Day 11 – Winner at Sea

Today we went through the Panama Canal! Wow, what an adventure. 550 pictures today and all we did was stay on the ship. I work up early and was thinking about going to the gym, but glad I didn’t. After taking my shower I went up on the outside deck at 7am and there was already a full line of people along the rail in the front of the ship. I got behind a lady with a small hat and sat down more than she stood up so I was able to see everything that was going on. Around 6 we entered a by leading into the canal. We were going very slowly and moving towards where I could see other ships going through the locks. There were lots of tug boats around us to make sure we didn’t stray from the course. As we were approaching the docks they sent out 2 guys in a rowboat. Yesterday they explained this all to us several times so we were excited when we actually saw a rowboat. No one believed they really would be in a rowboat, I guess traditions don’t go away easily. The rowboats brought a line to the ship and they used those lines to bring over a cable to hook up to the little trains that were next to the locks. The trains are not used to pull the ship through like the old days, the cables are used to keep us away from the side of the locks, and there is only a 2 foot gap on each side. I went out around 7am and we finally started going through the locks around 8:15. They opened the gate, we drove into the lock, they closed the gate, and they raised us in the lock. That only took about 10 minutes. The next gates opened and we moved into the lock and they closed the gate and raised us up a little more. We then sailed into the canal and had another series of looks to take us even higher. This really got a little boring and I went to the back and took pictures of the gates closing behind us and us going up. The second series of locks was interesting because there was a ship behind us waiting for us to finish. After we got through the second series of locks around 10:30 we sailed until the Atlantic side at 1:30. I went swimming in the ship pool at the time and they gave me a certificate for swimming across the canal which was fun to think about. I went to my room to watch some television since the ship was boring at the time. I also bought a shirt from Panama today. At 1:30 I went to watch us going through the last locks for a while then I got bored and went to the room and watched as the window went below the land and then we sailed into the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean is much rougher than the Pacific Ocean was which seems strange to me. I was bored again so decided to play BINGO. I haven’t played since elementary school and it really isn’t invigorating to me except it is something to do and it is nice to be around people. We played 4 games and the first three games I didn’t even get close. The last game was for $275 and It was a cover all game. I WON! I couldn’t believe. There were about 100 people playing and most of them come every day to play BINGO and I beat them! I was really happy and kind of shocked. It isn’t addictive or anything and I probably won’t play again, but today I won. In the evening I went by the pool in the middle of the ship and it seemed like the pool had waves as big as the ones outside the ship. Water was splashing everywhere and it was fun to watch and listen to. After dinner I went to the movies where Tailor from Panama was showing. It was entertaining, but I’m glad I didn’t have to pay for it. I then went to go play blackjack where I doubled my money. Today was a great day and tomorrow will be better because we will be in Columbia and I have been wanting to go there for a long time.