Distance traveled from Manta, Ecuador: 594 Nautical Miles
Looks like a great day for a transit even though there are intermittent showers as we get started. I’m up early to catch the start of the transit.
Panama City – Pre-Dawn (transit underway)
Ships and boats in queue for the Canal
Panama City at Dawn
I brought breakfast for Ellen down to the room so we could watch some of the transit from out window – that turned out to give us a nice perspective on just how precise the locomotives and engineers have to be. The picture below is the ship in the Miraflores locks. There is no zooming here – the wall of the locks looks to be less than a foot away.
Two shots while the ship was in the Miraflores Locks.
Before the introduction of water into the locks
About six minutes later – above the surface of the locks
Panama Canal Tug monitoring our progress
Water exiting the Pedro Miguel Locks
Next: The Pedro Miguel Locks: The picture below taken from our window shows the paint from ships who did not negotiate the wall as well as they should.
Another close encounter with the wall of a locks (this time the Pedro Miguel Locks) – also looks like about a foot of clearance.
Seventeen minutes later our window is well about ground level (below).
Exiting the Pedro Miguel, we pass under the Centennial Bridge on our way to the Culebra Cut.
Top: The Culebra Cut; Bottom: Me and the Cut
The train tracks below were the same ones used during the construction of the Canal.
One of the highlights of the Culebra Cut is Gamboa City and its huge Nazi built crane, Titan. Titan was purchased from Germany after the war for one dollar but it took $2,000,000 dollars to ship it to Panama.
The Infinity will anchor in Gatun Lake to allow passengers on excursions in the Canal area to tender to shore.
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