Canals can be hot and humid too!

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Whoever could have predicted that transiting the Panama Canal would be such a family

oriented day but that's exactly what it turned out to be. It began before 7.00 am our

time with a series of texts with my sister that resulted in a phone call from the

foredeck with Jane spotting us on the ship's webcam. Apparently her year 11 class saw a

few lights in the distance from the camera but year 12 saw dawn break plus a few people.

And then when we managed to get in front of the camera, Jane was on a non-teaching

session and it was brilliant being able to chat - albeit for just a few expensive

minutes but it was so worth it all the way from Panama to Aylesbury.

Crossing from the Atlantic this morning to the Pacific this evening via 6 locks and a

huge man-made lake was fantastic. The canal runs for 80 kilometers and is a wondrous

feat of modern engineering. It celebrates its centenary next year and still uses all

the original equipment. It took us 10 hours to complete our transit and that time meant

you never felt under pressure to watch any one part of the journey. In fact, later this

afternoon, the heat had really got to us so we went for a wallow in the pool to cool

off. (And this on the same day that Sky News is suggesting the big freeze may hang

around for up to a month. What a shame we'll miss it!)

At another part of the day we managed to get phone calls with both Andrew and Claire so

we know for sure that they saw us on the ship's webcam. A text from my nephew Toby

confirmed that he spotted us too so we did pretty well today being seen by family.

Can't wait to look at Andrew's Facebook page tonight because he did some screen shots of

us on the ship's webcam and well as some shots from the PanamaCanal.com website showing

the ship going through the waterway. They have cameras up in the hills so we're very

excited to see the ship as that was the one element we couldn't see from on board.

We've just come back to our cabin from dinner and found Cunard has given us a lovely

commemorative certificate which records our transit today. Should be a good addition to

our scrapbook.

Didn't manage to add any ticks to our wildlife list today. The navigator announced that

he could see a crocodile in the canal at one point but hard though we looked we didn't

manage to spot it. So today we know we were near some new wildlife but we didn't

actually see it. Saw lots more pelicans as well as some very fancy looking birds that

everyone on board has nicknamed Pterodactyls 'cos they look really ancient and

aggressive with pointed joints in their wings and very long pointed beaks. Coloured

black and grey, they just don't look like the kind of the birdies you want to tempt down

with a few breadcrumbs!

Learned one interesting bit of trivia today and that is how the Panama Canal company

charge ships for using it. Commercial vessels pay according to their capacity - very

clever not to charge for what's being carried; instead for what could be carried. For

cruise ships it's $132 per person - passenger or crew. The Queen Elizabeth carried 3073

people (just over 2,000 passengers and just over 1,000 staff). Grand total: $405,636.00

for one transit!

After all today's excitement, thankfully we have a solid day of dossing at sea tomorrow.

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