THE SECTION CRUISE - MIAMI TO PANAMA
5 - 19 February 2004

Nineteen members and friends had booked a cruise, kindly arranged by Simon Buck, to the Caribbean in the early part of February. The liner, Brilliance of the Seas, sailed from Miami in Florida for the ten-day cruise, which called at Grand Cayman, Aruba, Panama and Costa Rica. I suspect most people on this particular cruise wanted to see the Panama Canal and visit one of the wonders of the modern world. Our ship went through the locks to the man-made lake between the Atlantic and the Pacific where it stayed for a few hours before returning to the Caribbean Sea. As the ship was anchored in the lake we were able to go ashore and take a trip by coach to see the locks and watch other ships being pulled through by the special locomotives on either bank of the canal.

As you can imagine, most of the passengers on our ship were from the USA and, in general, they liked talking to us 'Brits' - something to do with our accents or perhaps supporting them in the recent conflict!

The remaining two days of our trip were spent in a very nice hotel in Miami Beach. Although the weather was not very warm it was bright and sunny.

Tony Leach - Section Chairman