TugOperations

Tug Operations

Tug Operations are divided into two divisions. The Southern Division tugs operate between Balboa on the Pacific side and Gamboa. The Northern Division tugs operate from Gamboa to Colon on the Caribbean side. Gamboa is located where the Chagres River enters Gatun Lake. Here the ACP (former Panama Canal Comission) has their maintenance base. The Gamboa base is used also as a base for the tugs waiting for the ships to which they have been assigned. All large ships are required to have a tug attached for emergency steering while transiting the Gaillard Cut located between Gamboa and the Pedro Miguel Locks.

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	Captain Carlos Mata, Gerente Interimo, Operaciones de Remolcadores, Distrito Sur, Autoridad del Canal de Panama ( Acting Chief, Tug Operations, Southern District, Panama Canal Authority). He is a 1990 graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and a qualified tug Captain on the Panama Canal. He was the person that gave the approval for me and Guy Pontifex ( a friend from SV Rare Mettle) to spend a day on the tug Esperanza.
	Captain Gerardo Flores, Senior Captain of the tug Esperanza, at the controls. The computer screen partially visible over Captain Flores' shoulder displays the position of any vessel in the canal. To demon-strate it to us, Captain Flores called up the report for his assigned ship to find its present location as well as its estimated time of arrival at our meeting point in Gamboa. To our amazement, the ship arrived exactly on time about an hour later.
	The view north across Lake Miraflores and towards the Pedro Miguel Locks. A large ship is tying up to the center wall of the Pedro Miguel Locks prior to entering. To the right of the lock and in front of the hill, one can see the Pedro Miguel Boat Club. We were at the boat club for three weeks with MV Heather K. and spent many pleasant hours watching the canal operations from our sundeck.
	A large ship squeezing into the western lane of the Pedro Miguel Locks. It takes skill and teamwork to line up a 965 ft. long ship to enter and pass through a lock with only 2 ft. of clearance on each side of a 106 ft. wide ship. There are two lanes to each set of locks, allowing ships to transit in opposite directions at the same time. In practice, ships presently are sent in batches through both lanes in the same direction. That is due to the fact that only a single file of ships can transit Gaillard Cut.
	Four electric locomotives, also known as mules, at each side of the ship near the bow and stern pull the ship into the lock chambers. They then maintain the ships position in the center of the chamber by letting out or pulling in the lines as the water level changes. Notice the small clearance between the ship's hull and the lock wall. The clearance on the other side is the same. Note the Esperanza's line to the lock wall that had to be adjusted as the water level changes.
	The orange colored Ro-Ro (Roll-On/Roll-Off Car Carrier), a catamaran, and the tug Gilberto Guardia leaving Pedro Miguel Lock headed north. The catamaran was side-tied to the Guardia, which in turn was side tied to the Esperanza, which was tied to the lockwall. Thus, only the Esperanza was required to pull in the docklines as the water level rose in the lock.
	The Esperanza coming up behind a southbound ship at Gamboa and preparing to attach itself for emergency steering control as the ship proceeds through Gaillard Cut. We tracked the course of this ship on the computer screen, shown below in a picture below, for an hour before we saw it visually.
	Seaman Juan Sibauste has cleated the 2 1/2 inch diameter Spectra hawsers on the Esperanza bollards. The eyes on the ends of the hawsers were secured to the aft cleats on the ship. In the event the ship looses its steering capability in Gaillard Cut, the pilot can command the Esperanza to maintain the ship in the channel. The Esperanza can also aid the ship in non-emergency directional control.
	The vessel position display in the Canal uses GPS (Global Positioning System). Transiting vessels over a certain size (MV Heather K. was below that size) carry a portable GPS unit brought on-board by the pilot. This unit radios the vessel's GPS position, speed, and heading to a central facility. The central facility then broadcasts the information for all vessels to the tugs. A tug captain can select which ship he would like to track and the computer screen shows the ships position along with the estimated times the ship will pass various locations.
	Crews are delivered to the tugs via workboats since the tugs operate on an around-the-clock schedule. Seated in this picture, from left to right, are Guy Pontifex (a cruising friend from Canada), and Chief Engineer Tomas Rowe and Captain Gerardo Flores of the Esperanza.

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