Sailing past the Panama Canal - Colon to Rio Chagres
30 May 2011 | Rio Charges, Panama
Steve
Photo of one of many ships heading straight for us..
The trip from Portobello to the Rio Chagres was a motor with only minimal assistance from the wind. The route took us across the entrance to the Panama Canal (Colon). There were more than 30 ships at anchor off shore waiting for their turn through and in the time that we passed, 4 ships came barreling out of the inlet. They are accelerating and threw a huge wake, Diva the boat we are traveling with caught the first wave broadside and went for quite the ride, this gave us the heads up and we were able to turn into the waves and the water broke over our bow. Both boats arrived at the Charges unscathed. 14 thousand ships cross the Panama Canal a year each using 52 million gallons of water supplied by the Rio Charges. The Charges was a major transportation route for both the gold stolen by the Spanish and the riches from the California gold rush then it was dammed in 1910 to make the Panama Canal.