Panama Canal

 Borealis Friday 28.04.2023

By the time I had woken in the morning we were in the Panama Canal, and at 7.45 we were at our first lock, the Miraflores Lock. We had already got under the first bridge over the canal before we got this far. From my balcony I could see somewhat unedifying scrubland reaching up to the level of my deck. There was a massive vessel higher up ahead of us waiting to enter the neighbouring lock, after our vessel had gone through. The water level beyond the gate reached up to roughly our promenade deck but by that time we had spent 15 minutes in the lock so it had probably been a little higher. The Miraflores Gate House building is less than a stone's throw away from my cabin balcony. An Olympic long jumper could easily have covered it. A young female operator had stepped out onto the balcony as we passed it at the same level as me, and we greeted each other in Spanish. When I stepped out onto the Observation Platform on my deck I could see the starboard side as well. There there was a car park there and a road passing through into the forest beyond. Looking back on that side I could see several high rises in the distance which were part of Panama City, and the destination of the first bridge across the Canal.

Earlier when we had reached Panama Bay, we had veered north to enter the 44 mile long canal. We had finally left the Pacific Ocean after 28 days. The canal territory is policed by the U.S. armed forces and most of the land around us is administered by them. Once we were lifted higher by the lock, we found that another vessel, a container vessel, the Malaysian MSC Scia, was parallel with us on another lock, that we had not spotted until now. It was proceeding northwards to the Atlantic. After 50 minutes we appear to have finally cleared the first lock. We then moved into the second lock, te Pedro Miguel lock, which we had cleard by 10am. In the meantime I had had my breakfast, took Albina her Sugar Frosted Flakes and popped out on the observation platform again to catch a picture of the next large bridge spanning the canal. This was the six lane Centennial Bridge. Bolearis proceeded up the canal, seeming, like Alice, to be chasing the elusive container vessel which appeared like the White Rabbit to be escaping around the corners in the twists and turns of the canal route.

The sides of the canal had initially consisted of high stratified banks of earth piled up from the original earth dug up in the construction of the canal in the 1910s. This section was called the Galliard Cut. They were at least two deck storeys higher than the Borealis. We passed a Chinese COSCO container vessel followed by an Australian vessel called Spirit of Sydney, on their way to the Pacific. The widened sides of the canal now turned into jungle, and included breaks for shady inlets among the mangrove swamps, where some crocodiles were sighted (but not by me). We were still following the Malaysian vessel when a great white passenger vessel hove into view. It was the Royal Caribbean cruiser, Radiance of the Seas. As we passed each other in the narrow channel, we waved, and some witty bugger shouted to them “You’re going the wrong way!”. And then the official greetings started, initially as blasts from both ships’ sirens, and then as a concoction of strange sounds, with a wide range of tonality, which seemed to resemble the vocal rhapsody at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This strange sound reverberated over the still waters of the canal and the surrounding jungle canopy. After that we emerged into the lakes and followed a path across them laid out by buoys and metal markings.

Albina considered this a good time to get the laundry done and then to leave a bag of shirts and trousers in the corridor to be pressed. At least she avoided long term ironing that way.  All that took about an hour and a half, but I carried on chatting on the observation deck to my Polish friend from Southall, who runs a commercial roofing business in Ealing from his cabin, while his wife runs the accounts. He was enjoying the tour so much he decided to book another tour around Australia, the South Pacific and South America next year, but he books most of his excursions by internet with local agencies at each port. I am sure he saves money that way, but my wife would prefer the security of the more expensive Fred Olsen excursions. 

The construction of the Panama Canal was an amazing achievement, but during its construction under French administration nearly 20,000 died from tropical diseases. The French gave up, but the Amercans took over the project and finished it in 1913, although at least another 5,000 perished. About 40 large vessels now use the Canal each day. The lakes we were crossing now stretched out in all directions as we remained surrounded by virgin forests. Finally, by 2.20pm we had completed the crossing of the lakes and arrived at the third lock, the Gatun Lock, having allowed the Malaysian ship to slip in before us. this lock was to drop us down to the level of the Atlantic. As we were being dragged into position by four small engines on train tracks acting as tugs, two on each side, we sided up against a Texan tanker, being dragged in a similar way on the other side. At 3.30pm we had cleared the locks and could feel the gentle swell of the Atlantic, even though we were still in the canal and approaching the last bridge over the canal. In the meantime, a smaller Ecuadorian cargo ship slip in behind the Texan tanker that was going the other way.

