Community Chat

[Kachina624]

Drought in the area of the Panama Canal is causing a huge backlog of ship with some waiting weeks to get through the canal.  Today there were 137 ships waiting at each end to pass through.  Each day the canal requies 3X more water than is used by NYC in a day. Most of these were fuel or container carriers, hauling merchandise for all the major American retailers. 

It appears that shipping problems, originally triggered by the pandemic now continue.  If your QVC order shows a backorder or delay, this may be the reason.

[On It]

I saw that some of the ships have actually run aground. It seems they use fresh water to fill the locks. I never realized they were not using ocean water. A drought in the area is causing the lack of fresh water to be available from lakes in the area.

[Kachina624]

@On It.  It would be like trying to fill your bathtub when low water pressure made water just a trickle.

I suppose salt water is too corrosive on the metal parts.  I wonder what cruise ships are doing?

[Still Raining]

Long ago I visited the locks, did not transit just did the land view.

It blows your mind to be close to these huge ships and see them rise up while you watch.  Pretty quiet while it happens.  Really feel like a wee speck when you have to look up so far.

[JudyL]

Read this on the news the other day.  Like another poster, until I read about it, I didn't realize they didn't use sea water to move the ships through.

[simplyfriends]

@Kachina624   That is a major waterway so most likely will drive up the costs of goods even more. Ugh!  

[Kachina624]

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@simplyfriends wrote:

@Kachina624   That is a major waterway so most likely will drive up the costs of goods even more. Ugh!  

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@simplyfriends.  You're right.  I've heard that mentioned as a possibility.

[shoesnbags]

@Kachina624 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.  I somehow missed this.  As Roseanne Roseannadanna said,

"It's always something!"

[PickyPicky3]

[millieshops]

Incredible mess.  Makes  me long for the days when it was easy to think the climate problem was limited to coasts and hurricanes, problems for people who lived along the water. Drought and tornadoes and fires --  not at all effects I ever anticipated

@Kachina624 Your post took me back to the locks I went through when we did some river cruises.  I didn't even want to hang onto the siderails for fear my fingers would graze the lock as we rose.  Most likely the locks themselves as well as the ships don't tolerate the ocean's corrosion well.