Monday, January 11, 1999 – Under way to Roatan

G’day all

Travelling in the Atlantic is certainly different to the Pacific. The wave action is much shorter compared to the long Pacific swells making STARSHIP jerk around and walking around let alone typing a bit of a task. As I write we are passing, Isla San Andres (12o35’N by 81o42’W). Interestingly enough, this island became Colombian in 1821 after the Spanish-American independence war, yet lies about 440miles away from Colombia and only 110 from Nicaragua. As it was settled by slaves brought over by planters and wood cutters and English puritan settlers in the early 17th century, English was the main language until recently. Apparently, the Colombian government after having left the island to their own devices for years has now disallowed schools to teach in English. Consequently, the language is dying out. This decree has obviously brought some contention with it.

Sadly we have little time to stop along the way, as we need to be in Roatan by the 13th of this month. The following day Michael, DJ and I head off to New Orleans, for 3 days to attend the DEMA, a dive trade show. From there I return while DJ and Michael fly on Ft. Lauderdale to make initial preparations for STARSHIP going on the hard, in order to make some revisions on our generator systems in early February. Before we get to Florida, we will be visiting Mexico and Cuba.

Flybridge view with big ship md.jpg (101681 bytes)
The big ships are secured and pulled from lock to lock by 4 lokomotives.

Yesterday I told you about our fabulous crossing of the Panama Canal. I failed to give you some interesting facts about the Canal.

  • The Canal consists of 12 locks with dimensions of 33.5m (110’) by 305m (1000’). The gates are 2.1m (7’) thick.
  • 27% of the vessels using the Canal are of the "PANAMAX" category, which are built to the maximum dimensions the Canal can handle.
  • For each ship travelling through, approximately 197 million liters (52 million Gallons) of gravity fed fresh water from Lake Gatun are used.
  • The Gaillard Cut traverses the Continental Divide and is the narrowest part of the Canal at 152m (500’), after having been widened from its original 91.5m (300’) to allow two way traffic.
  • The Canal was built in part to provide military vessels fast access to the Atlantic and Pacific. Today, most military vessels exceed the maximum dimensions.
  • The main commodity shipped through the Canal is grain from the US to Asia.

So there you have it. As there are always two sides to the story, I believe there have been some adverse affects on the environment due to the building and expansion of the Canal. I am not aware of them just yet but am in the process of attaining the information.

Best regards from all of us on STARSHIP