Continued from yesterday”¦ Pacific finally got to the edge of the first lock at Gatun. It almost looks like a runway, with fingers of land on both sides of the waterway. The “runway” extends for quite a way before actually taking you into the chamber. We were going through the left set of locks. We waited a fair distance behind and watched while a little row boat with two guys in it rowed out from the finger. They were carrying the steel cables. They seemed to be helping to attach the cables to the front and back corners of the starboard side. Once the cables were attached, they repeated the process on the port side.

Once all the cables were in place, the tug turned around, the rowboats rowed away, and the locomotives slowly started to move forward, going up the little hill to the higher lock wall, while Pacific moved forward at the identical speed. Pacific stopped in front of the lock gate. The bridge for car traffic is above this lock, so there were lots of cars zooming back and forth above Pacific while they were getting it situated. For some reason, it seemed almost surreal to see the cars over the canal. It was just as surreal as seeing the cruise ship sitting in the middle of the jungle.

At 1745, we moved forward to the edge of the finger, where Pacific had stopped to be prepared. Here is what the lock ahead looks like. Two guys stood on each side of us, each holding a line. The starboard forward threw first. Joel caught the hook and attached the line.

Then aft starboard threw, and Tom caught and attached. The process was Continue reading →