Cruised through the Great Canal from North to South, from the Pacific to the Caribbean, lifted 84 feet up, across the Continental Divide, through the Culebra Cut, the Gatun Lakes, under the Bridge of the Americas and the Centennial Bridge, passing giant containerships, decrepit Chinese rustbuckets, a couple of tourboats, a sailboat flying the Candian Flag, shore line crocodiles, descended 70 feet down, and into a different sea.
Almost the entire complement of passengers lined the railings on all decks, including the foredeck normally closed, and gawked and photographed and baked in the sun, mercifully mitigated by a fresh ocean breeze from either ocean. First the Miraflores Locks (set of 2) and onto half a mile of distance through Miraflores Lake into San Pedro Lock, and - three hours later - at the north end through the Gatun Locks (set of 3).
We had PLENTY of room to spare in the locks on either side of the ship Amsterdam, maybe a couple of feet, whereas some of the Containers monsters seem to be creeping in and out of the locks with barely 5 inches to spare on either side. All ships move under their own power, DEAD slow, but are kept aligned with the lockwalls by tightly co-ordinated and sychronized stainless steel locomotives, who handle positioning cables on critical locations along the lockwalls and various attachment points along the ship, sometimes also acting as brakes or pulls.
The line handlers taking messenger lines from shore to ship, are still dependend on 19th century technology: i.e. a row-boat with a man on a set of oars and another with a boathook handling the messenger lines. The method has proven to be almost fail safe. Due to the wind the little rowboat bringing the lines to us at the San Pedro Lock could not row close enough to the our ship's hull and hold it's position and the line throw failed. The little boat had to hurry and row out of harms way. Closer to the lockwall, the handlers threw the messenger lines directly from the docks.
Why the difference in height of lifts at either end? The Pacific's tidal range spans up to 14 feet, and the Caribbean only reaches up to 3 feet...go figure...
Fascinating stuff, but not fascinating enough for some of the people aboard MS Amsterdam, who can boast spending the Panama Canal transit at the hairdresser, on a treadmill in the gym with a soap-opera on their personal TV, glaring at the BlackJack table, laying on a lounge under a slathering of suntan oil beside the inside pool, watching a football game in the sports lounge....go figure.
Another medical evacuation here....somebody with a liver problem. Ambulance was at the ready and the disembarkation took place during the short interval of 'slack' between tying up in a lock and start of the lift/descend.
Some of the youngsters aboard must have been somewhat overeager in their basketball tournaments, as there are suddenly a lot of hobbling teenagers with their legs in braces and their ancles bandaged.
The ship's photographers had the unusual privilege of taking photos and videos of the ship and the wildly waving passengers from the locks themselves and trudged - with a security guard on their heels - along docks, across the top of lock gates (not my idea of fun) and eternalized the excited crowds on digital film. The photo crew followed the ship through the Gatun Lake aboard a rented powerboat. An enviable method 'doing' the Panama Canal.
