We unpacked, met Greg The Butler, and had quite a bit of champagne. Interesting, this idea of having a life boat drill at 8:15 p.m. We were giddy enough after the champagne, but some of these people had already had dinner, had been tippling since the early afternoon, and were making a new fashion statement with a life jacket on over cocktail dresses and business suits. They didn't need to be dressed up like that, but hey, it's the first night on board and who'd want to miss a formal life boat drill? Needless to say, some guests were not as orderly as others. That having been accomplished, we set sail from Miami:
First stop, Grand Cayman. Didn't get off the ship, didn't take a picture. Next stop, Cartagena, Columbia. All we could think was "drug capital". Didn't get off the ship, took a picture:
Its construction held the world's attention for over 35 years. It affected the lives of tens of thousands of people. Reputations were made and destroyed. France was rocked to its foundations. Colombia lost its most valuable territory - the Isthmus of Panama. The Republic of Panama was born. As early as 1514, Charles I of Spain proposed the construction of a canal in Panama, but it would take nearly 400 years for builders to catch up with his foresight. The first ship passed through the Canal in 1914.
The first attempt at a canal was by the French in 1880. They began working on a sea level canal to the Pacific Ocean. The French work force labored for over 20 years, but they were unable to cope with the mounting problems: their diggings were continually flooded out, the jungle around them was impenetrable, and thousands of the workers succumbed to yellow fever and malaria. Bankrupt, the French sold its enterprise to the American government for $40 million...somewhat short of the $287 million they had invested and lost.
With Panama proclaiming its independence from Colombia in 1903 and granting the U.S. control "in perpetuity" of the area surrounding the proposed waterway, construction began again. First, engineers decided to plug the wild Chagres river with the construction of the largest dam ever built, the Gatun Dam. Thus the Gatun Lake, part of the canal, was formed. We, and almost everyone else, arose at 5:00 a.m. so we wouldn't miss a minute of canal action. Here, we approach the Gatun locks on the Caribbean side of the canal. At this point, the Captain is sort of along for the ride. The Panama Canal Pilot (every boat has two because it takes 12 hours or so to transit the canal) is running the show:
A modern day "mule" pulls the ships through the locks. It takes the mule operator both hands and both feet to operate the machine, so as he receives orders from the pilot, he responds by ringing a bell. Here's a mule:
We're in the second (middle) Gatun lock (there are three). From here, Gordon could see his old guard shack where he used to perform duty, guarding the locks during his time in the Army:
On Lake Gatun. The black posts are guide markers that the pilots line up visually to stay in the lane:
Hey! We have company! Holland America's Westerdam passed opposite direction amidst lots of waving and tooting of the ship's horns:
On our way through the lake, we pass "Herman the German". It's a Titan Crane built by Germany and captured by the U.S. in World War II. It lifts 300 tons and will be used to help set the lock doors on the new canal lanes that are currently under construction:
On the other side of the lake, the engineers faced the digging of the Gaillard Cut, now known as the Culebra Cut. The cut is over nine miles long and and crosses the Continental Divide through solid rock and hillsides that rise over 400 feet above sea level. This area gets over 200 inches of rain in the wet season (which is most of the year). Because of this, enormous mud slides plagued the project, eventually causing over 24 million cubic yards of earth to be excavated in addition to the cut itself. The cut cost about $10 million per mile. Today, the rain still causes mudslides and dredging the cut is still part of the daily maintenance routine.
Every large ship going through the canal has a couple of "buddies", the tug boats. Tugs follow along "just in case". Here's one of our tugs, near the Pedro Miguel lock:
On the west end of the canal, the Pedro Miguel lock lowers the ship 31 feet, and at Miraflores, two locks take it down the final 54 feet to Pacific Ocean sea level. Here we are, entering the Miraflores locks:
And here's the Captain's view, broadcast on the TV in our suite:
Back to the new locks under construction. Two new sets are under construction, one on the Pacific side and one on the Atlantic side. As it stands now, the largest ships that can pass through the canal are called "Panamax". The new locks will allow "Post-Panamax"; that is, much bigger, ships to pass through since the new locks will be larger and the Culebra Cut will be deeper. Also, the water used to fill the locks will be recycled.
Ships are charged a toll for use of the Canal, based on tonnage or cargo-carrying capacity below decks. The largest toll paid to date was $375,600 (the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship), and the smallest was 36 cents, paid by a man who swam the canal in 1928. Our toll was around $300,000.
If anyone's interested in reading the history of this monumental undertaking, there's an excellent book called "The Path Between the Seas" by David McCullough. It's available on Kindle.
Now, on to Acapulco (because the dock fell down in Zihuatanejo due to the storms), San Diego, and Honolulu!
