Panama

Through the Caribbean

Greetings All,

Well, we’re just about to have the anchors lifted and leave Aruba in the southern Caribbean and head off west to Panama, famous for its hats and canal! But I get ahead of myself so let’s go back 6 days.

Manchester on a cold and foggy Monday morning, as a part of the ‘deal’ we were fast tracked through the airport check-in and security and arrived expectantly at the Executive lounge to find our names missing from the list – good start! Having paid the necessary fee, that we intend to recoup from the booking agents, we dived in to the ‘free’ food and drink. Not being awake at this time of day normally Bill was a little slow and managed to put his cup for coffee under the wrong nozzle of the coffee machine, press the button and watch the next door overflow tray do just that!

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Beyond The Canal

We left you all heading for the Panama Canal through the Southern Caribbean and for all the doubting Thomas’s amongst you – yes we did get through. Some of you were honestly concerned because of the news of floods and closures. Others were more personal – “would we fit through” – thanks Coops!

Even though we’d gained an hour that night it was still a very early start for most of the ship who got up to watch our first lock passage (Gatun) at 7.30am. Huge amounts of activity on the lock side, with little electric trains holding us straight through the lock. We had a clearance of 1 foot each side.

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