1/10/2024
Panama Canel crossing
Today is the highlight of the trip, finally crossing the Panama Canal! Before we look at today's photos, let's take a look at how the Panama Canal works!
今天是這趟旅行的重頭戲，終於要穿越巴拿馬運河了！在看今天的照片之前我們先來了解一下巴拿馬運河是怎麼樣運作的！
The Panama Canal is an artificial 82-kilometre (51-mile) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, cutting across the Isthmus of Panama, and is a conduit for maritime trade.
巴拿馬運河是巴拿馬一條 82 公里（51 英里）的人工水道, 連接大西洋和太平洋, 橫跨巴拿馬地峽，是海上貿易的管道。
Locks at each end lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial fresh water lake 26 meters (85 ft) above sea level, created by damming up the Chagres River and Lake Alajuela to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, and then lower the ships at the other end. An average of 200,000,000 L (52,000,000 US gal) of fresh water are used in a single passing of a ship. The Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan. It is one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken.
兩端的船閘將船隻提升到加通湖，這是一個海拔 26 米（85 英尺）的人工淡水湖，通過築壩查格雷斯河和阿拉胡埃拉湖而形成，以減少運河所需的挖掘工作量，然後降低另一端的船隻。平均每艘船一次通過使用200,000,000升（52,000,000美制加侖）的淡水。巴拿馬運河捷徑大大縮短了船隻在大西洋和太平洋之間航行的時間，使他們能夠避開通過德雷克海峽或麥哲倫海峽繞過南美洲最南端的漫長而危險的路線。這是有史以來最大、最困難的工程專案之一。
By Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51276