The last bridge over the canal is the newest. The Atlantic Bridge, a vast four lane suspension bridge between two towers, seemingly built of white concrete, links western and northern Panama with the industrial port of Colon on the southern side. The bridge appeared to carry only about 5 cars in the 15 minutes or so of our apprach to the bridge, but again it may not have been the busiest time of the day. Its two approach roads seemed to disappear somewhere in the jungles on either side. However, the canal immediately widens into a sea outlet as soon as we pass it. The city of Colon appears on the right, with about twenty massive port cranes being the most noteworthy feature. As we appraoched more closely, we could see that about 5 large wharves, surrounded with some of the cranes, appeared to face the canal, the other cranes some two miles away from the first, appeared to face out onto the Atlantic. It looks like a clear distinction between canal traffic, possibly with goods still under clearance, and Atlantic traffic importing directly into Colon town. It was only after we had come level with Colon that I noticed two massive breakwaters, one coming out of Colon, and a matching one from the other side possibly some four or five miles long from northern Panama. The gap between these long and thin breakwaters was about the width of two vessels like Borealis. Perhaps they were a warning to Atlantic traffic that they are now entering Panama Canal waters, which are, after all, a U.S. militarized zone.

Once through that barrier and we are out in the Limon Bay, which is part of Atlantic proper. It is now downill all the way to Southampton. 15 days to go. England get ready.

I see that my colleagues in the Federation of Poles have heeded my comments in my letter to Mr Mularczyk. Two members of the executive came to the meeting as a record of thier interest, but contributed nothing. Probably the wisest course to take until this stupid campaign blows over, but unfortunately some prominent UK Poles, like Marek Laskiewicz, POSK Chairman, will probably get drawn up in this act of folly. 

 Also we had good news about my friend Zbyszek, He is now out of his coma, sitting up in bed and asking his wife for his mobile phone and cable. That is promising. 5 days ago we was at death's door.

The Borealis Theatre Company surpassed themselves with their Carnival of the World show. The choreography, the costumes, their lighting are so superb and had everyone on their feat with support. The five vocalists and three dancers who form the group are able to put on a lively new show nearly every week. When do they rehearse? How come each performance is faultless? Here they chose popular and some time classical songs from around the world and had costumes to match and into which they managed to change six or seven times during a 45 minute show. This Theatre Company is one of best of many briliant features of this Fred Olsen cruise.

By the way, even today, I have twice been congratulated by new people for my talk 3 weeks ago. It must have made an impact on those who came. Vert pleasing, but still extraordinary. Maybe because it proved together the fantasy of this voyage, and the fantasy of Jules Verne's world with reality. I don't know of any other talk that seemed to stay in people's memory so long.

Only 12 our of 15 in the quiz. The 2 winnong parties had 14. Each time we start with hope and then flounder on one or two questions which we perhaps could have risked a better informed guess. For me this quiz shows how much I have known, but since forgotten. I struggle to remember a name, but then one of my colleagues mention one, and I instatly know it's right. I mostly remember the facts that I knew from my schooldays and university. Thos remain in my brain, and that is still a good proportion of the questions we get.

Albina and I both felt a little hungry as the night wore on. After all, we had both missed high tea (which is a good thing) and dinner. However, I have only just discovered in these last days that there is a Supper Club every night between 11pm and midnight. Every night. We went up to the buffet dead on 11. The buffet was just opening. A full menu was laid out as for a normal meal, mostly consisting of cold meats, vegetables and cheeses, but with some hot meals as well, such as hot dogs with good quality sausages and onions. CLitchen staff and waiters in attendance. The latter poured out water as usual and offerred tea or cofee. Apart from us, only a handful people came in, mostly revellers in carnival dresses taking a break from the dancing and drinking in the Neptune Theatre. Nobody stayed longer than ten minutes, In all, for the twenty minutes we were there, some ten people turned up for food. An utter waste of time and money. And when do these members of the catering staff sleep? 

We watched some TV programmes and were in bed by 12.30.