Panama Canal Aboard The Cunard Lines Queen Anne

New York - Cabo San Lucas - Jan 18 - Feb 01 2025

I was aboard the Queen Anne, the newest vessel in Cunard Line's fleet, to give a series of talks on their voyage from New York to San Francisco (Although I got off the ship in Mexico). This voyage included a full east to west traverse of the Panama Canal.   The full itinerary included stops in: New York - Miami, Florida - Cartagena Columbia - Panama Canal - Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Day 01 - 2025 01 18 - Depart New York

Day 1 - Got up early to catch my flight to New York City. There were a few flight delays, but we made to JFK with time to catch an Uber and head over to Brooklyn Pier 12 to board the Queen Anne. This is the newest ship in the Cunard fleet, less than a year old. It had just arrived after crossing the Atlantic from Southampton in the U.K. It was a gray and dreary day with the New York skyline partially obscured by low clouds and rain. Joining me on this trip is my long-time friend and frequent travel partner Cindy Burgess. Once we boarded, we took some time to get ourselves acquainted with the layout of the ship. This is an ongoing process that will take some time to fully learn

Day 02 - 2025 01 19 - At Sea

Day 2 - Our first full day at sea. Still finding my way around the ship. The weather has remained dull and overcast, which is to be expected as a huge, potent weather system is sweeping across much of North America, bringing cold and snow to places as far south as Louisiana this week. Tomorrow I'll be giving my first talk on stage in the Royal Court Theatre. Later in the day, the weather really started to deteriorate. it got very windy, and the sea was all whitecaps. The ship was causing huge waves to crash as we plowed through it. The ship itself stayed quite stable, a bit of rocking and shaking, but I was impressed at how smooth it stayed.

Day 03 - 2025 01 20 - At Sea

Day 3 - The weather has improved, and the sea state has calmed down significantly compared to yesterday. Today I was scheduled to give my first of 4 talks aboard, in the Royal Court Theatre. The venue is wonderful, and the crowd was great, It was very well attended and interactive. The evening was the first of the fancy gala events aboard the Queen Anne. The theme tonight was "Red and Gold". We ended up having dinner with a couple of the other guest lecturers on board in the main dining room. Tomorrow we arrive in Miami early in the morning.

Day 04 - 2025 01 21 - Miami, Florida

Day 4 - We've really been lucky. As a historic winter storm sweeps across North America bringing frigid temperatures and heavy snow to places as far south as Houston, New Orleans, and northern Florida, we've been in nice warm weather due to our location just south of the extent of the massive polar vortex.   We arrived in the port of Miami early this morning, and were greeted by dull, gray skies and rain. It didn't look very promising, but it didn't take long for conditions to improve. We ended up with partly cloudy skies, sunshine, and a high of about 27 degrees C. Cindy had some business to attend to so we didn't go ashore right away. In the afternoon we took the shuttle to the Bayside Market area and walked around there for a few hours. It was nice to get off the ship for a bit, and see some of the awesome birds, (like a very curious black-crowned night heron), do a little browsing around in the shops, and soak up a bit of sunshine for the first time in days.

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Day 05 - 2022 01 22 - At Sea

Day 5 - After leaving Miami last night, we continued on just west of the Bahamas, and today we skirted along the northern coast of Cuba. The weather was fantastic. There was a briefing this morning, preparing us for our Panama Canal transit in a few days. This will be the inaugural transit of the canal for the Queen Anne, so it will be a very special occasion. The day was spent enjoying the ship and her amenities.. I've been really enjoying the trivia and music quizzes, and today I found myself on the wining team for 3 separate competitions. Tonight we were all treated to gorgeous sunset as we turned south and headed down along the east coast of Cuba.

