who's watching who lol

[loribear]

hi everyone, i thought i'd go & have a look on the panama canal webcam, only to find that someone or something had beaten me to it, i'm not sure what kind of bird it was or what the ship was, but it certainly made me chuckle, i can't believe the size of some of the ships that go through there, the one's i saw were certainly fully loaded,

he certainly looked a beautiful birdie, lori

[jillR]

nice one lozi

jill

[goodall_m1]

Your bird looks like some form of Falcon to me, if it was in the UK I would say a female Peregrine.

The size of the ships able to pass through the canal has led to whole classes of ships described as Panamax, i.e. specifically built to JUST be able to get through the canal (or actually the canal locks which are the limiting factor)

Wikipedia gives the following dimensions:

Length: 950ft (289.56 m) (or 965 ft (294.13 m) for container ships and passenger vessels)

Width: Over outer surface of the shell plating: 106 ft (32.31 m).

General exception: 107 ft (32.61 m), when draft is less than 37 ft (11.3 m) in tropical fresh water.

Draft: In tropical fresh water 39.5 ft (12.04 m).

A Panamax cargo ship would typically have a DWT of 65,000–80,000 tonnes, but its maximum cargo would be about 52,500 tonnes during a transit due to draft limitations in the canal. For a container ship that would be one carrying about 5000 TEU (twenty foot equivalent).

Big aren't they!

But they are currently building new sets of locks which are even bigger!

The plans to build bigger locks have led to the creation of "New Panamax" vessels, based on new lock dimensions of 1,400 ft (427 m), beam 180 ft (55 m) and depth 60 ft (18.3 m). After this expansion, the Panama Canal will be able to handle vessels of cargo capacity up to 13,000 TEU.

Interestingly the new container ships that Rod has been talking about coming into the new facilities on the Thames and Felixtowe will be to big even for the new locks!

I know some people take private boats through the canal but the though of mixing it with vessels that size at close quarters in restricted water gives me the colly-wobbles.

[loribear]

hi goodall you've really done your homework have'nt you ?thanks for the info, it's amazing how them pilots get those ships into such a narrow lock like that, RESPECT, it must take them years to get it off to a fine art like that, & it's amazing how much cargo they can carry too. i'd hate to have to be in the same lock as one of those, it would be terrifying. i know what it waslike being on the big trent with those big gravel barges when i was a youngster, & my dad made me drive the boat, & i got stuck inbetween 2 of them going the other way, & i did'nt know which way to turn, & seeing all the water dissapear from under you is very frightening, we actually hit the bottom of the river & it took a chunk out of the propellor, very scary.gulp. lori

[loribear]

hi rod how old do you have to be to pilot one of those things, & how long does it take to learn the ropes ? so to speak, ive seen some those ships when they are fully loaded & it always amazes me how the captain can see over them all , i noticed that one that last photo that they had what looked like covers over them what are they for ? lori

[loribear]

hi rod, thankyou for all the information, it sounds very interesting & it sounds like you enjoy your job very much, it makes me feel very humble being just a carer, i did watch a programme once where they were training this guy to pilot a small ship which was in a little marina & the ship was in the shape of a small barge & it was s 2 seater boat with the trainer sat at ghe back telling the guy up front how many times to turn the wheel, & he said you had to turn the wheel 4 times just to turn the rudder about an inch compared to a normal boat, it looked quite hard work too. lori

[DelticMemories]

They are now in the process of widening the narrower parts of the Panama canal so eventually "Panamax" will become obsolete or at least get bigger!

[senator]

This sort of thing Lori? as posted by PKS. I know there are a few more that Rod has posted somewhere too.

viewtopic.php?f=58&t=11423&p=136926#p136926

[loribear]

This sort of thing Lori? as posted by PKS. I know there are a few more that Rod has posted somewhere too.

viewtopic.php?f=58&t=11423&p=136926#p136926

hi senator, yes that's the sort of thing i was talking about, the ship looks almost like a toy made out of lego bits. lori