Us and the Panama Canal

It’s the 8/8 today. It’s a bit cooler at 25C but the wind is making it seem a lot colder than that. The humidity is down to 70% so that’s a plus. Hoppy had a dreadful night with a cough despite the vicks and brandy. Hopefully he’s over the worst of it. He’s addicted to the lectures and is presently listening to one on Route 66. I haven’ enjoyed them that much. I’m even getting over the shows!! But it’s still nice to have the room cleaned and the food cooked. By the end of the cruise we’ll be “Elite” which means a free mini fridge of grog each sector and our laundry done for nix and 10% off in the boutiques – yeah – next time we cruise! Formal tonight. - bit of a fag but just means wearing a bit of bling really. If you don’t dine in the dining room it doesn’t mean anything but since we like to be waited on at night and enjoy our little group we usually eat there. The sea has been glassy to small. We’ve been so lucky. It’s easy to forget you’re on a ship apart from the occasional shudder. The evenings usually sport an electrical storm to add some interest. Sorry the last post was a bit screwball – couldn’t rearrange things and the more I tried the worse it got!!

I’m still loving my kindle, thanks Wil and Cherie. Have finished a few books and then didn’t enjoy some on there but found some good ones eventually – see I’m even getting fussy about the books. Lucky I loaded so many before we left.  I guess you’re home and back to school Cherie. Make sure your sister in law doesn’t wear herself out for me will you?

Well on to the Panama Canal. After all the wonderful things we’ve seen it’s so easy to take things for granted but with the history and facts of this great engineering feat we really are privileged to have transitted such a massive construction. I had set the phone to wake us at 4.50 am and we were up and out in no time flat. We were waiting in line and it was still quite dark. Didn’t have long to wait and we were all on the forward vantage points watching. It reminded me of a doomsday ship!! We were the first through the three Gatun locks which lifted us a total of 26 metres.  There are two sets of locks side by side. There isn’t much room on either side – we had 52 inches to spare I believe. Huge engines called mules give and take on ropes on either side to keep us centred. Not much room to spare lengthwise either; it was surprisingly snug and strange to be surrounded by concrete on all sides. The lock gates serve as roads and walkways for the brief time they are closed. I went to our cabin and outside the window was a concrete wall. Some of the ships are too heavily laden to go through so they are relieved of some of their containers which go by train to the other side to be reloaded. Cost us just over US$352000. to go through. The lowest recorded charge was .39c for a guy who swam through!!  The three locks take you into a huge manmade lake. The myriad of tiny islands in the lake were once mountain tops and are still full of creatures like sloths, monkeys, snakes. The vegetation is dense rain forest. Two more sets of locks take you across to the Pacific Ocean. There are also some magnificent bridges. The view of Panama City is a constant at the end of the transition. It’s a huge and modern looking city but didn’t inspire me to revisit as much as the Caribbean islands and Costa Rica. The canal is being expanded to take bigger ships in a new set of canals with better gates on the locks etc. The refilling and emptying of the locks is by gravity and via huge culverts which allow the water to come up under the ship. This only takes eight minutes – fascinating.