Wednesday 18 May 2011

Panama Canal- Day 1 (continued)






Around 5:20pm we finally saw our line up for the transit! We were in the line up behind a container ship and were going to be rafter with a power catamaran called 'Discovery' and a fishing vessel. Lucky for us we were rafted on the outside of the fishing boat so only had one side to worry about. Discovery was in the dangerous position fending off the wall and handling the lines. In the first lock we rose around 10 meters and the boats rocked against each other as the lines pulled and strained. At this point we don't look too stressed at all do we? We had 2 more locks to go through and repeated the same procedure 2 more times rising 10 more meters each lock. As we exited the last lock into Gatun Lake the sun was starting to set and it was really very tranquil. We marvelled at the engineering feat that was required to construct the lock and maintain its operation.

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