Having sailed the Norwegian fjord’s and the archipelagos of the Dalmatian coast, the voyage though the Panama Canal is In a league of it’s own and I’ll happily admit that whilst I was a little sad to leave my little cottage and then the drug addled days that followed, I’m happy to say that sitting here sailing across Gatun Lake was worth it all.
The transit through the locks at Agua Clara was magnificent. A true engineering marvel. I know the square root of zilch when it comes to engineering but even I can appreciate just how impressive this is.
Incidentally, this is Queen Mary 2’s maiden voyage through the Panama Canal, a fact that surprised me given her 23 years age and the amount of world voyages she has undertaken.
As we transit through Gatun Lake, we navigate our way through Islands of rain forest. The lake itself is a man made feature having been flooded by damming the Chagres River. As a result of this, we are in fact 26 meters above sea level, hence the series of locks taking us into and out of the lake.
A nice touch is that our entire transit is narrated by John Laverick MBE who is on board as a lecturer on all things locks!
To say it’s warm here is an understatement, every now and then we are treated to a tropical rain shower which provides temporary respite to what is as hot and humid as a sauna.
This is day one by the way and later today, we’ll moor at Cocoli overnight prior to navigating the Pedro Miguel locks tomorrow.
I can’t overstate just how beautiful it is here. And to be fair, the ship is looking magnificent, the service is excellent and the beer is cold!
It’s kind of one of those moments where I could wax lyrical for pages about this but I’ll never do it justice and nor will my photos
The Agua Clara Locks with the second of three sets of locks closing behind us. Truly a marvel
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