Queen Victoria (Caribbean)   In the central Caribbean, we passed along the coast of Cuba with its high mountains clearly visible, and then through the passage between Cuba and Haiti down towards the Nederlandse Antillen / Netherlands Antilles in the southern Caribbean.

WILLEMSTAD, CURAÇAO This is my third time here. The first time was when Beverly and I visited during school holidays in February 1977, which resulted in my writeup years later of the Curaçao dish of Keshy Yena (2007/4).

The second visit was by myself four years ago on the Deutschland (2004/19 “Willemstad”). Please review there these points so that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel: UNESCO, Dutch houses, synagog, Stuyvesant, liqueur, harbor, Koningin Emma Brug, Papiamento. (As for the language of Papiamento, I assume Keshy Yena is a Papiamento name, derived from Spanish Queso Lleno [Stuffed Cheese]).

This time the QV docked just a bit to the west of the harbor entrance, and it was a few steps to the Emma. It was open to let boats go by, so I took the free ferry across and walked about for a bit. As I walked back over the now closed bridge, the bell went off as it was ready to open again, and people scurried off. Since the historic town houses in town on the east side are so multicolored (gold, red, blue, green), the area on the west side toward where the ship was docked, which is being redeveloped into a very attractive area, all new (and larger) buildings are built as though they were a row of smaller town houses of different colors.

I got an invitation to the wine tasting given as a freebie to Diamond and Platinum members of the Cunard World Club. When they did it on the QM2, it was a quick affair with four tables, each with a wine, and everyone stood about like at a cocktail party. This one on the QV was far more educational. We were invited in at staggered quarter-hour intervals to the upper level of the Britannia, where six areas were set up, each with a wine and a resident sommelier. As your group progressed from table to table, the discussion of each wine was substantial and informative. For CWC members, this tasting and the internet package is charged to your onboard account, along with a simultaneous credit.

I have a standard ship joke I’ve told for years in both English and German on various voyages, and I don’t think I ever wrote it up on these pages, so now is as good a time as ever to do so.

It seems there was a ship captain famous around the world for his expertise and skill. But his staff captain noticed a peculiar ritual the captain always performed. Once a week, the captain went to his desk, unlocked a drawer, took out a little wooden box, read what was on a little piece of paper inside it, then locked everything up again and put it away.

The staff captain was not only curious what was on this piece of paper, he also thought that it might help him with his own expertise on running a ship, so one day when the captain was ashore, he sneaked up to the captain’s desk, opened the drawer, then the box and took out the slip of paper. Now he’d finally find out the captain’s secret! On the slip of paper he read: PORT—LEFT. STARBOARD—RIGHT.

The punch line in German is: BACKBORD—LINKS. STEUERBORD—RECHTS.

Over time I’ve heard various explanations for the two nautical terms in English, one being that the port side of the ship was the “business” side, and always faced the port (presumably referring to the dock). But Cunard, in its daily bulletin, has published the following information. It says that ships originally had a loading port or an entry port on the left side, which is the origin of that name. Actually, it does seem more likely that the port side is not a reference to the port (harbor), but a reference to a port(al), or doorway).

Then Cunard says that the starboard side is a reference to the steering side, and that the “steer-board” or steering oar, projected on old vessels into the sea from the right side of the ship; this was used for steering before rudders were perfected.

I also checked the two terms in German. From what I can tell, Steuerbord (SHTOI.er.bort) has a similar derivation as the English term, and may be partially derived from it. German Wikipedia says the origin of Backbord is unclear, but one source said that Back is an old term meaning a Sitzkiste, or box to sit on, that was traditionally located on the left side of a ship.

As our description approaches the Panama Canal, it is also highly advisable that you review 2004/4 “Geography”, especially: formation of the Eastern Caribbean islands in the form of a backwards C, and also of Central America as a dike; movement westward of the large NA and SA plates; movement eastward of the small Caribbean plate and the small Cocos plate in the Pacific, one behind the other. The Caribbean plate formed those volcanic islands; the Cocos plate moved faster and rammed the Caribbean plate forming Central America and its mountains. This is really some very enlightening information to keep in mind.

PANAMA CANAL A third and final review to avoid my repeating myself is 2004/4 “Panama Canal”, which gives the whole background of its history and peculiar geography, plus how our delayed transit on the Caronia went.

