Day 6 – Traveling the Canal

5:30am and I’m waking up in hopes of getting a good place on the bow of the ship. Unfortunately for me there are 50 people who have been here for an hour or so. I find a nice place on the side of the bow and I’m glad I woke when I did. By 6am the bow is packed on all levels.



You don’t get to get off the boat to see the canal locks today so I hope everyone saw them yesterday. The boat squeezes into the first lock step at 6:45 and we’re at the second door 10 minutes later. It’s amazing to see the boat lift up so easily. I looked at the space between the boat and the canal wall and there’s maybe a foot of clearance.



Today the ship paid the Canal $300,120 in fees to travel through from the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific. There’s a streaming webcam so friends at home can watch your ship go through the canal. After an hour or so I’m already beginning to feel a sunburn so I give up and watch from my cabin balcony. While on the man-made lake behind the Canal you see all the work that is being done to widen and deepen the canal for completion of 2013. It gave me an idea of the undertaking of 1912 to make this water body exist. By 5pm we’re now in the Pacific Ocean and are on our way to Costa Rica.