‘You always know your neighbor, you always know your pal...’*

First, I apologize to David for mistaking a fuel barge

for a tugboat. Tuggy was one of his favorites and I

should have remembered. *Until today, the Erie was the only canal I knew. At 7:30 this morning we entered the Gatun Locks and arrived sometime later in Gatun Lake. We’ve just spent about 45 minutes negotiating the Pedro Miguel Locks and, in another hour, we’ll spend around 60 minutes negotiating the Miraflores Locks. Here’s the cheater's way of sharing a little Canal history, courtesy of my ‘Viking Daily,’ which magically appears on my bed every evening:

Viking Sun entering the Gatun Locks. The rectangular silver objects next to the ship are the railway cars that pull us along into the first lock. They go up a slope and wait for us to rise up, which we do imperceptibly.