we woke up this morning at the southernmost point on our trip - the entrance to the Panama Canal. In a few hours time we would have crossed Central America from the Pacific to the Caribbean via a channel which is almost 100 years old.
We had picked up the pilot and the narrator at 5.30am but we weren't on deck until about 7am just as we reached the first set of locks - the Milifiore Locks. The perimeter of the decks were lined with passengers all hoping to get the best spot from which to watch our transit. Even the indoor spaces which had a view out were utilised but we found a spot on the port side which would do for the moment - we knew the numbers would thin out as the call of breakfast became too strong to resist!
The canal, our narrator informed us, was inaugurated in August 1914 and this month they would see the millionth vessel pass through. An average of 38 vessels pass through daily - heading one way in the morning and the other direction in the afternoon. Each set of locks is actually two locks side by side and there is a lot of construction work going on at the moment making a third set which will be able to accomodate larger and larger ships. They hope to have that open by the centenary in 2014 and at the moment they are ahead of schedule.
With inches to spare both lenghtways and widthways, our ship entered the first lock of 1000ft by 100ft wide and the huge gates closed behind us. We were hitched up to the "mules" (little electric trains which keep the ship dead centre in the lock and help guide her in and out). They're called mules because originally it was actual mules who did this job. Because of the size of our ship, we needed 8 mules to help us through - 4 at each side. The locks fill (or empty) in only 8 minutes thats 3 million litre of water so we were soon in to the second one. And then we were out in to the canal itself which looks more like a river as it meanders along rather than being straight sided as we had imagined. Like most canals, it was planned so that it would link up existing lakes or rivers with man-made portions. With Panama being such a rainy country, there is no danger of there never being enough water to keep the canal functioning.
By this time, the crowd had thinned out considerably so we were able to get 2 loungers on the boat deck and watch the scenery as we continued our progress. Dense forest stretches out in all directions with a few buildings here and there for the canal authority. We saw a couple of alligators but hardly any birds or butterflies unlike all the other areas we've been to.
The canal suddenly widens out as it reaches Gatun Lake which was created by flooding the area so there are "islands" which are really the tops of hills which poke out above the surface. This is where some ships have to anchor to wait their turn to transit, or in our case, to allow the tenders to be lowered to transport people ashore who were taking an excursion. We would collect them later in the day as we exited the canal at Colon (pronounced cologne).
The final set of locks are the Gatun Locks and this is a set of 3 so we took the opportunity to have some lunch as we transited through the first 2 of these and then went back outside as we negotitated the third one, and that was us out in to the Caribbean. There were lots of ships her waiting their turn - everything from huge bulk carriers to the original "banana" boats, proper freighters like you would see in a movie. Unfortunately the sky wasn't very Caribbean so the sea still looked grey/brown - not the sparkling turquoise of the brochures!
All in all, from picking up the pilot to arriving in the Carribean had been about 10 hours.Sunrise to sunset. We docked at Colon and a few people went ashore but primarily this stop was to collect the passengers who had been on shore excursions.
Once they were all back on board, we set sail again for our last port of call - Cartagena in Columbia. After that, its 2 sea days and then we'll be at Fort Lauderdale and it will all be over.
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