South America Part 4

South America - (part four)

The Panama Canal Adventure

Through the Mireflores Lock

Avalon passed through the Panama Canal on 19th December, and we were able to watch their progress through this particular lock on the Webcam of the Panama Canal Authority. With the help of Paul Froggatt, who also emailed the Canal Authority and asked them to zoom in on the yacht, we managed to capture the following pictures.

The first three pictures in the left column show large container vessels entering the locks, and give an idea of the scale.In the distance can be seen the previous set of locks with ships waiting to exit.

Avalon followed these two ships and headed towards the lock on our left, mooring just outside to wait her turn. Avalon is the small smudge shown by the arrow, and you can see the relative size of the yacht to the ships and the locks. You can also see the water levels in the locks - the one with the ship in is still going down, but the one Avalon is going into is nearly full, and the gates will open shortly.

Here they come entering into the lock and moving down to the far end. Notice two sets of mooring lines, fore and aft.

In the right-hand column picture sequence Jim, Rosemary and Alex are clearly identifiable. The others are Alex's friend Mark, the pilot and presumably a helper (we think there are six people on board at this particular moment).

The next sequence of pictures shows the ship (a smaller one) which followed Avalon into the same lock. The water level was then dropped and the far gates open to allow both to exit.

The pictures below show the water level being lowered and the lock gates opening to allow Avalon to exit followed by the much larger ship.

The pictures above show a tug engine on the side of the lock overtaking Avalon. This tug is pulling the ship behind Avalon.

The final picture below shows a container ship in the other lock passing through and gives an idea of the size of Avalon in comparison.

To see animated pictures of the Canal transit click the anchor.

The Miraflores Lock Webcam is quite interesting, so for live action click here: www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html