Panama Canal

Oct 11, 2010  cloudy, hot and muggy

Happy Thanksgiving Canada

We started into the canal about 6:30, after getting into our spot in the line-up. Someone is commentating the entire process. Joan and I head out to the front deck on level 6 but it seems too low, so we go up the level 9 and we can see everything from there. They explain the process of the building of the canal and how the locks work. The ships are sailed through the locks, as the mules on the tracks on either side are just to keep the ship in the middle of the lock (pic 1). The doors that open from one lock to another are still the originals from 1914! We are in a lock next to the Celebrity Mercury so we are all waving to each other. There is coffee and Panama buns (filled with fruit and custard) on deck – yum. All along the way they are building new locks which will carry larger ships. Bothe sets of locks will operate simultaneously. The cost for the Statendam to go through the canal was 436 thousand dollars. Today 36 ships went through the canal. We watch the process then go for breakfast while in the first lake. It is very hot now as we are moving so slowly and are enclosed in the narrow channel through the continental divide (pic 3) where they had to clear the longest part of the canal, blasting through the mountains. After that we cross the manmade lake, Gatun, – verrrrry large. Joan has been out on deck by the pool since breakfast – after shopping of course. After lunch I also get into the pool. At 1pm the cruise director and his staff had a swim the canal event (pic 4). We had to get in the pool and swim (or walk) the length for a certificate!! We stayed by the pool for the last of the locks, then back to the room to shower. We had a glass of wine and Joan read while I blogged. We had happy hour and talked to a fellow from our dinner table last night. At dinner we sat with a couple of ladies from Calgary, a lady and her son from Minnesota, and 2 ladies from Kansas. Most of us had turkey – yummm. The service was very slow tonight, so we skipped coffee. Joan was getting a scratchy throat so the went for a cup of tea from the lido and went to bed. Ruth went to the show which was Paul Pappas, a pianist who played everything from Bach to honkey tonk. He was very entertaining. We are tired from all the heat today, so an early night.