Day 06 - 2023 01 23 - At Sea

Day 6 - The swell really picked up again today as we crossed the Caribbean Sea on our way towards Colombia. The sea was filled with white caps and the ship was rolling, but not too bad. The sun was out all day, so as we crashed through the waves, a lot of sea spray was getting tossed up. On the starboard side, near the bow, the bow-wake spray was creating a dramatic rainbow that was only visible from the one spot. I spent a lot of time shooting photos and videos of it as flying fish jumped out of the water, chased by the occasional brown footed boobies. In the evening, the sunset was quite nice, casting some dramatic crepuscular rays of light.

Day 07 - 2024 01 24 - Cartagena, Colombia

Day 7 - This was my first time visiting the country of Colombia (country # 82 for me), and although we didn't have a lot of time here, it was a great day ashore. Right at the ship terminal, they have a pretty amazing aviary that you have to pass through. It was filled with so many birds... Flamingos, peacocks, parrots, toucans and many more. They also had several types of monkeys, reptiles, and even a couple of giant anteaters. From there we shared a mini-van cab with a random group of people we met and headed over to the old walled city. We spent the rest of our time wandering around the narrow streets, looking in the many shops, and walking along the old ramparts that once defended the city from invaders. Our taxi ride back to the ship was an adventure. He didn't seem to acknowledge any traffic laws, drove into oncoming lanes, and somehow managed to squeeze into spaces between trucks that seemed impossibly tight. At one point, he handed me his phone and at the other end was someone speaking English, saying something about his 11:30 pickup was ready for him. Uh, OK.

Day 08 - 2025 01 25 - Panama Canal Transit

Day 8 - The big day. Since the Queen Anne is a brand new ship that has only been sailing since about last May, it has yet to pass through the Panama Canal. Well today was her maiden voyage through it, and it was an honour to be on board for it. The captain opened up the bow access on deck 5 so that we could have a great view as we passed through the locks from the Atlantic to the Pacific.   The process took all day, basically from sunrise to sunset, which felt slow, but compared to the weeks it would take to sail around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, this was the express route!   The engineering is remarkable. We passed through the newer set of locks that were built in 2016 that can accommodate wider ships. Once you get through the ascending locks, we cruised along on Gatun Lake, then descended down through the Pacific set of locks back down to sea level by Panama City.

Day 09 - 2026 01 26 - At Sea

Day 9 - The past couple of days have been very busy with stops in Colombia, and our passage through the Panama Canal. We now have a couple of sea days before our next chance to go ashore. After a few more rounds of trivia in the pub, I had my second talk this afternoon in the Royal Court Theatre. All my talks have been really well received, and I frequently get stopped in the corridors by passengers who have questions for me (which I love). This evening I was treated to a rare sight that I always try to photograph while at sea. The elusive "Green Flash". If the atmospheric conditions are just right, just as the disc of the sun dips below the horizon at sunset, the top part of the sun will shift in colour from yellow to a bright green for a fraction of a second. It's sometimes hard to see with the naked eye, but I had my long lens with me. This is only the 3rd or 4th time I've been able to photograph the phenomena.

Day 10 - 2022 01 27 - At Sea

Day 10 - Another day at sea, enjoying the Queen Anne. We're approaching Guatemala, and will be arriving there early tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I've been enjoying the pub, the trivia challenges, the pool, fantastic stage shows & musicians, and of course the food on board. After my talk yesterday on looking for interesting phenomena in the sky, a lot of people were gathered together last night at sunset with their cameras at the ready.

