Amy is the host of the Lens-Artists challenge this week and her theme is, “A Day of My Week”.

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Right before we locked down due to the pandemic I had the wonderful opportunity to check an item off of my bucket list, traversing the Panama Canal! I don’t know why I’ve wanted to experience this for so long, but it had been a dream for many years.

We were passengers on the Regent Splendor and crossing the canal was the highlight of the trip for all of the passengers, I’m sure. Traversing the Canal through the Isthmus of Panama (about 40 miles) is the only way to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific ocean, short of rounding Cape Horn at the tip of South America (about 4,000 miles). We embarked in Miami on the Atlantic Ocean side and disembarked in San Diego on the Pacific Ocean side. The entire transit takes about eleven hours, almost an entire day.

We got up early in the morning and many of the passengers congregated at the front of the ship in the observation lounge. I grabbed a spot by the window so that I would have a good view for making photographs. A local lecturer boards the ship and he explains what is happening throughout the day.

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The ship first travels through the Gatun locks.  Going through the locks is fascinating.  The ship rises a total of eighty five feet as it travels through three locks.  Then it reaches Gatun Lake which is very beautiful.

After five hours crossing the lake we traveled through two more sets of locks which took us back to sea level before we reached the Gulf of Panama on the Pacific side.

The ships are guided through the locks by what look like little railroad engines and there are only about three feet of clearance on either side. The captain is not in command of the ship in the canal.  A highly trained captain boards the ship at the onset of the transit and stays in command until the transit is complete. Tug boats also accompany the ship, in case it runs into any trouble and to keep the ships a safe distance apart.

As we exited the canal at the end of the day workers came out of this large office building and waved and cheered. We were on our balcony and waved back at them. It had been a most exciting and interesting day!