Their questions were the same ones all the contestants wanted to ask.
The Panama Canal is the only express channel connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It's a maritime chokepoint that can cut shipping times by more than half.
Cargo ships are quite slow, unlike speedboats or yachts that can race across the sea. Their average speed fluctuates around thirty knots.
The Panama Canal is about eighty kilometers long. Not counting queues and congestion, it takes these super-sized cargo ships about eight to nine hours to pass through, with a significant portion of that time spent navigating the three sets of locks.
If you factor those in, it takes at least a full day.
But a faster, more agile patrol-style speedboat can cross the entire canal in just over an hour. Their speeds can easily reach the fifty to ninety-knot range.
Having them travel by speedboat was undoubtedly to save time.
