Panama Canal water woes

[longterm]

This can't bode well for cruises going through the Canal; anyone on Viking cruises that were affected?

 

An article about the situation:

https://ctmirror.org/2023/08/27/the-panama-canal-is-running-out-of-water/

[Jim Avery]

I bet you next week there will be a new scary story about some other part of life nearing armageddon. 200 ships waiting for the canal is not that unusual.

 

Btw, Panamax dimensions are and ha ve been 965' long, 106' wide, and 39.5' draft.  At 60' draft you must be talking an out the "new" canal.  

Edited August 27, 2023 by Jim Avery

[longterm]

Just now, Jim Avery said:

I bet you next week there will be a new scary story about some other part of life nearing armageddon. 200 ships waiting for the canal is not that unusual.

That's why we need reality checks from people who actually know!

 

So are things closer to normal than that article led people to believe? Knowing nothing about the area, and reading that article, I had visions of cruise ships lined up waiting for days...

[Jim Avery]

see edit above

[OneSixtyToOne]

38 minutes ago, longterm said:

That's why we need reality checks from people who actually know!

 

So are things closer to normal than that article led people to believe? Knowing nothing about the area, and reading that article, I had visions of cruise ships lined up waiting for days...

Cruise ships pay a premium price and that greases the skids, so to speak. 
 

BTW Here is an NPR broadcast from 2008 that cautioned about how the expansion combined with climate change was going to create problems in the future. 
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87851345

[Heidi13]

5 hours ago, longterm said:

This can't bode well for cruises going through the Canal; anyone on Viking cruises that were affected?

 

An article about the situation:

https://ctmirror.org/2023/08/27/the-panama-canal-is-running-out-of-water/

 

This is nothing new and the reduction in rainfall has been speculated for many years. Unless the rain stops entirely, it will have no impact on cruise ships.

 

Cruise ships and many container ships pay a substantial reservation fee for the canal transit on a specific day, with cruise ships paying an additional fee for a guaranteed daylight transit. The ships that are waiting are the majority of the cargo ships that turn up on spec, register upon arrival and anchor waiting for a transit slot. Ships turning up without a reservation have often waited up to a week or more for the transit.

[longterm]

3 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

The ships that are waiting are the majority of the cargo ships that turn up on spec, register upon arrival and anchor waiting for a transit slot. Ships turning up without a reservation have often waited up to a week or more for the transit.

That makes sense; typical click bait on the website then. Argh.

 

For people like me who don't know anything about how the Panama Canal operates, it looks ominous, until knowledgeable types like you guys clear out the drek. 🙂

[junglejane]

We're booked on an Oct. 24 full transit on the Star, Ft Lauderdale to Los Angeles. We haven't heard anything from Viking to suggest there's a problem. 🤞

[chengkp75]

Under the new Canal tariff schedule, a Viking ocean ship will pay about $195,000 just for the transit (various required services are extra), and since the new schedule does not charge passenger ships on the basis of total berths, but on PC tonnage, this is also about what a container ship of the same size would pay.  Then, to get a guaranteed slot, in daylight, the cruise ship pays another $70,000, or a 35% surcharge.

 

Backlogs of ships awaiting transit during dry spells have happened many times in the past.

Edited August 28, 2023 by chengkp75