the transit begins

almost to pedro miguel

locks, thanks for the commentary from everyone, trying to give anyone interested a real feel for this journey. it's a long day, but it really never gets stale, the scenery changes just often enough to always present fresh subjects for photos
here's another of the break complex, it's apparently a multi-use type place, there are fuel pumps under the overhang in among the picnic tables
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and we are still the star of the day, every admin place had no one inside, mostly outside, watching us go by
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and taking those digital photos of us, oddly enough i did not get one shot of anyone chimping, surely they can't be that confident in their skills, can they?
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and look, up there on the top of the hill, it's disney photographer guy, still lugging around that backpack, still wielding that 70-200 f2.8, and now he has an armed military type escort
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come to think of it, it's gotten a lot more military looking around here, and i see that train a coming, coming down the track, apologies to the man in black, rest in peace johnny
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the line is now a subsidiary of kansas city southern, hence the kcs corporate paint scheme, the unit is a rebuilt fp40 from amtrack, regeared for freight service, covered in a nice article in railfan and railroad a couple years ago , never thought i'd actually be there to see one
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today finds us

sliding into the pedro miguel lock, a one step lock letting us down into miraflores lake, another man made lake, not that long, after we exit the lock we can see the miraflores locks ahead of us
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there is apparently a public highway running alongside of and up to the lock complex,
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which is why i believe it's gotten a lot more military all of a sudden
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most of these guys look serious, and it was funny to watch the public, people would catch sight of us, or maybe someone called them and tipped them off to our location, but anyone who pulled over and stopped to take a photo, was immediately pounced on with the central american version of a felony car stop, those weapons came to the ready to rock and roll position and everyone one in the vehicle was being covered by a weapon
well except for this guy on the left, i don't know what that weapon position is called, "i'm too bored and too hot to care arms"
if this was my detail and sgt gary had seen that, he would have been pulled to the side and ripped a new one right on the spot, there are ways to adjust the work attitude
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there are even what appear to be side streets up in the trees away from the lock, and they sort of have an american suburb look to them, the american military tried to make the overseas housing look as american as possible, and at one time the zone was really good duty for career nco ranks, esp E-7 and above
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and i want to point out the 2 very different technologies used every day at the locks, on the right part of a 2-3 million dollar electric mule loco, and in the center, the two man 12 foot rowboat, still used to get the small feeder lines from the dock to the line handlers on the boat, then attached to the heavy ships lines, which are pulled over by the loco, per the pilot narrator, many other means have been tried, but they keep returning to the two man rowboat, that's the two guys walking away wearing life jackets
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This photo journey with you is SO enjoyable, and the pictures are superior quality as well.

 

pedro miguel lock

so we are entering the lock, waiting for the gate to close, today's photos are pretty straightforward, a few more of the lock facilities and a little look ahead and around us
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and some more
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and yet again, i took a lot of these things because there were so many variations in the lock complexes, a lot of specialized maintenance facilities located at different places, for instance number 3 seemed to be a centralized vehicle repair, and note in the center, through the haze, our first real glimpse of the skyline of panama city
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and look we've caught up with the navy again, take especially careful note of the 2 sailors on the sail planes, (rudder looking things on the civilian termed conning tower), those guys are strapped to the sail with a tether, and those are belt fed, high rate of fire honest too god machine guns, and the one guy on the stern, with no life jacket, the only one with no pfd, the brown short shorts are a dead giveaway, that and the extremely fit young buff body, that's the ships diver, ready to fetch anybody falling off or shot off, i did not realize that the attack boats rate carry a dive rating, maybe cross trained, although since these boats are being cross platformed now for seal delivery that may in fact be part of a seal team on deck and at the weapons post
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sub exiting the lock, we start to get our first glimpse of the miraflores lock complex, the last locks before the exit
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and an ahead view of the miraflores locks just across this very short body of water
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This whole trip is very exotic and beautiful!

 

in the lock

so we are fully inside the pedro miguel lock, looking down on the control house
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we are getting a decent breeze, but it's still pretty warm, see how the panamanian flag is staying pretty full, and we see more landscaping with flowers and more attempts to have the facilities attractive, not just keeping back the jungle
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have to wonder if there is a little privately owned land adjacent to the canal, perhaps old rundown officer's stuff from us days, i never did figure out which this was
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better view, maybe an old yacht club from back in the day?
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and the lock is emptying to let us down, remember we are now dropping down to the pacific ocean sea level, having to lose the 85 feet elevation we gained from gatun, check out the whirlpool swirls from the fresh water dumping out of the lock, this is the bow, so close to the gate you can't see it
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and up ahead more of the miraflores locks, the last locks in the journey, you can't really tell from here, but it is another 2 step lock, sub going to the right side, we'll be taking the left, and that big out of place modernistic concrete slab sided building, that's the new, highly publicized visitors center, we'll be seeing closer views later, and for those still hanging in there with me, it's 1430, we've been moving since approx 0610, 2 more hours of transit to go
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and jeff, this was just a way cool day, in a voyage i'll remember all my life, so good that after i knock a few more things off the list, if time and money allow, i might just do it again



