Installment #8

The Panama Canal. Wow! What an amazing feat our ancestors built in the early 1900’s. Sir and I set the alarm to get out of bed early—yes it was a short night! We awoke in time to watch as the ship went under the Bridge of the Americas and pulled into the opening of the Panama Canal on the Pacific Ocean side. This was at 7am and we left the final lock just after 4pm. It was a long but interesting and rewarding day.

I kept track of times on our map of the canal (when we arrived at each lock and then finally passed through). We made it through the first set of locks just as our room-service breakfast arrived at 9am. The voyage through the locks was not enough to get the kids out of bed, but the breakfast on the balcony was! Yes, it was a special champagne meal which we enjoyed immensely!

Sir and I had a great time going to different parts of the ship to get the best view of what was happening at the time. The first set of locks they raised us three times—two locks, followed by a small waterway, and then another lock. It was cool to be eye level with the shore then watch as the ship was lifted higher and higher. After the first set of locks, we traveled through the manmade portion of the canal, hard to navigate and the narrowest passage of the whole trip. We traveled over the Continental Divide. Finally we reached Gatun Lake and spent a couple hours sailing through this picturesque area. Islands and boats littered the lake as we traveled through on our designated route. We arrived early to the last set of three locks which led to the Caribbean Sea. Now, arriving early did not help us; it still took us over two and a half hours to pass through the locks. Most of it was waiting, so I had the opportunity to take a quick nap! It was helpful that on the TV and PA system, they had commentary all day long. So, Sir and I lay down and let the TV wake us up when we were finally moving through!

The most interesting: watching the locks open and close. The most entertaining: waving at crews from the international freight ships that were in the locks right beside us. The most tiring: my feet.

A day at sea would not be complete without watching the Rose Bowl on a GAINT screen, complete with pizza, chips and guacamole! We had to leave the game early so we could dress for dinner, followed by the International Crew Show which was entertaining and impressive. We are heading to bed early so we can get up for our stop in Cartagena Columbia.