Arriving in Colon, it looks like a parking lot.
These boats are all waiting for transit through the canal.
Monstrous!
A Panamax -built to the maximum dimensions of the canal
We have to call Cristobal Signal Station for permission to enter the harbour.
The breakwall to the east...
...and to the west, Red Right Returning!
Inside the breakwall are more boats waiting. These are allowed inside because they aren't carrying flammable or explosive cargo.
See this boat? It's a pilot boat, about the size of the Sea Eagle in Key West.
Now can you spot it alongside this monster?
This one is even bigger. It's carrying cars.
Sunrise over the Panama Canal Yacht Club
For loading and unloading cargo
Do you think that “Butterfly” is an appropriate name for this boat?
Ashore at the Yacht Club
Downtown Colon -one of its less picturesque districts!
Be careful even taking photos out the taxi window. A friend of ours had a gun put to her head for her camera when the taxi stopped at an intersection.
The Gatun Locks, on the Caribbean side of the canal
The tracks that the “mules” run on
The mules -locomotives that direct the ships through the locks
This boat is inside the second chamber. It paid $145,000 to transit the canal.
26 million gallons of water from the third chamber on the left will be pumped into the second chamber until they are equalized, raising the ship.
The gate opens, and the ship passes through to the third chamber.
The ship is under its own power, but the mules are also towing, braking and keeping the ship centered so it doesn't hit the sides.
There's not much clearance -as little as 2 feet on some of these big ships.
Say cheese! This is a tourist attraction for them, too!
Once in the third chamber, water from the lake will be pumped in to equalize.
The massive engines are started up and off it goes into Gatun Lake. There are 3 more chambers on the other side to deliver the ship to the Pacific.
Next up!
This boat paid $175,000
One of the original mules from 1916
Our dream cockpit enclosure!
Pete and his wife Renata own this boat.
The other thing we fell in love with! This is before we catnapped her.
