Panama Canal

It took us from 7:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. to sail the Panama Canal and it was much more interesting than I expected.

Transiting the Panama Canal is quite a different experience than the Suez Canal. For one thing, there are no locks on the Suez, so you simply sail along as if it were a river. For another, even though it’s fairly narrow, you are never so close to shore that you could hop off in the Suez.

Tugboats escort you the the Suez Canal, and you’re part of a convoy, but it’s much more of a hands off experience. Not only did tugboats escort us through the Panama Canal, but we also had lock “mules” with metal ropes pulling our ship through the locks.

There was plenty of room at the start of our journey, but our last lock was a tight fit as you can see from my pics. Larry estimated that we were only 18 inches or so away from the edge.

I didn’t expect the mule drivers to get so close to the ship, either. When one driver saw me watching, he opened his window and posed for a photo! That was a nice surprise.Read more