When we returned from the San Blas after several days of visiting, it was time for our trip through the Panama Canal. We arrived in the harbor at Colon in late morning, expecting to start our journey immediately. Didn't work that way. We sat at anchor for most of the day, waiting for the Canal's computer to assign us a trip, and watching ships go up and down the Gatun locks.

A very sketchy explanation of the architecture of the Canal follows. Skip it if it's not your bag. In building the Canal there were two major problems; The Continental Divide was in the way, and the water wasn't deep enough. In excavating through the highest part of the Isthmus, the engineers used much of the soil to dam up the Chagres River. This solved the difficulty, but it left the resulting lakes some 87 feet above sea level. So locks were needed at both ends of the Canal to raise and lower ships to the lake level.

At the Gatun locks there are three consecutive chambers, 1000 feet long and 110 feet wide. These dimensions define the maximum-sized ship that can transit the Canal. (Called a PANAMAX). The deepest draft is determined by the amount of water currently in Gatun Lake. (About 37 feet) We were admitted into the lock along with a refrigerator ship named the Vermont Universal, on its way to Ecuador for a load of bananas. Because our combined length did not exceed the length of a lock, we were doubled up with this larger ship.

It was dark by the time we reached the locks, but it made no difference since they are brilliantly lit and we were able to see every detail. I had since school days been seeing pictures of the locomotives (called mules) that accompany a ship through the locks, and assumed they towed the big ships. They don't. Their function is to keep the ships centered, so they can't damage the walls or the giant doors of the locks.

Before you enter the locks your ship is boarded by line handlers carrying heaving lines. In order to connect to the "mules" two men in a small boat row out, catch the heaving line and attach it to the cable from the mule. I understand many different high-tech devices have been tried over the years, but they always go back to this antiquated but effective method.

After exiting the three locks we proceeded across Gatun Lake and into the Gaillard Cut, which is where the canal was dug through the Continental Divide. The Cut is still being deepened and widened. As we went by, two giant dredges were operating, one sucking mud from the bottom, the other further on, attacking a rocky place in the Cut. It had huge jaws to lift rocks off the bottom, but apparently had tried to bite off one that it couldn't chew. A giant rock was stuck in the jaws and our Canal Pilot said that they would have to drill holes in the rock and break it up with explosives.

Our crossing happened the night of a complete eclipse of the moon so we had a chance to observe that from the upper deck at the same time. After midnight we were lowered down the Pedro Miguel Lock in one step, and a mile later, down two steps in the Miraflores Locks to the Pacific Ocean.