After a hearty breakfast of kippers for me and Eggs Benedict for Fellette, [her first ever], we explored the ship and bumped into Jim who had a restless sleep and was up watching the transfer of an ill passenger to an ambulance. That transfer stopped all traffic in the canal in one direction for about 45 minutes as it is a rather delicate thing to do with all the various jurisdictions and red tape, plus the issue of having the ship's exit door at the same level as the shore level, in a lock!
We then checked out the gym as I want to do some arm muscle building exercises without injuring the area of my recent procedure. My Charlie-horse and shoulder/neck soreness seems to be subsiding ok, but then maybe it is the Tylenol I took earlier, who knows. I am terribly out of shape as a result of six weeks of inactivity.
Now, the Panama Canal: It is indeed a marvel of engineering for sure, it opened in August 1914, the same year as WWI started. The 'Canal' is not really a canal for the whole length, it is a series of three locks at each end, with a very large lake between the Caribbean/Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The lake is the source of the water to operate the locks that work by gravity.
We started at the Atlantic/Caribbean side and took a few hours to get through the three locks which raise us up to Lake Gatun where we sat for some considerable time along with many, many other ships awaiting our turn to go through the three locks on the Pacific side which lower us down to Ocean Level and then out we sail. The adventure will be over around dinner time tonight.
I earlier mentioned three sea days before we get ashore in Manta, I was wrong, we only have one day at sea, tomorrow.
The weather in the Canal is brutally hot and humid, no wonder some 25,000 workers died between the French attempt, which failed, and the later American which succeeded with only about 5000 deaths, most by accident. So for every mile of actual canal that was cut about 500 workers died. Sad but true.
We have been through the canal several times, in both directions and it is always a thrill to see it in action. This tiny ship is a pleasure to be on for the transit as nowhere is it overcrowded and it would appear that most of the passengers have done it before as well.
I am not sure of the cost of the toll for this ship, but I believe it to be in excess of $200,000 US dollars. The Canal is run by Panama now, passing from US control in 1999 I think. Many skeptics thought that Panama could not run it efficiently but it appears that good training by the Americans paid off and it is running just fine and has even recently expanded to take larger ships.
There is a class of container ship called a Panamax that is the maximum width to fit in the old locks that were 110 feet wide. The new canal, just opened, has a width of 160 feet so that will enable ships holding up to 12,000 containers to pass through. Imagine the toll for that ship! Good revenue to Panama for sure. The canal itself employs over 10,000 people.
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