Transiting the Panama Canal
The isthmus where the continents of North and South America join has been well travelled for the past 500 years. During the 1500’s, the Spanish walked across on cobblestone roads to transport stolen gold from Peru to Spanish ships waiting in the Caribbean Sea. In the 1800’s the California gold rushed drove tens of thousands of treasure hunters in the other direction resulting in the construction of the Panama Railway. The Panama Canal was considered by the Spanish, attempted by the French, and completed by the Americans in 1914. At a cost of hundred of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives an artery connected the Caribbean sea to the Pacific Ocean, a heroic human undertaking. In January 2019, we started the paper work to transit the Canal. Miraj was measured and deemed seaworthy; we paid a hefty fee, and received a transit date. The Panama Canal is a finely tuned billion dollar a year business, and boats have to move through like clockwo...