|
Home | Uniquely NZ | Travel |
|
|
Queen Elizabeth 2 1999 Part 2 |
 "Click to View - Entering the Gatun Locks")
The
highlight of the trip - the Panama Canal - came next. We had a partial
transit up through the Gatun staircase of locks rising 85 feet to Lake
Gatun. The passage takes several hours as the ship has to first be
manoeuvered alongside the entry wharf by tugs and attached to railway
"Mules" which keep ships central whilst they go through the locks.
Their are two sets of locks in parallel each consisting of three locks
in staircase - where the locks run into each other with only a single
gate between each. The QE2 was designed to just fit the locks and has
to pay the highest tolls of any ship 170,000 US dollars for our passage
payable in Cash in advance.
 "Click to View - Mule climbs between the locks")
The
whole canal is a marvel of engineering and had a whole run of
engineering firsts when it was first completed. The French tried first
and failed whilst attempting a sea level canal - it cost them over
20,000 lives mostly to disease. )
The Americans then took up the challenge and after clearing out the
swamps and eradicating yellow fever eventually completed the canal in
1914 with 3 locks each side of the largest ever manmade lake - lake
Gatun. It remained the largest project completed by man prior to the
Lunar programme. Even now it holds a few firsts including the largest
lock gates ever made and most of the structures are original after 80
years. It takes a workforce of 8000 to maintain the structures, dredge
the canal and carry out routine operations.
The next day was at Cartegena, an old walled city in Columbia which has a poor reputation and it is recommended to take the organised tours - those who went on them were not impressed. We felt we had made the right decision just to relax and top up our tans a little in the blistering sun - Cartegena is only 10 degrees from the equator and temperatures were in the 80s even overnight.
)
The
next passage took us North to St Thomas, one of the US Virgin Islands,
which we had visited several times before on the Cunard Countess. The
Americans insist on it for the duty free shopping but there are also
lots of beaches with excellent snorkeling both on St Thomas itself and
also on adjacent Islands. We sailed out to Bucks Island where we
snorkeling for a good hour over reefs and searched for turtles and
Rays. A turtle was found and we have some film of it grazing on the
bottom and its twice hourly return to the surface to take 5 deep
breaths before returning to the bottom. The reefs were full of life and
again we got a lot of video and shot the remainder of the film in the
waterproof one shot camera. The QE2 has to anchor at St Thomas as there
are no tugs and we did a little shopping before returning on the
tenders to the Ship. We topped up with Pussers Rum and bought one of
the matching flat bottomed ships decanters with the full story on the
sides - we had admired them on previous visits and managed to get a
good price in Universal on Main street, helped by a promise to mention
them on our web site.
)
It
was then time for the passage back to Miami. The evening we left St
Thomas not only had the special final dinner but also had all the
Halloween festivities and to finish things off a magnificent Midnight
Gala Buffet with giant ice carvings and elaborate decorated displays.
This was the best we have seen on the QE2 and I spent some time talking
to Reinhard, the pastry chef and some of his staff who had created some
of the displays. I congratulated him and he modestly attributed it to
his staff although he did take credit for inspiring them - most of the
displays are made in their own time and he now encourages them to sign
their works in the icing.
After a gloriously smooth cross enabling us to top up our tans on the aft deck we arrived at Teneriffe and moored at Santa Cruz. We know Teneriffe well from previous holidays so we did not take either of the tours and just walked round the town, the capital of Teneriffe. There are some pleasant parks and shops if one requires them. The temperatures were into the thirties and we ended up with a "pint" of Dorado beer in one of the open air cafes which fill the broad tree lined streets leading down to the sea.
The next day was Funchal in Madeira, a full day with a late evening departure scheduled. We went round Funchal in the morning, a much more pleasant capital town than Santa Cruz de Teneriffe - clean and full of locals shopping. We bought some of the local honey Madeira cakes - these are very different to the "English" Madeira cakes being very solid and rich. We went into Blandys Wine Lodge and tasted some of the ten year old Malmsey but did not buy any this time - we still have some from the last visit and we have found we can purchase many of the ones we tried in the UK. They have a guided tour and museum and we provisionally planned to come back in the afternoon to repeat the tour we took three years ago.
The other must visit in Funchal is the Indoor Market which covers
two floors round a courtyard plus a large lower level fish market. The
exotic fruit and vegetables are heaped high on the first floor whilst
the ground level has the flowers and other stalls but it is the fish
market we find most fascinating with everything from whole )
Tuna to the extremely unusual Espada fish which is only found in a very
small local area and in another area near Japan. The name translates as
scabbard and one can see why with the long jaw and slim black scale
covered body nearly two meters from head to tail. They seem to have
areas covered in black and white veining which are sort after and are
left when the rough black scales are removed prior to sale. The picture
shows the huge eyes - they live at 600 feet - and the veining. They are
caught by lowering lights and then reeling them up - the fish follow
and die as they reach the surface.
In the afternoon we decided to try to get up to the Botanical
Gardens. We caught one of the local buses which turned out to be one of
the experiences of the holiday. The Gardens are high on the hillside )
overlooking the town and the driver had aspirations as a rally driver
and took us up flat out round the towns side streets clearing his path
round the blind bends with his horn and doing emergency stops when he
found something too big to dive out of his way or when a passenger
dared to want to get on or off. This was all with standing passengers
who, other than ourselves, seemed to expect this exuberant driving and
were wedged into corners or clinging to handholds. The gardens were
well worth the trip up and one could easily spend half a day or more.
)
The
next day was at sea but the evening was full as there was one of the
Formal Rotisseurs dinner which featured the Espada fish we had seen the
previous day as well as the Baked Alaska ceremony with the flags of all
the nations present hung over the tables. There was then a brief break
to gets ones breath and we sampled a little more of the Jazz - we still
find it difficult to enjoy. There is certainly some exotic playing but
it never comes together and remains a number of soloists taking turn to
compete - we often find that they have played two or more pieces
without us realising. The evening ended with another of the gala
midnight buffets with another set of spectacular ice carvings as well
as many chocolate and sugar decorations made by Reinhard himself.
The Bay of Biscay was passed without event, the winds were supposed to have reached force 7 but it was impossible to tell inside. The month seemed to have passed remarkably quickly and any concerns that we would get bored with the long passages have been completely dispelled. The food and wine has been excellent and the service we received was marvelous, especially from Jose and Louise who could not do enough. We bought one of the new Queen Elizabeth 2 cook books and the Maitre D' arranged for all the Chefs to sign it making it a nice souvenir as well as providing some good recipes to buffer our return to reality. We will return.