At this point, though, I can add that they’re now enlarging the Panama Canal. They are planning two new flights of locks (each with three lock chambers) parallel to and in addition to the old ones. The set on the Atlantic side will be east of Gatún, and on the Pacific side, southwest of Miraflores. Each new flight of locks will be supported by a new approach channel.

This will involve changing one uniqueness of the Panama Canal. For almost a century since their construction, the present locks have always worked on gravity feed of the water used to fill them, with no use of pumps. That means that lake water from Lake Gatún, which the locks ascend to (or descend from) has just come down by gravity flow to fill the locks, and is then released into the ocean when at the bottom. However, there isn’t enough water to do that with both the old and new locks, and the lake would soon empty. Therefore, while the old locks will continue to operate in the traditional way, each flight of new locks will have nine water reutilization basins (three per lock chamber). While the water will start out being gravity fed, about 60% of the water will go to the basins, then be pumped back to be reused. These new locks should allow the larger tankers and freighters (and the QM2) to pass through, these ships being much larger than anyone thought possible when the old system was built. They are also deepening Gatún Lake for the larger vessels. Work started in 2007, and it’s hoped the new system will be completed shortly after the canal’s centenary (1914-2014) in 2017. Panama has operated the canal since the last day of 1999.

We’ve been given some interesting information from the ship. The toll for the QV to transit the Panama Canal will be about $300,000, and the Suez Canal costs twice that. While the QV can fit into the locks, it will apparently be a tight fit. We’ve been told that the lifeboat-tenders, while still remaining hanging on deck 3, will be lowered a bit so they shift inward to minimize the ship’s width in the locks during transit, so tall people should watch their heads when walking by. If you think that that’s like a person “sucking in that tummy” to fit through a narrow doorway, I would tend to agree with you.

Remember again that this canal is not at sea level, but that Gatún Lake was flooded to make a “lake in the sky” between the hills at 85 ft / 26 m above sea level, so it’s a matter of going up the locks at the Atlantic end, crossing Panama on the Lake plus the Culebra (Gaillard) Cut, then down the locks on the Pacific end, for a total of about 50 mi / 80 km. About 40 vessels per day do this. And again, with that twist in the shape of Panama, the canal goes from NW to SE. In other words, the Atlantic end is further west than the Pacific end. Given that, also note that the direction we’re going in is officially called “southbound”.

We were due to take on the canal pilot early, by about 7:30. I had the ideal “seat”. I was up by then, yet stayed in bed. My front-facing window showed everything. People were allowed on that deck outside my window during the canal transit, but my window being one-way gave me full privacy. Whenever there were too many people at the rail, I just stood up on my bed to see over their heads, then would lie down for a bit longer to extend getting up time. As I had told first-timers on the ship, crossing the canal is a wonderful experience, yet is slow, slow, slow. Watching water drain out of a lock, then watching the gate slowly open for the ship to enter, then waiting it to fill, is like watching paint dry. It was good to lay back for a while (and out of the Panama heat, even early in the morning) and relax. In addition, a TV channel showed the progress, and included commentary from an expert that had been brought on board for the transit.

As we (slowly) pulled up the channel to the three chambers of Gatún Locks, a side channel was pointed out forking off to the left. We were told that this was from the 1930’s scheduled expansion that was stymied by WWII. Similarly, when the canal opened on 15 August 1914, any festivities that had been planned were also stymied by the outbreak of WWI that month. The channel will be used on the new expansion, although all the work at the moment is taking place on the Pacific end. After a while, a smaller channel took off to the right. This is called the French Canal, but most of the 17% of the distance of the canal they built is within the Culebra Cut. There’s a new ferry across the channel for local traffic, which is to alleviate the traffic on the current road crossing, which runs along the foot of the first lock gate.

The flight of three chambers at Gatún Lock has two lanes, so one ship can go up one lane and another the other. We were to take the western lane on the right, where some freighters were moving up ahead of us. There were two other passenger ships near us. The Island Princess had gone on ahead of us, but was doing what’s called a lake turnaround. They docked at a yacht club on the lake, let off passengers who want to take tours, then return, backtracking down the Gatún locks, and picking up the passengers later on the coast. They still have to pay the full toll, since they of course used locks twice, as though they had actually transited.