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sliding out of pedro miguel lock, we are now clear, and the lock has filled back up behind us for more westbound traffic, all fresh water, all to be flushed out into the pacific, this is why the new locks will have water saving basins, and use approx 40% less water, or so says the slick brochure the canal authority had distributed on the ship
these are the same container ships from the morning at gatun, they've been not too far behind us all day
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another view of the panama flag,
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and some pr efforts
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and that old run down whatever , with a couple of small sailboats, one of which has fairly nice sail covers in place
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and this is the first turntable i've seen for the mule locos, and as an aside was watching modern marvels on history last night, program about locomotives and there was a segment on these very same electric mule locomotives, stated that only 1 has ended up over the side , and showed the side mounted safety wheels that are underneath and run along the sides of the rails
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and here's what's happening off the starboard side, mostly jungle, some large piles of fill earth, and on the left side, the first cranes of the port of panama city
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entering the first miraflores lock

our tug coming to help, these are a fairly recent design, the wheelhouse is a 360 degree design, the captain runs everything from a captain kirk type console/chair, using joysticks, aiming water propulsion pods instead of the traditional rudder and screw. much more maneuverable
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sliding into the first of the 2 steps to miraflores lock, the usual maintenance and repair shops
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and then some buildings that must be admin/office headquarters
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abd a dam off to the left of the lock complex, with attached power plant
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and the front side of the dam
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and some sort of shopping mall across the way?, we are getting close to populated areas now
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we are in the lock now

the first thing up is a church, back there in the jungle, there's probably a regular road and paved parking lot, for all i can see maybe even a rectory,but that is no doubt a catholica church
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and some sort of building, maybe even an old barracks converted to an office, it doesn't quite have that utilitarian universal repair shop look to it
and the buildings get more interesting from here on out, i promise
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and here comes the visitor center, and it's packed for us, i don't those folks all turned out for the sub, or to watch the container ship lineup
although you can't tell from this photo, and it was too dark with the tinted glass, there is a fancy dress restaurant on the 3rd floor, where the awnings are, so guests can walk outside between courses and be shaded and rain covered for a little closer ship views, we could see the white coated waiters walking around working and people seated at tables, but i could not pull enough shadow detail to get a worthwhile shot
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and here is the mob scene, showing us the love, about a minute or less after i took this the ship's horn was sounded, not only did they get to hear the when you wish upon a star of the horn, but captain mickey and minnie made an appearance on the bridge wing with captain thord and the canal pilot, the crowd went nuts, cheering and clapping, you could see the smiles on the children and their excitement, did i mention, i've moved down to deck 4 at this point, just to get a few from almost level with the canal sides
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everyone was waving and cheering, from the armed policia on the security gates
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to the staff at the entrance to the first aid clinic, the one lady even left her car door open and watched us slide past instead of leaving work
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actualy quite a few

cruise ships do transit the canal, particularly relocating to the Alaskan routes, but very few with a distinctive horn and no others with captain mickey on the bridge
so today it's mostly about the mules, we went down to deck 4, that as you can see placed us much closer to the canal workers, as we start the slide out of the last lock
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a few of the mule locomotives closer
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and more
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and again, note the various equipments, three colors of warning beacons, a floodlight to illuminate the cable reels
and the most important piece of equipment, the driver, working levers to his left and right, one moves the loco, directional according to which way the stick is pushed, the one to his left is the reel tension, slack or tighter, the bell is to acknowledge commands from the pilot
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and now we have cast off the lines and are moving out of the lock under our own power
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swing bridge

and other things, in the last post we saw the end on view of the swing bridge, opened on may 20, 1942, and the first and for many years only permanent traffic road crossing from one side of the canal to the other. here's a little closer view, it appears to be nonfunctional at this time
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and a little later, another of those inland light houses, this one painted half black, half white, but vertical, not banded
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and we see the army sailing by, what appears to be an old landing craft, tank, now in the hands of some sort of panamanian defense unit
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and a little later a small boat comes alongside, to remove the first group of pilots and line handlers getting off, we have no more locks or tug work just a couple more miles of inland channel and we'll be in the gulf of panama, the pacific ocean and the last pilot will get off
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and now we are passing the panama city container port, the other end for those container trains we saw off and on all day, notice more maersk line ships transloading containers
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and they even have a modest drydock facility, with some vessel in getting repairs, and off to the right side, notice the fishing boat, some sort of long liner, probably tuna judging by the high mast lookout
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next post, the bridge of the americas, hopefully tommorrow, chores and family matters ate up my spare time the last couple of days

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bridge of the americas

approaching the bridge of the americas. i know, i plainly am tired and sloppy at this point, i made no effort to leave out the ships railing
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and here is looking up at the funnel, going under the bridge of the americas, the second permanent crossing of the canal
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and here is what i believe to be a real yacht club, complete with dock, and sailboats on moorings
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and panama city visible over the yacht anchorage area
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and another view of panama city
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and downtown panama city, they have decided to go skyward in a major way, doesn't look like a sleepy tropical backwater any more
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the end

and thanks to everyone who has viewed and or commented on this thread, sorry it took so long to get to the last post but sometimes life gets in the way
so we bid adieu to panama city
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and now we are passing the last sea buoy on our way to open waters
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and the last of the pilots gets off, once you are pointed towards open water off they go, even though there is an anchorage area off to the port side
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and here are the last of the islands off panama city
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and open sea ahead, anchored ships to port, awaiting passage through the canal, although the bay of panama is fairly deep and it'll be in the late evening/early am before we are in true open pacific waters
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next stop acapulco, 2 1/2 days sailing time, over 1500 nautical miles to go

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