It is so freaking hot

I can’t believe how hot it is around here. We’re steaming south along the coast of Panama, getting ready to do our Panama Canal transit tomorrow. As we get closer and closer to the equator, the heat is increasing into the high 90s during the day. And this is out at sea—I can’t imagine what it’s like on land. It’s so hot that we’re having to shut equipment down from overheating. Thankfully, I live in the coldest room on the ship, and it makes sleeping at night an easy task.
Yesterday was pretty much a red letter day as far as life at sea goes. Sundays are “holiday routine” meaning that they don’t schedule any meetings or anything in the morning, so if you don’t have watch, you can sleep in. I didn’t have watch until noon, so I got to sleep in until 10:30 in the morning (a big big deal). After watch, we had a cookout out on the flight deck, where it was easily 97 degrees, and a couple of us took out our gloves and played catch on our 40-ft long flight deck. After the sun set, I went up on top of the ship to ride the stationary bike for a good workout and look at the stars on a pristine night.
Tomorrow, we go through one of the great engineering feats of the 20th century: The Panama Canal. For centuries, people have tried to build a bridge connecting the Pacific with the Atlantic. Most notably, in the late 1800s, the French tried to mimic their successful Suez Canal feat in Panama, but their technique of basically digging a giant ditch resulted in catastrophe. After thousands of their workers died, and no successful end to the project in sight, the French abandoned the process.
In the early 1900s, America decided to take a shot at it by taking a different approach. Instead of digging a river, they created a series of 5 locks leading into a giant lake in the middle of the country. Ships enter the locks, which fill up with water, and then they connect to a new lock before reaching the lake in the middle. On the other side, the water drains from each lock as the ships move down back to sea level. It’s a feat that has saved ships from going around the horn of South America and navigating the most dangerous waters in the world (a job that our ship will be doing later this deployment… but that will be another story for later). Until then, I’ll go back to the standard day of watch, reading, and working out.