Behind us was the Tahitian Princess, which proceeded up the left-hand lane. It was doing a full transit, as we were. As it turns out, there are three huge pipes that fill and empty the lock chambers, and are built into the lock walls, one on either side of the lock chambers, and a third one between them. As it turns out, the QV only had the benefit of the right-hand pipe, while the Tahitian Princess had the benefit of the other two, so her chambers filled and emptied faster, and she got ahead of us.

While it takes 8-10 hours to transit the canal, a hydrofoil once went through it in 2 hours and 40 minutes. In 1928, a guy paid a toll of 36 cents to swim the canal over a period of ten days.

With the pilot on board, the QV pulled up to the gates to the first chamber, and we waited until the water that rose the previous freighter emptied out of the lock down the pipe that fed out water right next to us. We then entered the chamber under our own power, which is usual, since those locomotives called “mules” on the side are just to guide and center the ships. This miniscule railway that runs the length of the three chambers is a cog railway, since the locomotives go uphill between the chambers. The cog track is clearly visible. The gates closed behind us, and water flooded our chamber, coming down from the next highest chamber, and so we proceeded rising 1/3 of the height difference of 86 ft / 26 m each time. The top gate was a double gate, one behind the other, to make sure the lake doesn’t spring a leak due to an accident. As we left Gatún Locks, the dam that flooded the Chagres River to form the lake was directly on our right.

We crossed Gatún Lake, and then went down the Culebra Cut (also called the Gaillard Cut, after its engineer), a channel which is really the only part of the Canal that really looks canal-like, other than the locks themselves. Two hills formed the continental divide between the Atlantic and Pacific, and I speculated on having recently crossed the divide in October in Colorado multiple times back and forth driving, then once westbound on the California Zephyr, then once in November returning eastbound in Montana on the Empire Builder. It is particularly amusing that now I’m crossing it again westbound, but on a ship.

The tracks of the Panama Railroad were periodically visible along the shore, and I recalled the enjoyable trip in 2004 crossing the continent in 55 minutes, then doing it again, returning. We went under a huge modern bridge, the Centennial Bridge of 2004, built to commemorate the centenary that year of Panama’s independence from Columbia. Shortly beyond that, on the right, is where the new set of locks will join the Cut.

The descent on the Pacific side also involves three chambers, but they are separated 1 + 2. In this direction, first you descend the single-chambered Pedro Miguel Locks, then continue a bit before descending the double-chambered Miraflores Locks. There are still two lanes each. I understand the underground footings weren’t adequate to build a single triple-chambered flight of locks here as at Gatún.

While the freighter that had been in front of us in the Gatún Locks was now directed to the left lane at Pedro Miguel, we again were directed to the right lane, as we were in Miraflores. It was amusingly pointed out that there was a huge moveable arrow on a building between the lanes pointing us to our lane, which just follows tradition, given modern communications. I wonder how it would look if airports had arrows to point out which runway a plane should land on, also given modern communications.

Queen Victoria (Pacific)   On reaching the level of the Pacific, we quickly went under the Bridge of the Americas, with views to the left of the buildings of Panama City, whose growth continues to amaze. There are so many tall buildings (more residences than offices) that the skyline resembles New York’s. In our cabins we received a certificate for having transited the canal.

I found a wonderful video on YouTube of a ship crossing the canal in the same direction we did, but the timelapse photography gets the job done in under two minutes. Locations are labeled in subtitles. At the very beginning, at 0:12, you can see the old channel on the left, to be used in the new expansion. This ship used the left lane in all locks, while we used the right. If you never did understand how locks work, this should finally clear it up: Panama Canal

BARACK OBAMA INAUGURATION This year’s election fell during my travels for the first time, both the voting and the inauguration. After having voted by absentee ballot, I watched the Election Night results on the northern border of the US, in Port Angeles, Washington. Then, the next day, I was in Victoria to hear and read the enthusiastic Canadian reactions to the election (2008/21 “Victoria”). After this had all happened just in from the Pacific coast, Inauguration Day fell while I was on the QV, directly on the Pacific. It was fortunately on an “at sea” day, so little else was going on. By chance, it also fell on what would have been my father’s 100th birthday had he survived, 20 January 2009.

