Saturday, November 10, 2007


The port of Colon. Panorama shot from our balcony. Four photos stitched together using the Photomerge feature in Photoshop CS3. Amazing stuff -- just select two or more photos, click a button, then wait a few seconds for the merged photo to appear.

When we docked in Colon, singers were singing and dancing at the shopping area next to the dock. From our room we could hear them, so we went to the balcony and grabbed this shot.

Another ship in the next lock. If a smaller boat (such as a tug boat) can fit in the lock, they squeeze it in. If you're in a yacht, you'll be sharing the lock with several other smaller boats. It took a couple of hours to go through a set of three locks and enter Gatun Lake, where a half dozen other ships (mostly cargo ships) were anchored.

Robin enjoys lunch in the dining room (at the rear of the ship) as we go through the Gatun Locks. Through the rain covered windows you can barely see another ship following us, one lock behind (right behind Robin's head).

The canal first opened to commercial traffic in 1914. In 1928, Richard Halliburton swam the Canal. It took him ten days and cost 36 cents in tolls (passage fee based on weight, I assume).