Part 2 - DAY 9 Jan 21 – Transiting the Panama Canal

After lunch, which consisted of some lovely vegetable soup and a salad with all kinds of bits and pieces in it (Maria had nothing I should add), we headed up to deck 12, forward, to watch the ship entering Pedro Miguel Locks. Again the little engines pulled us through under the ever-watchful eyes of our Captain Albert, radio always in hand, and pilot Captain Hayes. It is a slow process and although our ship is not the beamiest in the world there was not lots of room on each side once we were in the lock.

I was pleased to relax for a while on deck in the hot sun as there was quite a pleasant breeze to perhaps keep temperatures down just a little. Maria too was pleased to leave the seclusion of her balcony for a few hours on deck.

The Canal is constantly being maintained especially dredging, as this is a key factor in keeping it open to shipping. Equipment can be seen in operation from one end of the Canal to the other.

Approximately 35 million gallons of fresh water are used for each lockage and it is ultimately flushed into the sea. The most money ever charged to a passenger cruise ship passing through this canal system was over $300,000. This ship was the Norwegian Pearl.

Soon after this we were heading very slowly to the last set of locks called Miraflores Locks. After passing through these ones we would be at Pacific Ocean level and soon to be on our way to circumnavigate the continent of South America.

The Pacific of course occupies one third of the total globe so it is a very significant ocean indeed. We will be in its sphere of influence for quite a few weeks to come.

Once we exited the Miraflores Locks our pilot departed the ship and in fact we shared an elevator down as he prepared to leave.

We were soon in the Pacific Ocean and the wonderful skyline of Panama City came into view.

The Prinsendam is now almost at our point of anchor for the night. We were mooring just off Fuerte Amador and within site of Panama City.

The evening was very barmy with a light breeze and a lovely sunset. We anchored overlooking the City of Panama surrounded by many other ships.

Our ship was having a BBQ on deck tonight with a variety of food available. Steak, tuna, spare ribs, shrimp (prawns) sausages, baked potatoes and all the trimmings were available in abundance. We decided to miss the reataurant and sit out and enjoy a meal under the stars. A band played throughout the meal and some people had the energy to danced around the pool.

We needed to be earlier to bed tonight as we had to be off the ship early in the morning for an all day tour. To reach land in the morning a tender service would be in operation.

What a great day it had been again.