Smile when you say 'Damn Yankee!'

I left my office at 5:00 am this morning, and climbed up onto the dark bridge deck to see a wide string of lights before us, stretching across much of the northern horizon. We were heading due north: the Big Dipper accompanied the city lights; the Southern Cross was just off our stern. I was unsettled, however, by what appeared to be a mountain right in front of us! If it hadn't been 80 degrees, I would have been thinking iceberg...

Fortunately, the hill that I saw was just an island that we passed by a couple hours later. As we approached the harbor just south of Panama City, we discovered that the "city lights" we'd seen from 12 miles distant were actually ship-borne lights of a small flotilla of cargo ships, tankers, and all sorts of strange looking vessels. Present company included, of course :)

The most impressive moment of the morning was when the city began to appear in the distance. As twilight turned to day, we could suddenly see a huge assortment of tall buildings along the horizon. I had no idea that Panama City had such an impressive skyline.

We dropped anchor at 7 a.m., and spent the rest of the day waiting for our turn to traverse the Canal. We should head for the locks at about 6:30 tomorrow morning. Until then, please enjoy today's photographs. Click on the picture below to see more!

Skyline of Panama City