The broadcast would be on cabin TV, and also in the Golden Lion Pub much of the day, but the most interesting venue would be the screening in the Royal Court Theatre. Having recently left Panama, which is due south of Miami, and having only moved a bit up the Pacific coast of Central America, we were still on Eastern Time, the same time as Washington, so noon there was noon here.

On board are 1796 passengers representing 35 countries. Of those, 30 countries are represented by between 1 and 21 people, and then the totals jump to the five big ones: US 571, UK 515, Germany 385, Canada 96, Australia 93. (Note that German language lessons are offered on board to English speakers.) I remain very interested in international reaction to Obama. Just as I was interested, right after Election Day, in Canadian reaction in Victoria BC, I’m just as interested now in Canadian and other international reaction on the Queen Victoria.

The theater was perhaps ¾ full, and you couldn’t tell nationalities, but I’m sure there were far more than just US citizens attending. For the first half hour at 11:00, they showed the BBC broadcast of the events, projected on the theater screen. The enthusiasm of their reporters all around Washington was notable, as was a short remote interview from London of a hall full of enthusiasts watching the events. This also included an interview of enthusiastic black British leaders for their reaction to an Obama presidency. Then from 11:30 until about 1:00, they switched to a CNN broadcast. When Barack Obama appeared, there was considerable applause in the theater, as when Michelle did. Laura Bush got some applause, but then so did George Bush to some extent. At the end, all in the theater stood for the national anthem. I mused that we had left the US in New York and Fort Lauderdale under a Bush presidency, but then will be returning to the US in Los Angeles under an Obama presidency.

PUERTO QUETZAL, GUATEMALA We made a stop in the port town of Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala, making Guatemala my 116th country on the Travelers Century Club listing. I had considered a tour, but it would have been gone for 8.5 hours, and I skipped it. I just walked around the local area around the ship.

One formal evening there was the Cunard World Club party before dinner for those who had embarked in New York or Fort Lauderdale. They always give the statistics for the record high numbers of nights some individuals have spent on Cunard ships. It can be assumed, I suppose, that the total figures will be higher on this trip, given that so many are doing the entire World Cruise. The announcement of high numbers of nights on board started with someone in the 1400s, up to the 1700s or so. Those figures add up to several years on board. But the special announcement at the end was about the couple who were doing their 34th World Cruise.

PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO The story behind Puerto Vallarta blossoming as a place of interest sounds like a story out of the movies, and that’s just what it is. It was for years just a small coastal village named for a local governor, when in 1962-3 director John Huston chose Puerto Vallarta as the locale to film Tennessee Williams’ Night of the Iguana with Ava Gardner and Richard Burton.

That fact alone might cause a slight jolt of interest to a locale, yet would hardly transform it, but there was more to it than that. That famous affair developed between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton while they were both still married to other people, and Taylor came to Puerto Vallarta to settle in during the filming. The notoriety transformed the town to what it is today. It’s amazing what a little publicity (or, maybe, a lot) will do.

The ship docked a bit away, but the Centro was a $3 taxi ride away, each way. The streets in the Centro are cobblestone, which add to the charm of the attractive houses with wrought-iron on the windows and red tiles on the roofs. The seaside walkway in towns in Spanish America is called the Malecón, and the Malecón here was particularly attractive, with huge sand castles being built on the beach and bronze statues along the way. The main square, the Plaza de Armas, is backed up by the cathedral, and 3-4 blocks away is the river, the Río Cuale, which in town is split in two with a long island for strolling.

Also on the island is a statue of a seated John Huston, commemorating what the cinematic change he brought did to the town. Nearby, at the entrance to a restaurant, is a rather cheesy ¾-length life-size statue of Burton and Taylor, with a little iguana seated at waist level behind them. I call it cheesy, not only because of the subject matter, but because it’s an off-white color, and looks like one of those sculptures that chefs make out of butter. Maybe I should call it buttery.

The houses on the hill in this area are largely settled by people from the US, and the neighborhood is referred to—now get this—as Gringo Gulch. One street ends in some brightly-colored steps up a hill, and at the top, a turn to the right brings you to a pink arched bridge crossing the street. The explanation is that the house on the right used to belong to Taylor, and when she brought the house across the street as well, she had the bridge built. One can speculate who lived in the second house at the time.

