Panama Canal Transit

Good Afternoon Friends! 

I know it's been a while since I've updated my blog of travels, but I'm going to do my best this time to keep things updated. The good news is that the internet on the ship is considerably faster than it used to be so hopefully this will not be as much of a challenge as it was before...

This contract I'm off on a Grand Voyage around South America and Antarctica! Our first stop was Costa Rica and I was excited to get off the ship except there was a little bit of a delay for crew immigration and I decided it was a better use of time to have a gym/spa day than to wait around trying to get off. So the first pictures I have from this trip is from Crossing the Panama Canal! I have already transited the canal from Pacific to Atlantic Ocean on the Veendam (1st Contract) and this time I get to go through the locks from the other direction. This time crossing the canal is really special because it is the 100th anniversary from when the locks were built in 1914. 

I took photos all day long and I'll start with my favourite photo from the day. Lisa and I, and the rest of the entertainment team, were at the back pool socializing and taking pics as we went through the last locks. The sun was setting behind us and the Frigate birds were swooping and diving and flying all around us. I managed to snap this picture of a female Frigate bird with the sun in the background. One of those times when photographic magic happens :)  

Early in the morning I held a Techspert Time on the back deck to help guests take photos while we were going through the locks. I took this pic of the container ship behind us being lined up to go in to the lock. You can see the doors opening and the tugboats pushing it into place. 

These little train-cars, called mules (because back in the day it was actual donkey-mules doing the pulling), keep the ship in place while the water fills or empties out of the lock. You can see the cable from the mule to our ship. The driver of the mule was really friendly and waved at me when he saw I was taking a photo.

Going through the last locks the Cruise Ship, Azamara Quest, was beside us and I managed to get this picture showing how the mules are hooked up. 

The Show Host, Matt, took a time capture with his camera from the bridge of our ship. He set up his camera to take a picture every minute or so and then put them all together really fast so it looks like a movie. He showed it to me yesterday and I'll get a copy from him, basically our entire day of transiting the canal down to 3 mins or so!! it looks so unbelievably cool I am really hoping to be able to post it on here. The perspective of us rising and falling in the locks is really captured when you watch a sped up version of our transit.


Ok, I'll start working on the next batch of images! (obviously I have a million and one from this post alone, but I can't share them all unfortunately) Ciao!!