At 0550 we are dead slow ahead, the running and anchor lights of 20 or more ships surround us within a mile - tight spaces for a 1000' long ship.
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| Circling and waiting to get into line |
Ahead are blinking red and green lights, along a breakwater as the light of false dawn reveals. Other ships circle slowly clockwise behind us lining up for their turn like aircraft circling at an airport except in slow, slow motion. Standing on the starboard side, I can see the red channel markers lining up ahead (red right return) and three boats have already pulled alongside us to drop or pick up people.
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| We've entered the breakwater |
Two with pilots (perhaps one for the approach and another for our Gatun Lake spin?) while the third took on the Princess video crew who are filming our approach.
Between Red Buoy 6 and 8 are the contrast between "We can" and "We gave up" - to the left an active port is unloading and loading containers; to the right are three ships in various stages of sunk. One can only be seen by the tips of its superstructure about three feet above the water, another is sunk to deck level, a third is run hard aground.
As we come alongside Buoy 10, tugs like busy bees can be seen buzzing around the two ships in front of us getting them ready for their first lock entry.
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| Our aft "Sheep Dog" |
As our bow reaches buoy 9, our stern is still at buoy 10, and two tugs bound forward like sheep dogs to shepard our passage. With one on our port bow and the other on our stern, we begin to creep forward to join the three ships ahead of us, including the Norwegian Pearl who left Cartagena about an hour before we did yesterday.
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| NCL Pearl, "Going Up" |
0755 and our bow is almost at the dock which marks the beginning of the port lock that we will be using this morning. Meanwhile, Norwegian Pearl is getting mighty tall as the water level in her lock takes her on a slow elevator ride up.
Interestingly enough, two guys in a little row boat literally row out to our bow and grab a line to pull back to the mule team ashore. The mules will be our motive power along the lock. The incongruity of seeing two guys in a ten foot rowboat grabbing a line from a 1000' ship...
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| Alright Big Guy - We're the boss here... |
Once our lines are pulled ashore, they are connected to the mules, everything happens with deliberate slowness as we are pulled and guided through the three Gatun Locks, each raising us a bit higher. Two and a half hours later, we enter and anchor in Gatun Lake. From here our lifeboats flit back and forth carrying passengers ashore to various shore excursions. While they are seeing local flora and fauna, we float gently in the sun for an hour or so before beginning the entire process in reverse, re-entering the Lock line up around 1pm.
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| 20 Mule Team Canal... |
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| Entering the first lock... |
Transiting the Panama Canal is a long, complex, and very expensive process... We heard two passengers saying it cost us $512,000.00 to make our lock transit - naw... Google... Truth! Panama Canal costs have recently risen - a lot - so much so that many large shippers are creating alternative logistic routes for their products, cutting the Canal out of the equation. Proving that even when you are a monopoly, if you raise prices too much, other business men will come up with ways around your pricy road block - or Canal in this case.
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| East bound panorama |
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