As we proceed north, I muse about the fact that I’m doing rather good justice to the Pacific coast of North America. Beverly and I sailed years ago between the Alaskan panhandle and Seattle, in November I drove between San Francisco and Seattle, in 2001 we drove between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and now I’m sailing from Panama up the coast of Central America and Mexico to Los Angeles.

CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO The resort town of Cabo San Lucas is at the southern tip of the long peninsula known as Baja (Lower) California, often shortened to just Baja. What is now the US state of California was originally Alta (Upper) California. Unusual peninsulas should raise suspicion, and, as it turns out, Baja California was once connected to the rest of Mexico, as a matter of fact, it was the original west coast of Mexico. But the San Andreas Fault running close to the coast in California also runs between Baja and the mainland, and it was violent seismic activity along the fault some 10-15 million years ago that caused the original Mexican coast to break away and separate from the mainland, forming the peninsula. The water that rushed in to fill the newly created gap is now called the Sea of Cortez, or also the Gulf of California. Knowing this geological fact makes it interesting to consider that we were sailing from Puerto Vallarta on the present west coast of mainland Mexico to Cabo San Lucas on the former west coast of mainland Mexico.

I always find it fun to speculate and fantasize. What if those millions of years ago the split had gone further north up the fault, all the way through Alta California, possibly up to San Francisco Bay? The entire California coast would then have broken away from the US mainland as well. There could have possibly been one long offshore island from Cabo San Lucas to San Francisco. But that’s only a fantasy.

The harbor was too small for the QV to dock, so it lay at anchor while tenders brought passengers ashore. Cabo San Lucas (Cape Saint Luke) is just east (on the Gulf side) of the southernmost point of Baja, and a bit further east still is San José del Cabo (Saint Joseph of the Cape), which I understand is more of a colonial town. The two together are often referred to as Los Cabos, and are principally a resort area.

The next-to-last evening was one of the formal ones, so I was well-dressed for a private party some friends gave for a group of about a dozen. They have a suite on deck 7, one deck above mine, and are in the Queens Grill, so it was also interesting to see their accommodations. There’s a large balcony, and it’s fully open, not like the ones I’ve had on the Mary, which are largely enclosed with metal, with a large open space where a window could have been. There was a reasonably large sitting room with bar, a smallish bedroom, and a bath with full jacuzzi tub, separate shower, and toilet in an adjacent room. Nice digs. After that, we saw a similar room, then I showed two others my room, which was admired for the space I had, and then I saw theirs, which is “oceanview (no balcony, like mine)” down on deck 1. It was quite nice, and their window gave a nice view of the water speeding by not very far below.

Afterward some of us were invited to the Officers’ Party in the Queens Room. Later, dinner went particularly pleasantly that evening at our table, and, since it was 25 January, Robert Burns day, there was a ceremony in the Queens Room (which our table didn’t get to see, since we were having such a good time) which apparently included the reading of the Burns ode to the haggis by a Scotsman. I didn’t mind missing it, since we had seen the same thing on the same date in 2004 on the Caronia, and in more intimate surroundings (2004/4 “The Caronia”, last paragraph). But I do think it curious that I’ve now been on a British ship twice during Robert Burns Day. In case anyone is wondering, I did not take my Utilikilt traveling, primarily because it’s too heavy, and I pack extremely light. Otherwise, it would have been very appropriate for daily use on the ship in place of the shorts I wore, but it would not have been appropriate for a Scottish celebration such as Burns Night, since by definition it’s utilitarian and not meant for ceremonial purposes, which is indicated by its style with two large cargo pockets on the sides, and by the fact that it’s black, not plaid.

LOS ANGELES ARRIVAL We docked in San Pedro, to the south of Los Angeles near Long Beach, where in 2007 I had visited the original Queen Mary (2007/16 “Long Beach”) and from where I took the ferry to Catalina (2007/16 “Catalina”). I went to the Travelodge near the airport that offered day rates (the first time I’ve ever tried that), since I wanted to get some work done during the day before I was to fly that night to Samoa, and later beyond. Since I no longer needed dress clothes, even for the later cruise on the Paul Gauguin, I had arranged for a luggage transfer service to pick one bag up from the hotel and ship it back to New York, something else I’d never tried before, leaving me with just one wheeled carry-on bag to take to Polynesia.