Day 6 – January 10. 2011 - Panama Canal

Day 6 – January 10. 2011 - Panama Canal

At 4:30 am this morning, Sharon was awaken by bright lightening coming in our window. So she decided to go up to the Crow’s Nest, to view our entrance into the Panama Canal, which was an hour earlier than expected.  The Crow’s Nest is at the bow of the ship and offers a good view of where we are going.  Even at that hour most of the front seats were full.  Sharon sat inside directly behind the ship’s flagpole.  A little blue light on the flagpole was indicating the direction that the ship was going in.  She was fascinated because she saw our ship and another ship entering the first lock at the same time  It reminded her of her first time through the canal in 1997 when she sailed in a “small Russian spy ship”.  When that ship was in the first lock, the ship behind them kept coming closer and closer and evidently put a big dent in the stern of the former spy ship.   She asked someone on board if this happened often and she got a resounding “NO it does not”.   The Russian captain was very upset and adamant about refusing any help to fix it.

Our passage on this trip took 9 hours from beginning to end.  When Julia finally got up to the Crow’s Nest she spotted a crocodile that was gliding along the canal and a group of capybara (the world’s largest rodents) roaming on the hillside.  It is fascinating all the manpower, money, time and technology that have combined to create this wondrous “8^th wonder of the world”.  It is quite a moment when you notice the brown water of the canal joining the beautiful blue water of the Pacific.  It’ a moving sight to sail under the Bridge of the Americas as you look out at all the other ships mostly cargo ones waiting to enter the canal.