RSX, thanks for helping me keep up with the Aida as she made her way into the Gatun locks!

Some of your pix may have been overwritten files, though. It looks like she's gone in a couple. I've got most if not all of her progress. No worries!

* Gee, I hope that was the Aida. Now comes the second-guessing. Eh, if nothing else, at least we saw a WW ship (or two) go through. Hope springs eternal. I'm still going to check the Miraflores webcam when I get home tonight for glimpses of the Aida.

 

Look to the right, someone left a margarita for us. That was nice of them.

 

I've got the lime and the salt. I'm ready!

Still can't shake how weird it was that I just happened to tune into the Panama Canal website at just the right moment to catch the WW ships pass through! In all seriousness, I HOPE that second ship was the Aida! Regardless, it was cool to see any WW ship "live!"

I'm looking forward to the rest of the trip. Smooth sailing ahead! She'll be in our waters soon...

 

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/ca...cam=CerroLuisa

Well is that it going through the Bridge area?

 

Well? Ya think?

 

I take that back, that's number 1 again isn't it?
It's a WW ship but doesn't have the round front of AIDA.

 

There she is.

 

http://webcams.pancanal.com/common/p...iraflores.html
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/ca...cam=Miraflores

Ship 1 is in the lock and AIDA is coming into slot # 2

 

GREAT WORK, Bitzie!

Thanks for documenting our voyage. I couldn't keep up. Looks like we're on the fast track!

I can't wait to assemble an animated gif file of our passage!

 

Birds eye view

 

Hey gang, by now I hope we are actually once again, under way. I am trying to assemble an animated gif of the images I captured yesterday from the Panama Canal website. I've got 58 pix of the Aida (I think) approaching and entering the Gatun locks on the Atlantic side, as well as 40 pix of the Aida (again, I think/hope) entering the Miraflores locks on the Pacific side. I'll post the animations as soon as I can.

* Word of warning: you folks may be on the road in your MINIs before I figure out what I'm doing.

In the meanwhile, I'd like to thank RSXtoMCS and Bitzie for generously sharing their screen captures with everyone here. Great work! I wish I captured some of the images myself from the links shown above, but I neglected to do so when they were "current." They show live images of the Panama Canal locks, not images of the Aida herself. Oh well...

I showed the pix of the ship entering the locks to my coworkers yesterday and they enjoyed them (nearly) as much as I did. How cool!

Even if this wasn't the Aida, it was cool seeing a couple of WW ships passing through the locks. Someone somewhere is getting a new car...

 

To avidMINI, RSXtoMCS and Bitzie...

Thanks for doing all this work...You guys are awesome teckno geeks! You all could have a future as private investigators! Since Aida went through the canal yesterday, are we a day behind schedule in arriving at Port Hueneme? It would be so cool if someone could get pics of the Aida in port to complete the documentation of "our" journey.

 

Im going to try and get picts at Port when it gets here. The problem is I dont know when she will arrive exactly. If any of you ship trackers out there can give me a bearing on when she is expected to arrive I will shoot some picts.

 

Thanks...er, I think! I've had a blast trying to keep tabs on the Aida. I think we're still expected in "Port WHY-NEE-MEE" on August 20th. A few days to check in and our MINIs will hit dry ground a few days later. I figure on delivery to NorCal by later that week or earlier next.

And I'd LOVE to see "arrival pix"!

 

Finally it logged back in! There is a tropical depression (NoName) ahead but it looks like it will curve out to Hawaii and miss it.

 

BTW I have other pics of it going through the canal if you want me to zip up the file and post it somewhere?

 

WHEW! Brother, am I glad that the Aida showed up again! I was really starting to wonder if the weather information site only covered ships in the Atlantic.

I've got a couple of video clips spooled up on YouTube, but they've got to process them. Look for them a little later on tonight or tomorrow. They came out pretty good. I enlisted the help of a coworker (my personal savior) and we were able to create comprehensive video clips of the ship entering the Gatun locks and leaving the Miraflores locks. Very cool stuff here... You won't be disappointed! (Well, maybe you will, but it's the best I could muster! )

Stay tuned, folks. We're in the home stretch now!

PS - I hope the weather behaves itself for the final leg of the Aida's journey.

 

That was a long two days. Thanks to all for the pics and updates - it helped during the 'blackout'.

Looks like Tropical Storm Iselle is moving northwest ahead of AIDA so maybe she'll still be on time with the cargo safe and sound.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATWOEP+shtml/132334.shtml
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_ep5+shtml/025113.shtml3day%3f3day

The Port Hueneme (WYE-NEE-MEE) still shows them as scheduled for arrival on 8/19.
http://www.portofhueneme.org/business_at_the_port/vessel_schedule.php

It's so close and yet so far. I just hope my old car doesn't breakdown before I get the new one - I try not to touch anything that I absolutely don't have to - it's liable to disintegrate.

 

Cool beans!

That weather report soothes my nerves somewhat.

I've got good news and bad news...

The bad news first: YouTube couldn't process the Flash videos or gifs that I made earlier today, so I resorted to creating a "slideshow" of the webcam shots using iPhoto on my Mac. Not the best resolution, mind you, but it's better than nothing I guess.

Actually, that's the good news: It's better than nothing. Not much, but hey! I'm still going to try to see if I can get better quality videos uploaded. I'll just replace the ones I've posted with the new ones here if I do.

Here's the first, entering the Gatun locks behind another WW ship on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwxhwVNVKes

and

Here's the second, entering the Miraflores locks on the Pacific end of the Panama Canal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udara-oEHPw

 

If I had to pick the best shots of the Aida (again, if this is in fact our ship), I would have to choose these:





It's a pity the slideshows are not as clear as these pix!

 

Sorry I didn't address this sooner! I've been going nuts trying to figure out how to get the screen captures to work in a video.

It would be great if you would compile whatever you've got and share them with us. I don't know if this site supports zipped files though. I never tried. Give it a whirl!

I noticed that a couple of the pix you posted appeared to be of higher resolution than my captures, so if you've got 'em, PLEASE feel free to post 'em!

All of these are going to make for an interesting Virtual Scrapbook someday...

 

My MA just reported that it will hit port the 20th.

 

http://cid-c756c44362cd94ad.skydrive...px/Public?uc=2
I uploaded the images I snagged to a public folder

 

Bitzie, after downloading and seeing those pix, I think I might just throw away my pix! Your screen captures are GREAT!

I kick myself for not thinking about clicking on the "high resolution" webcam tab on the Panama Canal site while the ship was passing through the Miraflores locks. Those were choice pix and very good thinking on your part! You've got some real keepers there. And if I'm not mistaken, you can almost make out "AIDA" on our ship! Too cool.

BIG THANKS for sharing those with us all!

Meanwhile, here's our latest progress, with a little plotting history to boot:



After the day I had on the bus, I can't WAIT to get my MINI.

 

Nah yours are great, I missed some shots in the middle under the bridge :-)

My sister (who has a convertible MINI from the lot so she didn't have this fun) said the same thing about just being able to see the name.