Crossing
the Panama Canal
May 2011
May 2011
I
have always wanted to cross the Panama Canal.
I remember watching a documentary film:
A Man, A Plan, A Dream. The film
impressed me so much that I took a trip to Panama five years ago in hopes of
jumping on a ship and making my way down the canal. But that didn’t happen and now, five years
later, I am now on a ship and ready to go. This passage is one of the
highlights of the trip.
Rumors
are rampant as to how much it costs to sail through the canal. Speculations are
anywhere from $80,000 to $300,000.
Someone told me that he thought he heard the captain say it was $200,000
but he thought the captain wasn’t really sure.
Personally, this is not a reliable source because the captain should be
sure before he embarks on this expensive passage. But anyway, there you have it, our inexact
speculations.
The
trip through the canal takes 12 hours. I
went to bed early so that I could be up and rested for this long, slow,
exciting day.
10:00 AM: I am awaked this morning at 6
AM to the sounds of busy, screeching noises from the crew. They must have been clearing the gangway for
our guest commentator and canal pilot. I
am not sure if they are one in the same.
But we are receiving commentary from someone with a very smooth,
intellectual voice who is keeping us apprised of our every movement. We are getting the history, the vegetation,
the bridge names, wildlife and anything else that crosses his mind and our
view. I am riveted to his voice.
Most
of our regular ship activities have been suspended today so that we can devote
all of our energies to the passage. And
those activities that are scheduled, take a back seat to our canal passage. If
necessary, they will be cancelled.
Noon: There are lots of PA
announcements and classes have been rescheduled and I can’t quite get with the
program today. So I was too late for
breakfast. But there was a Mother’s day
brunch, so I sneak in to this event and eat.
But I no soon finish and lunch is set up so I went back for lunch as
well. I am full.
1:30PM-I can’t seem to figure out
what happened to my writing class. Today
I had intentions of learning how to “find voice in my writing. It was supposed to start at 1245 but then
there was an announcement about 1315 rescheduled time. But I couldn’t find that class at that time
either. So it looks as if I am not going
to find my writing voice today.
2:00 PM-We are all taking lots and
lots and lots of pictures today. Most of
the photos are the same because we are moving so slowly and the scenery really
isn’t changing much. Even the crew is snapping away every chance they get. And
the members of Nikonian photo club are in full force today, running around as
if they are on their most important photographic mission to date. They are all sporting their photographer’s
vests. Tripods are lining the railing of
Deck 5. Cameras are covered in rain shields.
And there is lots of talk about apertures and sunlight. I continue to keep my camera on automatic
focus. So I am just pointing and shooting and hoping for the best. And what I miss, I’ll just hope that the auto
edit option in Photoshop does the rest.
2:15PM- I have my video camera on in
my room. I am running two hours of
footage in hopes that I might capture something, anything interesting. Maybe I will go down and check just to make
sure the camera didn’t fall over and is now catching 2 hours of ceiling shots.
2:30PM- I made my way to Glacier
Lounge, on Deck 7 (stern). The place is packed with people who appear to be
hunkered down for the full 12 hours of the passage. They have their Kindles,
cameras, journals, sun screen, water bottles, hats, sun glasses, camcorders and
anything else they will need to get them through the rest of the passage.
It
is standing room only at the railing on the deck and on the observation deck as
well. And no one is relinquishing their
coveted spots. If anything is needed, a
spouse is summoned and the object in need is fetched. Or it is done without. And the slow process of moving through the
canal is being viewed with the intensity of an action packed movie. But there is also a reverence and humility to
the magnitude of this man –made wonder of the world.
3:00PM- we spend a lot of time waving
to each other on the other ships. Empty
gestures of good will. And these
gestures seem so important to us. One
person, on another ship, is waving
frantically to us. It was too hot to
resipicate but we do the best we can so that we will be viewed as good
ambassadors of the canal. And when our
greeter was out of range of our naked eye, we debated, “was that a man or a
woman”. Most of us thought it was a
woman. And so one of our male, gay
passengers lifted up his binoculars and said, “This is a first. I’m looking for a woman’s breast.” He concluded it was a man. He also concluded
that the man was not Jewish. Apparently
our gay passenger has an expertise in this area.
3:10PM- oh no, my memory card for my
camera is FULL. Now I have to decide:
(1) go down four flights of stairs to get back in my room or (2) stay put and
stay in the moment. What a tough
decision. And to add insult to injury,
the bar isn’t even open right now. A
beer would be lovely in this ungodly heat.
My
thoughts are interrupted by a woman who had discovered the website that is
streaming a live recording our passage through the canal. We are all thrilled for the moment. We all
marvel at modern technology as we watch the video of our passage for a few
moments until we realize that we should be watching our actual passage.
The
commentator tells us that the ship beside us has only two feet leeway on both
sides of the canal wall. I suck in my
gut in a spontaneous gesture. We are now told that the tolls to transit the
canal must be paid at least 48 hours in advance. Net tonnage determines the tolls. It costs $4.43 per net ton. And the cruise
ships pay $128 per berth. The highest
container toll was $409,106.00 and the lowest toll was 36 cents to a man who
swan the canal in 1928.
I
started out the day in the back of the ship.
And then I thought to myself, should I be at the front of the ship. Is that where all the action is? Now I am at the front of the ship and I am
wondering if I should be at the back of the ship. This seems to be the push and pull of my
life.
I
head to the back of the ship. I take the
elevator with a fellow passenger who speaks to me, “Quite an exciting day” she
says to me in a monotone voice.
“Yes”,
I concur, “It’s once in a life time.”
She nods in agreement and walks away.
4:00PM- I am aft and the heat is
intense and thick. Both my eye glasses
sand camera lenses are fogging up with the humidity. We are on our last lock
and people are frantically getting their final shots of this long day in the
canal. We can see the end. And then we hear a long, loud blast from our
ship. And we all clap and the shore men
on the canal wave frantically to us and shout out, “Welcome to our
country. Enjoy Panama.” And some of us shout out our thanks. And our passage is over. And we pick up speed
and move on. And quickly, the canal is now out of our sight.
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