Panama Canal Transit Can Be Viewed On The Web

11 August 2009 By LEUT Jemma Power

HMAS Ballarat and HMAS Sydney will commence their second canal transit of the Northern Trident 2009 voyage on 11 August (local time) and friends and family have the opportunity to catch the ships via webcam as they make the eight to ten hour journey.

Opened in 1914 and with a length of approximately eighty kilometres, the Canal joins the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean via a series of artificial lakes, several improved and artificial channels, and a set of three locks. At the time of its construction it was dubbed mankind’s greatest engineering feat - 268 million cubic yards of earth, more than 13 times that removed during the Suez Canal construction was excavated in the construction of the Canal.

Unlike the Suez Canal which has a natural flow, passage through the Panama Canal requires the ships to be raised from sea level to the level of the Gatun Lake which sits 26 meters above sea level. To achieve this three locks of the Canal are required, the Gatun, Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks, all named after townsites along the Canal.

The Panama Canal has capacity to handle large ships but at 118 meters with a draft of 6.2 meters and 138.1 metres with a draft of 8.1 meters respectively, Ballarat and Sydney are approximately half the size of the largest of the 14,700 ships that travel the canal annually.

The Canal is managed by the Panama Canal Authority who have set up a number of webcams along the canal. The NT09 ships will be traveling from the Atlantic end of the Canal to the Pacific end.

HMAS Ballarat and HMAS Sydney intend to commence their transit of the Canal at approximately 8:30am on 12 Aug (AEST). It is impossible to say exactly when they might be expected to appear on the web cams due to operational circumstances but the cameras may be accessed at the following address http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Gatun.