Exiting the Panama Canal into the Pacific

DAY 5 - Continued from our last blog…

 You can see the white side of our ship on the left and the less than two feet of clearance space on either side of the lock for our ship!  You can also see the “mule” up ahead on the tracks keeping our ship perfectly aligned with the sides of the canal locks using enormous wire cables managed by pulley systems on each of four “mules”   The lock on the right allows another vessel to go through the canal at approximately the same time as our ship.

 The last lock fills up with water under our ship, bringing us to the Pacific Ocean level using only the gravity of thousands of gallons of water to raise our ship and the gates in front of us.  We were guided through the entire Canal by an extremely experienced Panama Canal Pilot on board our ship to assist our captain and crew.   The final lock gates open in front of us as we head out into the Pacific!

 The bow of our ship is guided toward the Bridge of the Americas at the end of the Canal.

 Looking back to see the impressive skyline of Panama City as we continue our exciting adventure taking us south over the equator and on to Ecuador and  Peru in South America.