We’re On the Way, January 4-15, 2014

Hi and welcome on our journey around the world…part II.  We drove to Fort Lauderdale on the day before sailing for safety sake.  Our travel agency provided a hotel room and Bon Voyage party.  We met many of our fellow travelers and escorts that evening.  For voyages like this the travel agencies provide representatives on the ship.  During the voyage they host parties, answer location questions, provide specialized shore excursions, and assist with any problems you may have with the ship’s company.  We have a very experienced British gentleman named Tom as our lead escort.  Our travel agency, Cruise Specialists, has 164 people on this cruise of which 90 are full voyage like us.

We started out with a celebration of our 37th wedding anniversary.  Spending all of this time in a small cabin year after year certainly cements a marriage.

 

Our first stop was Costa Rica.  We’ve been here many times so we stayed close to the ship.  Noreen has a favorite pedicure lady and stopped by for her usual visit.

 

It was a quiet day around the city and we enjoyed a walk in the local park.

The Panama Canal was next on our itinerary as we headed for the Pacific.  This was our fifth transit of the canal.  I’ve posted a speeded  up video of transiting the last set of locks leading to the Pacific on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFeZ2gQ4wXo&feature=youtube_gdata&noredirect=1 .  This was our 2011 transit but it is the same today and same ship.  You can also see other details of transiting the canal at our previous blog at http://thegreatadventure01.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html . This blog and the one at http://2013southamericaandantarctica.blogspot.com/ also contain information on Manta and Lima.  I’m getting a little lazy and we are staying close to the ship at our return to these ports where we have been many times. So if you haven’t seen our posts on those ports check them out on our previous blogs. Here are some things I hadn’t discussed before on the Panama canal.

We are approaching the Atlantic locks at 5:00 AM. 

The arrow is the final check to ensure you are headed for the correct lock set.  Note the rowboat in the lower left.  These gentleman row the boat out to the ship and toss lines that will attached the ship to the “mules” which run along side during transit.  They tried catapults but that was not very safe for the catchers.  Next was outboard motors but they need 100% reliability and didn’t get that.  So it was back to rowboats.

Jump to later in the day.  The target is for the line tossers’ to perfect their aim.  The bar is for getting the necessary height.  The have competitions to see who is best each year.

This is a “Mule.”  They assist in keeping the ship centered and sometimes in stopping in a lock.  They do not pull the ship through the canal.  The ships proceed on their own power.  There were never any live mules used in the Canal.  The name comes from the early use of mules on canals like the Erie Canal.  The ship has two mules on either side of the bow and one on either side of the stern; for a total of six.  In this picture 106 has it’s yellow light lit.  That means it is not fully connected to the ship.  The next picture shows the yellow light out meaning it is connected to the ship.

We have seen a lot of progress on the next set of canal locks since our last transit in January 2013.  They are building wider, longer locks to accommodate the larger ships that are used today.

Here you are viewing a construction site from the lake side

Here you are looking directly through what will be the series of locks to/from the Atlantic Ocean.  Unlike the existing dual set, this will be a single line of locks.

These locks should be completed by our next probable transit in 2016.  In 2015 we are planning on cruising north up to the Iceland, Greenland and Artic Circle area.  No canals up there.

These are ships waiting on the pacific side for transit to the Atlantic.

Our next stop was Manta, Ecuador.   We have been here several times and as it was a cloudy day we just relaxed on the ship for an easy day.

Between Manta and Lima we came across a stranded fishing boat.  They signaled us by jumping up and down and waving life jackets.  We subsequently found out they had a broken propeller and had been anchored there for three days with no radio and out of food and water.  Our ship radioed the owner and he advised that he would send a tug the next day.  So we gave them some food and water and moved on. Upon arrival, before we knew all the above, our ship kept a safe distance should it be a decoy for a pirate of terrorist attack.

We lowered a tender/lifeboat to investigate.  Interesting thing about this photo is that lifeboat #9 in foreground could not be successfully lowered and released.   They had to use #11 which you see in the water.  We are assigned #13 so we’re safe.  Sorry for those assigned #9.

The tender circled the fishing boat several times until their identity was verified.  Then they were given food and water and we went on our way.  Note that they were anchored so the water wasn’t too deep and they were in no danger.

Many fellow passengers gathered and watched the events from crowded areas.

Knowing the ship very well, herself found a nice private place to view from.  There are advantages for spending a couple hundred days on the same ship.

Today we are in Lima, Peru.  We’re here for 2.5 days before heading out across the Pacific for Easter Island.  Since this is the last of good bandwidth we’ll have for a while I am sending this out before we leave Lima.  Again, you can see where we are traveling by visiting our earlier blogs listed at the opening.  We are following the same route for a while.

Hope all is well.  We’d love to hear from you by e-mail.  enjoy the new year.