Since opening in 1914 the Panama Canal has meant the journey between the world's two greatest oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic, has been shortened by thousands of kilometres to an eight hour journey of slow steaming through a hilly tropical jungle. This modern wonder of the world is an amazing feat of engineering that carries about 40 vessels a day and now I am lucky enough to have sailed through it upon one such vessel.

We rose early, even before the sun, so as not to miss a moment of this experience. Panama City loomed like a ghost city in the early morning as we joined many other ships in the bay. By 7 a.m. the morning had already become hot and steamy, and the sky heavy with clouds. However, the rain held off and despite this being the wet season we made the entire 80 kilometre crossing without a drop falling.

We entered the Miraflores Locks by 7:30, well ahead of schedule, and were lifted up to enter Miraflores Lake by a double step process. This first set of locks has the biggest lift of any of the canal locks because of the extreme tidal fluctuations of the Pacific. The maximum lift can be as high as 20 metres.

The Pedro Miguel Locks were only a short distance on and only a single step up to place our ship into the Calebra Cut, the narrowest portion of the canal. This section extends approximately 14 kilometres and crosses the Conitiental Divide as it carries ships between Pedro Miguel and the southern edge of Gatun Lake at Gamboa. The saddle (low point) was initially 100 metres above sea level, but now the canal bed is only 12 metres above sea level, having had millions of cubic metres excavated, first by the French and later by the Americans. The water level itself is just over 25 metres above sea level. It felt very strange travelling in a huge ocean liner on a high, narrow, quiet waterway through tropical jungle and hills.

The next stage of the journey was a quiet, peaceful trip across Gatun Lake with its many small islands. We passed some cargo ships going south and we saw some crocodiles sunning themselves of the shore. Gutan Lake was the largest man-made lake in the world upon its completion in 1912 and remained so for more than 20 years, but now there are over 30 man-made lakes that are larger.

Finally, we went through the Gutan Locks, a unique triple set of locks which are the largest and longest in the world. They lowered us down step by step and disgorged us into the Atlantic Ocean near the city of Colon. (No jokes please, though yes, it is pretty funny if you are thinking what I am thinking.) It doesn't look like a very inviting place with all its cranes and shipping containers towering over endless docks, but I will not judge as we did not get to spend time there.

It is hard to believe that today, in only 8 hours, we passed through a narrow saddle of this isthmus that joins North and South America, but for hundreds of years ships struggled for weeks, sometimes months to reach the same place via Cape Horn. The feat of constructing this canal was complex, but the working of the locks that make this crossing possible is so simple. The locks are all fed by water from Lake Gutan and gravity.

Throughout the journey we received a very good running commentary by an expert on the canal and it's history. She was easy to listen to and we learnt many interesting things. We were also enthralled by the building of extra locks at both ends of the canal. Construction is well under way, and seeing it only partly completed was a reminder of what a mammoth task had been undertaken in the beginning with the present canal. This project will allow another lane for larger ships and is expected to be completed in 2014.

As we completed our crossing we were surprised by how weary we were. The heat and the humidity had taken its toll and our legs were tired from traipsing back and forth across the ship, side to side, front to back, up and down levels, all in the name of taking advantage of the best viewing spot for particular parts of the journey and always worried we might miss out on seeing something especially noteworthy. We shall sleep well tonight, be it in another ocean.