Sailing, Sailing, on the Yangtze Green.......

In order to continue onto the next few days of sailing down the Yangtze, our ship had to traverse the five stage ship locks to get through the Three Gorges Dam. We did this at night, so it made for some cool shots!




We arrived at the dam area closer to 9 - 9:30 pm, however we had to wait for a bit in line before we were able to take our turn going through each lock. For those who aren't nautically inclined, the ship locks are like a stairs for ships to climb up or down between the water level differences between the top of the dam with the reservoir and the bottom of the dam where the water is much lower. Ships sail into these large bays and water is either pumped in (raise) or out (lower) the ship. Depending on the size of the dam, it can have different numbers of locks... generally speaking, the more locks - the more height.

At the Three Gorges, the water is not pumped, it actually uses gravity to flow the water down to the next lock to control the water level in each lock. It takes about 12 minutes to either "fill" or "lower" the water level (depending on if a ship is going up river or down). But with the additional time for opening gates, moving ships in and though - it takes several hours (min. 3 hours) to go through the total number of locks.

Hence, they try to do this at night while the passengers are sleeping... Matt and I stayed up late to watch the first two locks... it was COLD - especially after India! :)

The First Lock, opening to allow for entry

Doors fully open! Creep Ahead!

Almost all the way in! (that's what she said????)

Here we are in, AND notice that the water level is already down two meters
Big dark wet stain on the doors in front..

This picture, we are at the right level to proceed into the second lock.
Notice that we've dropped around 20 meters and the doors are opening!

The ship entering into the second lock

Each lock can hold about 4 mid-sized ships.. or 4 river cruising boats - although it's a little close quarters! 

Gravel Barge.. only about 12 - 16" away from our river boat!
During the first lock, it scraped its way down the lock wall rather loudly... kinda eerie really..

Sorry if this post isn't techie enough to satisfy some, but chances are if you're interested in more information, google is already a good friend :)

Be Safe!
M & M