10 Cat. These new ones were made in China at a cost of about ten million dollars each. They each have 6,000 horsepower in both forward or reverse, thrusters that enable them to dance sideways or to crab, and the controls to move an inch or a mile. I want to come back as a tugboat pilot. Also, before we got to the first locks at Miraflores, we saw a new world record class dredge getting ready to work on the new channel for bigger ships, several old looking ships anchored and waiting, for what is not certain, obvious signs of construction for the new locks, and a hundred other things.
Ultimately, though, we arrived at the approach to the Miraflores Locks, the first two locks on the Pacific Ocean end of the Canal. (the Panama Canal runs north and a little west from the Pacific side to the Atlantic side. So, you are actually farther east when you enter the Canal at the Pacific Ocean side then when you exit at the Atlantic Ocean side.)
The last photo here is of the approach to the first west side lock at Miraflores. The erector set structure to the left of the tall red and white structure is the west portion of the original automobile bridge across the Canal It pivoted open to let ships pass. The very tall red and white structure is a huge crane on a barge. It is in the lock ahead of the one we are entering. It will be seen up close later. The seawall structure is a long pier between the locks where the ships get positioned correctly and get attached to the mules that will be on that side. This area is where the tugboat/ship ballet is best. The wall on the right is an auto carrier ship. There are lots of photos of it in the album. We went along for a mile or two with it before the locks and we were positioned behind and to one side of it as it got into position to enter the lock. It was beside us through both of the Miraflores locks and until it anchored in Miraflores Lake above the locks.
JCE
We moved over to where there were hundreds of people waiting, some in line, some sitting and eating, some standing around and waiting. www.performqanceautocarrier.com
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