TUESDAY,JANUARY 18 - Transiting the Panama Canal

The Canal was completed in 1913 and the first ship went from the Atlantic to the Pacific on August 15, 1914. It was open for a period, but closed due to landslides and wasn’t formally open until after WWI. The entire trip takes 8 to 10 hours and ships now travel through 24 hours a day. We will be lifted from the Atlantic to Gatun Lake by a set of three locks raising us 85 feet. We will sail through the lak,e then along the Culebra Cut, across the Continental Divide, under the Centinnel Bridge connecting the Pan American Highway. The one Pedro Miguel Lock will then lower us 33 feet to the Miraflores Lake and the two Miraflores Lockswill lower us back to sea level and the Pacific Ocean. For almost 100 years these locks have served the needs of the shipping community, but ships have grown in size so now many are too large to use the Canal today. These ships have to off load their cargo in either Panama City or Colon and it is then carried to the other side by rail to be loaded on another cargo ship. A new larger set of locks running parallel to the current ones to accommodate these larger ships is under consturction.

Our transit begins at 6AM and we enter the Gatun Locks at 6:30AM. Dick is up trying to get the laundry started that we tried to do yesterday. There are nice laundry rooms with three new looking washer dryer combos on each deck, but two of the three on our deck are out of order. He finds an empty washer on deck 9 and gets things going. Carolyn wakes up as we are in the first lock. It is just past sun rise and isn’t too hot yet, but the cameras are still fogging. It takes over an hour to get through the locks and we get some nice pictures, after our cameras finally get acclimated to the humidity and can get some pictures.

By 8:30AM we are in a holding pattern in the Gatun Lake waiting for our turn to head across to the next set of locks.

We put the clothes in the dryer for 60 minutes and head to breakfast. There is the usual drama about clothes that have been left being removed. Dick has Trivia at 9:30AM so we have a fast continental type meal and he heads on. Carolyn gets the laundry out of the dryer and put it up and gets some cleaning out also. Again it is a bit testy in the laundry room. By 10AM we are in line and moving through the lake again. Dicks team came in second today, bummer!

At noon, the Captain announces we are ahead of schedule and will be entering the Gailard Cut in a few minutes

and will be in the Pacific by 4PM an hour earlier than scheduled. However, we enter the Pedro Migual lock a little behind schedule about 2PM because a sail boat lost its engine in the lock and had to have a tow.

This slowed things down a bit. We are waiting beside a " pleasure??  tour boat" that is giving a HAL ship’s passengers a Canal Tour. The boat, as you can see, is open air, packed and listing to port.

There is a pool going on deck 12 as to whether the tour will arrive back to the HAL ship "very wet or just damp!!"

The sail though Miraflores Lake shows all the construction going on the new set of locks. There is one way traffic now so we see a number of ships that entered the canal this morning as we entered on the other side, at anchor waiting for the Pacific bound traffic to finish so they can continue through to the Atlantic. We pass under the Centennial Bridge marking the continental divide

and continue on the the Miraflores Locks, the last set.

 

We are through by 4:30PM and it is now just 8 miles to the Pacific.

We cross under the Bridge of the Americas just before 5PM and see Panama City's skyline.

 

It has been an interesting day, but there doesn’t seem to be as much traffic as before.
We go for a swim and have a nice visit with some CC friends. The water feels good after such a hot day. Refreshed after time in the pool and the hot tub we get dressed for dinner and head to the bar. We seem to be migrating to the Horizon Lounge most nights for our cocktails, It is very nice,,,good dance music and nibblies located on deck 6 aft. Carolyn checks in Signatures, but they are full, so we head to the Compass Rose. The problem with the service seems to have been solved. We are willing to share or have a table for two, but it is still early so we get a table for two. We are seated in Adnan’s station again to night. We have had him for our waiter since the disastrous night. He is funny and very good. Dick has "raw stuff", mushroom soup, and a tasty veal dish.  Carolyn has empanadas which are a little spicy for her taste, good avocado soup and a lemon grass chicken dish. We both have a Caesar salad and apple strudel for desert. The food is really good, we have no complaints there.

It is Liars Club tonight, which sounds like fun. We finish dinner about 8:30PM and the show starts at 9:30PM. We go back to the room and Dick gets our pictures uploaded, but by time for the show we are to tired to go!