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| Panama Canal - Oct 24 |
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| The Gatun Locks open for Peace Boat's passage |
Looming suddenly out of the dark, the floodlit Gatun locks marked Peace Boat's departure from the Atlantic and eighty kilometre passage through the Panama Canal. Appearing at first too narrow for a ship accustomed to the broad expanses of the ocean, the gates dwarfed the engineers' rowing boats. They pinioned the boat with steel cables to locomotives which would haul us through the locks before release into the quiet of the lakes beyond. Rain spotted the coats and unbrellas of a barrage of spectators as they watched the muddy swirls of water smoothly raising us to the height of the next stretch. Three sets of double locks, an immense artificial lake sixteen metres above sea level and a channel cut through the rock and shale of this densely forested isthmus form the historic trade thoroughfare, traversed by ships twenty four hours a day. Having been relinquished by the US, the ten kilometer-wide corridor around the canal is now under local control and home to National Parks and two thirds of Panama's population. Arriving in Panama City, Peace Boat stopped in early hours to set down Pili, the last of the International Students to disembark. Friends waved from decks wet with rain as the motor boat sped away to the docks, before Peace Boat itself headed for Peru, hugging the Pacific coast. |
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| Peace Boat's
39th Voyage index |
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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