Today we traversed the Panama Canal. It’s my third time through. For some reason, the last twice I’ve been through, I wore an orange t-shirt. To keep the tradition going, I did the same again.
Barbara and I woke up early. Because we were showering and the like, we missed passing under the Bridge of the America’s. We were about as we entered both the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks. We passed through the old canal and Windstar ship Star Breeze was behind us as we entered the Miraflores Lock. The locks are in parallel pairs and by the time we left Pedro Miguel she was ahead of us.
We saw a Chinese container ship passing through the new canal. It’s the first time I’ve seen it in use. The last time I was here, it was still under construction.
When we reached the Gatun Locks Star Breeze was just ahead of us and the Chinese container ship was about to leave the new canal and head for the ocean. We were about an hour and a half ahead of schedule when we left the canal and aimed for the Caribbean.
By the way, it has cost $399,000 for the Aurora to pass through the canal.
We scored 18/20 in the World Tour World(?!) Quiz and 13/20 in the Syndicate. The same team won both. They’re usually table 39 in the Syndicate, but not tonight. That was us! There’s a woman in the team on table 39 that no one likes. A bad loser is awful but a smug winner is worse.
The captain said that it would be choppy when we hit open water in the Caribbean, with seas of 4 metres. He wasn’t wrong.