Day 11 - 2022 01 28 - Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala

Day 11 - I've been really looking forward to today for a while. The ship stopped in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala where we were greeted by towering volcanoes. I had plans to join the excursion to go to Pacaya volcano today. Pacaya is a place I've been before, in fact I was the first person to ever set foot at the bottom of its summit crater back in 2016 when I filmed a TV commercial inside, so it was nice to go "visit an old friend" today. We took a coach to the national park and started the hike. Most of it was through the jungle, and it was much cooler than I was fearing, along the coast it was a real scorcher. From time to time we would get glimpses of the other volcanoes in the area, including Fuego, the most active in the country. There was a consistent plume of steam and gas coming from the summit, and from time to time round lenticular clouds would form over the nearby peaks.   Once we got to our Pacaya viewpoint, I was reminded of how massive the volcano is. I couldn't believe that I had not only been to the summit, but down inside the crater! I could see a little bit of sulfur dioxide gas coming from some vents, but other than that, Pacaya was quiet. I was also hoping that Fuego would have an explosion while I was there, but Mother Nature did not provide today. The hike back down was great fun. The ash and scree on the steep slopes were fun to "surf" down. I've done this on many volcanoes. That stuff is hard to hike up, but so much fun to slide down. The only problem is the tremendous amount of ash and rocks in my shoes!   Back at the dock, I took some time to look around, and there were lots of iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks along the ocean. I spent some time photographing then until it was getting close to final call for getting back on board the ship.   This evening, I was treated to another Green Flash at sunset. This was the second one of this voyage. The colour of the sky was a brilliant orange as the sun briefly turned green as it dipped below the horizon. We also had a good view of the Earth shadow shortly after sunset. A good day.

Day 12 - 2022 01 29 - At Sea

Day 12 - Yesterday was a great day in Guatemala, and now we spend the next 2 days on our way to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I spent much of the day doing last minute tweaks to my last presentation which I give tomorrow. In the afternoon there was a "Meet The Speakers" event in the Bright Lights Society room on deck 2 where passengers could ask the 4 guest speakers on board questions. As usual, I was out on deck as the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. Today was also the last of the formal evenings on this voyage, so we got to dress up again, which is great fun while aboard the ship.

Day 13 - 2022 01 30 - At Sea

Day 13 - Today is my last sea day aboard the Queen Anne. We're currently off the Mexican Pacific coast near Colima. Today, I gave my 4th and final talk of the journey. It was very well received, and I'm so happy that the audiences aboard really seemed to enjoy my lectures. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the ship. I did some trivia quizzes, ate more great food, and watched some of the other speakers on board. Sunsets are always a highlight as I try to get more great sky pictures.

Day 14 - 2022 01 31 - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Day 14 - Our last stop on this voyage. We were greeted by rugged mountains & islands, and a couple of crazy boats. One was a gigantic super-yacht with its own helicopter on the forward deck. I have no idea who it belongs to. There was also the private cruise ship "The World" that arrived and anchored beside us. The World carries about 130 very rich private residents. The condo suites on board cost many millions of dollars each and the get one, you also have to be nominated by 2 existing residents. There are all kinds of wild stories about what goes on on that ship. Look it up for yourself.   Since Cindy and I were getting off here in Cabo, but the ship is continuing onwards to San Francisco, we had to deal with Mexican customs & immigration on board the ship. Once we were cleared, we went ashore, dropped our bags off at our cute local hotel, then spent the rest of the day walking around town. We spent quite a bit of time exploring the marina and we walked most of the entire beach and back, even running into our friend Lawrence (one of the other speakers on the ship). We had some lunch then kept walking. There were plenty of sea lions waiting for the fishing boats to come back from their day at sea. We spotted several of them by the marina where they watch the boats coming back, identify the fishing boats, the dive under the water and pop up behind the boats and jump up onto the back deck, hoping for a fish snack from the fishermen. They did this over and over, competing with each other and the hordes of pelicans. It was Cindy's birthday today, so we went out for a dinner of tacos and margaritas. Tomorrow we fly back to Toronto and the reality of Canadian winter.

Day 15 - 2022 02 01 - Back To Canada

Day 15 - That's it for this most recent nautical adventure. We grabbed a taxi to the airport, and I flew back to Toronto via a connection through Detroit. Many thanks to Cindy Burgess, my travel companion on this trip, and to all the staff and crew of the Queen Anne, especially the entertainment team who took care of me on board. Also thanks to all the passengers I met on board. My trivia teams, and the curious folks who stopped me to ask questions about my lectures. I hope to be back on board again soon.

 

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