It was an early morning on our second day in Panama as we set out to rendezvous with the ship Isla Morada. She would be carrying us across all six locks of the Panama Canal over the next nine hours. We would board her by 7:15am and would not disembark until 4:30pm that afternoon. It was a long, and exciting day.

Our journey began with a jaunt under the Bridge of the Americas, the Pacific entrance to the canal. It seemed as though, among the obvious tourist such as ourselves, there were many local Panamanians aboard, which was a surprising find. However, if you visit Disneyland, you will find a lot of Californians, and apparently the same applies for major tourist attractions all over the world.

It wasn't long until we reached our first sea-lock. The engineering and forethought that went into the canal is astonishing. As you probably know, the canal spans the width of Panama, connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic. 48 miles long, to be specific.

The canal has three locks going up, and three locks going down. Each lock has two lanes, which can switch directions to provide one-way traffic when needed. The locks have multiple doors for maximum flexibility, but at full length reach 1,050 feet. Additionally, each lock has a width of 110 feet, which is still not enough to accommodate modern mega-ships.

There is a lot going on in this picture. First, you might notice how brown the water is. We were told that this is due to the dynamite being used up-river. Since modern ships have outgrown the canal, the Panamanian government is building a new set of locks, ones that are 50% wider, and 50% longer. These new locks will run parallel to the current route, and the construction/destruction was easily visible from our modest boat ride.

At the far end of the picture you can see the massive doors which hold back the seawater. As it turns out, the water is not from the sea at all, but rather sourced from Lake Gatun, directly in the middle of the Panama Canal at its highest point, 85 feet above sea-level. Simple gravity is used to flood the locks and raise the ships. To replenish the water, the lake relies on rainfall. Genius.

Next I'd like to direct your attention to the electronic mules. My father and I were both under the misconseption that actual mules were used to pull the ships through the canal when it finished constructed in 1914. Animal mules were never used, and their electronic cousins don't actually pull ships through the canal.

These "mules" were never of the animal persuasion, and we saw pictures that were nearly a decade old to confirm this. They have always been, and will likely always be, electronic, powered by the electrified rails they live on. At each end of the line, there is another ingenious contraption, one that picks each mule off the ground and rotates it 180 degrees, sending it back from which it came.

Furthermore, every ship that passes through the canal is required to do so under its own power. The mules are simply there to center the ships, and keep them from hitting the walls. The largest ships which can still use the canal have only a matter of inches from either wall, and I can say without doubt that I am glad I do not drive a mule for a living, electronic or otherwise.

Well now that you have a good idea of how the canal works, lets move onto the more interesting moments of the day. If you have read my previous post, you'll know that I mentioned a yacht called the Remember When. It just so happens, that after seeing her in port, she would accompany us through the locks, and into the Atlantic.

We didn't know it at the time, but this is not just any yacht. This is a super-mega yacht, commissioned by auto dealer tycoon John Rosatti of New York. The 162 foot dream was christened in March 2010, and set to the high-seas for a tour of every major port in Mexico.

The interior is legendary among yachtsmen, and appropriately one of the most extravagant in the world. On its stern, we could count six jet skies, I guess for when your mega yacht is just not enough excitement. On top of its sheer decadence, is its electronic sophistication, which I found more interesting than marble bathrooms and mahogany cabinets.

This is a yacht equipped with a Dynamic Positioning system (DP). At the touch of a button, the DP system comes online to monitor its own GPS coordinates in relation to the censored ocean currents and water movements. The end result is that she can keep herself in a geo-synchronous position without any human intervention. This happens to include moving through the Panama Canal. When the captain says "sit, stay"... she follows orders.

However, she still required the mule's lanyards as a matter of protocol. If my ship was worth that much, I would do the same. We did notice that the rigging was very loose in the locks, and that raises the question as to how they rigged her up in the first place.

Here you can see two men in a small rowboat. They literally carry the ropes out to each vessel that passes. What a job that must be! We also noticed that the crew had placed protective blue coverings on the sides of Remember When, which you can see if you click on the picture and look towards her starboard stern.

I think I have drooled over the Remember When long enough, lets move on. As impressive as she was, her size held no pittance to the mother ships of the canal. These babies were holding nothing back, and I have the stats & pictures to prove it.

The canal itself is only 45 feet deep. This may sound like enough, but in the world of super-tankers, it is quickly becoming inadequate. Today's ships, those who are cleared for the canal, only make that depth by three feet. Given their huge LDT (Light Ton Displacement), this is a measurement they must track down to each container. Interestingly enough, each container's contents must be secured within the container, less the ship rolls, and its contents shift, which throws the entire manifesto off keel. Big, big, big job.

I think this is enough for one post, but we are only half way through the canal. As I said in the beginning of this post, it was a long, and exciting day, not to mention interesting. I did steal a few pictures from the end of our trip for the benefit of this post, but otherwise you can see that the water is still brown. When we reach our half-way point, the weather gets worst, and the water is cleared up....

More to follow...