From Sea to Sea in the Panama Canal

ABOARD THE CONTAINER SHIP FEIHE, Oct. 22, 2006 — -- It's just after dawn on a hot, humid October morning on the outskirts of Panama City on the southern tip of North America. We step from a small pilot boat onto a gangway three floors high. Three Panama Canal pilots and our ABC crew clamber up the steep steps to deck of the container ship Feihe, where we are signed in and welcomed aboard.

Even the tallest person would feel dwarfed in these surroundings. The giant ship is laden with more than 4,200 shipping containers. They are lashed five-high on the deck and another five-high stack of containers is deep below deck.

There are another seven flights of stairs up to the ship's bridge.

Eduardo Caneanedo is the senior canal pilot in the group.

"I got the best job in the world," says Caneanedo with pride. "It is very demanding, but you get a lot of satisfaction once you finish, and you get to meet people [from] all around the world." Then he motions to the spectacular scenery below: "This is my office, so I can't complain."

Caneanedo takes control of the ship from Capt. Yan Zhen Ping and guides it toward the first set of locks. The Feihe left Shanghai 22 days ago. It is on its way to Charleston, S.C., New York and Boston. Fifty-six days after it departed, it will return to its home port and load up for another two-month journey.

As the Feihe approaches the Miraflores locks, giant tug boats push and nudge its massive hull. The Feihe belongs to a class of freighters called Panamax. The six sets of locks on the 92-year-old canal are 110 feet wide. Panamax ships are designed to maximize every inch: They are up to 106 feet wide. It is like passing a massive piece of thread through a needle that is only a fraction larger.

As the Feihe's bow enters the first lock, cables are thrown on board. They are attached to powerful locomotives that ride a cog railway along the canal's edge. Eight locomotives -- two in each corner -- gingerly prod and pull at the ship's hull, making sure it does not get damaged and it does not damage the vital locks.