Great Pacific Garbage Patch

I can not really judge what is true and what is not about all that has been posted and written about the garbage that is building up to huge patches in our oceans. What I do know and have prove for, is that the beaches are covered with trash, mainly plastic trash. 

Please help by spending a second thought whether you really need that plasic bag that is offered to you tomorrow when shopping. Wouldn't your food look much better in real plates at your pool party rather than using through away plastic dishes?

Find many conserning pictures about what I found at the beaches of the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of California, the Gulf of Alaska and in the Caribean Sea HERE.

Check what Wikipedia is saying about the subject HERE.

Click here if you would like to see my more detailed post in german with many links to reports and media voices to the garbage patches in our oceans. 

HERE you can find an official report of the UNEP.

Thank you for helping to minimize the trash in our Oceans.

Panama Canal in Numbers

1914: Ancon, a frighter is the first vessel that crosses the canal.

82 kilometers: The length of the canal.

26 meters is the total hights each ship is being rised with the locks and lowered again before sailing into Ocean waters again. Lago Gatún is 26 meters over sea level.

6'300: The number of graves that were dug out while the French took a first attempt on building the canal

9'000 permanent employees find work today at the canal. 

36 Cents is the lowest price ever paid for a crossing of the Panama Canal, MS Richard Halliburton registered with a weight of 1/13 of a ton, equal to about 70 kilograms. Halliburton was the first and only person who crossed the canal swimming. There was no system in place to register anything else than a vessel, therefore Halliburton had to register as "MS Richard Halliburton"

USD 437'000: The highest paid toll to cross the canal

24 + 1: Everyday 24 slots are available to cross the canal, they can be booked up to one year ahead, the 25th slot is auctioned out every day.

USD 220'300: The highest ever paid auctioned out price. In 2006 a vessel bypassed 90 waiting ships just to cross before the canal was closed for 7 days for maintenance. It's regular toll at the time would have been only USD 13'430.

15'000: The approximative number of ships to cross the canal ever year.

USD 5.52 billion: The estimated cost for the canal expansion project currently under way

USD 2.3 billion: Amount of foreign loans Panama took for the project.

580 Horse Power: The BHP that each Muli, the towing locomotives have to pull and manoeuvre the vessels through the locks.

Combined 4'640 BHP pull and monoeuvre the largest vessels through the locks since 8 of those locomotives are used to manoeuvre the biggest ships through the locks.

14 km: The length of the Culebra Cut, the area where the canal cuts through the rocks and shale of the isthmian mountains.

52 million gallons of fresh water are released into the ocean with every crossing. The fresh water comes from the man made Lago Gatún which is fed by Rio Chagres.

3 locks: The canal includes a total of three locks, the Miraflores (two steps) and the San Pedro (one step) locks on the Pacific side and 1 three step lock, the Gatún locks at the Atlantic side.

88 sluice gates and a total of 250 valves control the water needed to operate the locks. No pumps.

45° is the angle that the towing locomotives climb when moving from one lock chamber to the next.

300 pilots are employed to guide the vessels through the system.

36 tugs work in the system to pull and push the vessels through the locks and the Culebra cut.

100 locomotives are working in the three locks of the canal

305 meters is the length of each lock chamber.

33.5 meters is the width of each lock chamber.

26 meters depth of the chambers

294.13 meters is the maximum lenghts that a vessel can have that is built to Panamax specifications. It's width can not be more than 32.4 meters. 

12.04 meters maximum tropical fresh water draft is allowed according to Panamax specs.

61 centimeters is the remaining space at each side wall when a Panamax vessels manoeuvres through the locks.

60 centimeters is the remaining space when the vessels sail out of and over the treshold of the locks and its gates.

August 15, 2014 is when the new larger locks which will operate parallel to the existing ones should open, and it is the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal.

You can see a lot more pictures of the Panama Canal as well as of Panama HERE. 

Or you can read a more detailed story in German on my German blog.

I'll be right back...

...he said 1982, and here he is! ET is back, by now he rides the bike himself but he's still covered up in that white towel. I have seen him, here in Panama!

ET!

ET 2012, grown up

ET 1982

More River Crossings

Crossing rivers doesn't always require a snorkel and all that equipment but quite regulary even when hiking in tropical central America it requires me to cross rivers, funny though, I don't go as deep as I would with the truck. But honestly I don't really want to go as deep to need a snorkel when hiking.

Did you know?

Underwear grows at trees. I found an underwear tree in Panama. Don't believe it? See the picture below for prove.

The Bus to Hell?

Haven't we gotten used to buses that show the destination they are headed for on top of the windshield? I am used to that. Klick on the picture and check it out!

So - what does it mean when you have Hitler on the top left corner and Osama Binladen on the top right corner of a bus' windshield?

Heading straight to Hell?

Soundtrack

Panama Canal

I am totally fascinated by the Panama Canal, its engineering and even more so by the precision of which this huge vessels are guided through the locks. Here a couple of first pictures for you, more to come: 

At the Gatun Locks, the largest set of locks in the system

This is RoRo (roll on roll off) ship that carries factory new Korean cars.

At this point being pulled in to stage one of the Gatun Locks, on the Atlantic side.

The high power electric locks are what pulls the vessel through and

at the same time what keeps it in place.

Even for the ship's crew a spectacular event.

Absolutely amazing with what precision that huge sucker is guided through.

And getting back down on to see level, watching it is like seing 

those huge vessels riding and elevator.

Little room for errors.

While I was driving up to the Gatun Locks. Looks unreal, doesn't it?

At the Miraflores Locks, on the Pacific side of the Canal. Another car carrier.