Today we transited through the Panama Canal. There are three locks, Gatun, Pedro Miguel and Miraflores. The Panama Canal is actually a very large manmade lake where ships sail from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean or vice versa. This is an all-day trip. We were relaxing for a few hours, but the heat and humidity finally took its toll and we had to go back to the room to recover in the air conditioning. After a while the ship entered the Pedro Miguel locks and we went to the Yacht Club to watch this extraordinary engineering feat. It takes a while to complete the lock process, so we went back to the room for a while. When we approached the Miraflores lock I went back up to the Yacht Club to watch while Elizabeth stayed in the room.
Amphora and is located on the 3rd level. There is the Compass room, another gathering place with comfortable chairs and sofas where music can be heard in the evening and the Lounge is where movies and other entertainment occurs.
Amphora opens at 7:00 pm for dinner and this restaurant is on the 3rd level. Though this cruise is casual, they do prefer that men wear slacks and a collared shirt to dinner and women either wear pants or a sun dress for dinner. There are no reservations, you just show up. You can sit with other people or by yourself. We chose to dine by ourselves. Windstar has a relationship with the James Beard Foundation, this organization selects the best chefs in the world, and features dishes by James Beard award winners. For dinner I had one of the selections, White Striped Bass grilled over asparagus and polenta. It was very good. Elizabeth had grilled salmon with mashed potatoes and vegetables, and she said it was also wonderful. I had a glass of Chardonnay, it cost $8.00 plus a 15% tip or a total of $9.20, not bad. For dessert, Elizabeth had Dulce de Leche ice cream and I had a custard crepe with mascarpone and blue berries. Both desserts were splendid. We retired to our room exhausted and full.
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