Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
Hola
Greetings from Puerto Aventuras, Mexico! I arrived yesterday flying from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Cancun. Kate Lewis was waiting with my truck and with Joe T Cocker.
I flew into Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on Friday, January 11th from Honolulu, Hawaii and spent three days in Miami and Ft. Myers, Florida visiting friends and my brother Jeff.
I trust you had a very Merry Christmas and a happy New 2008 Year.
I got off from the “SLOW BOAT TO CHINA”, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Thursday January 10th as the pre-plan three-week trip from Port Fourchon, Louisiana turned into a four-week adventure experiencing the crossing of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Panama and the giant Pacific Ocean. I was very happy with the trip as I gained good experience learning to drive a 220-foot vessel. The mates and deck crew performed three watches on the bridge that raises four stories above the water. My watch was for most of the trip 1200 to 1800 (Noon to 4:00 p.m.) and from 0000 to 0400 (Midnight – 4:00 a.m.). I was now able to put a lot of classes and academic information to practical use and much of it made more sense and easier to comprehend learning by doing. One of my goals was to get at least half of my 38 required assessments completed. I got 15 signed off; mission mostly accomplished. The assessments are part of the process to qualify for the Third mate Unlimited tonnage exams. I already completed all the required 19 STCW and the OICNW (Officer in Charge of the Navigational watch) courses. My next hitch I should get the remaining assessments finished and then be able take my exams this coming July or August at the Miami U.S. Coast Guard Regional Exam Center at the Claude Pepper Federal Building in downtown Miami.
The highlight, of course, was crossing the Panama Isthmus through the famous Panama Canal. It is 50 miles long and we started at the Port Colon on the Caribbean side. It is required to have a Panamanian Pilot board the vessel to assist with the crossing. We immediately had to negotiate a set of three locks named the Gatun locks that uses a complex system of culverts and valves to control the level of water required to elevate and lower our boat inside the locks. These locks are chambers with gates. Each lock chamber is 110 feet wide and 1000 feet long. The maximum dimensions for ships to use the canal are 106 feet wide and 965 feet long depending on the type of vessel.
This past fall (2007) the Canal has officially begun construction to expand the Canal for bigger ships. They are building three new sets of locks on both ends of the canal to handle ship up to 1500 feet long.
The little bit of history begins with the French effort in 1879 to build a canal only to fail by 1889. Disease, climatic conditions and the geography made it impossible. In 1904 the United States purchased the rights of the French Company at a cost of $40 million. It took ten tears, the labor of 75,000 men and women, and almost $400 million to complete the job. The new builders faced unprecedented problems; tropical diseases; frequent landslides; the complexity of the massive volume of evacuation needed; the enormous size of the locks; and the need to establish entirely new communities, import materials, and organize work on an unprecedented scale. The biggest killer was malaria or yellow fever as it killed thousands of people. The plus side Colonel William Crawford Gorgas and his medical team are credited with eradicating the yellow fever and bringing malaria under control.
The Panama Canal opened to traffic on August 15th, 1914. In 1977, the Torrijos-Carter Treaty was signed between the Republic of Panama and the United States basically transferring the Canal to Panama. Under the treaty, the Canal was operated by a United States Government Agency, the Panama Canal Commission, under the supervision of a bi-national Board of Directors comprised of five United States citizens and four Panamanian citizens. As provided in the Torrijos-Carter Treaty, at noon on December 31, 1999, the Republic of Panama assumed full responsibility for the administration of the Canal.
A few facts:
Ø The SS Ancon made the first official ocean-to-ocean transit through the waterway on August 15, 1914.
Ø During the fiscal year 2006, there were 14,194 transits.
Ø The lowest toll for transiting the Canal was paid by Richard Halliburton, who paid 36 cents to swim across the canal from August 14 to August 23, 1928.
Ø The tanker Arco Texas, which transited the waterway on December 15, 1981, carrying 65, 299 long tons of oil, holds the record of cargo carried through the Canal.
Ø The longest ship to have ever transited the Canal was the San Juan Prospector, later known as the Marcona Prospector. The ore-bulk carrier is 980 feet with a beam of 102 feet. The USS New Jersey and its sister ships, measuring 970 feet and with beams of 106 feet, were the widest ships to transit the Canal.
Ø The Canal’s fastest transit was completed in two hours and 41 minutes by the US Navy hydrofoil, the Pagasus, in June 1979. Most ships take five to eight hours to transit. We did it in eight hours.
With the new expansion of the Canal to be completed in 2012, most of these records will be broken.
On the Pacific side we negotiated the Pedro Miquel Locks and the Miraflores Locks before passing the City of Panama and into the Gulf of Panama (Pacific Ocean). I can now CHECK this off my “TO DO” list of many things I wish to see and experience. It was a great event.
One of the things during my off time on the vessel I was able to get 75% written on my next book – CAVE DIVING – Safe & Smart. I have on paper over 80 pages of text. This book will be for PSAI – Professional Scuba Association International. I promised Gary Taylor I would get this book written into a draft manuscript by March 2008. I have no doubt I will “git er’ done!” My cavern book CAVERN DIVING – Safe & Fun is selling well for PSAI.
I did not stay long in Honolulu, as I needed to catch a plane to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I did get to see much of Pearl Harbor including the USS Arizona and USS Utah memorials, which was another historic site to check off my “To Do” list. I was supposed to teach a SUBMERGE DPV course this week of January 13th for Ken Asher. We rescheduled for the week of February 24th. In Florida, I picked up from Rodney & Suzie Nairne my fourth SUBMERGE DPV. However, this time it is a slightly longer hull to accommodate the Genesis 42 Amp batteries. In addition, I brought back to Puerto Aventuras, Mexico three new hulls (6 inches longer) to convert my three other SUBMERGE DPVs for the 42 amp batteries. These batteries, when healthy, will give me over 130 minutes of burn time. That will allow me using two DPVs to motor 14,000 feet+ into a cave. Rodney and Suzie are “kicking ass” with their SUBMERGE DPV business as I got a tour of their new warehouse building and their operation. It was very impressive! They are located in Jupiter, Florida which is north of West Palm Beach, Florida.
In addition, I stopped and visited the U.S. Coast Guard office at the Claude Pepper Federal Building in downtown Miami to submit my signed off assessments and I visited the Professional Maritime Training Institute in Ft. Lauderdale and picked up a few books and study items to prepare for my exams.
Beginning this Sunday, January 20th I will be guiding Rick Crawford and Doug Chappell for six diving days. We will use the DPVS for at least four – five dives as they own SUBMERGE DPVs too. I am basically booked solid with courses or guiding the three months I will be home.
My port for the next crew change will be either at GUAM or SINGAPORE.
Have a great day!
Be safe,
Steve
www.cenotesoftheRivieraMaya.com
Home Phone - (011-52) 984 873 5037
sg