Here are the basics when it comes to Entering Panama and transiting the Canal. You should budget about $1000 to cover all the fees and expenses, plus of course your food, fuel, marina fees if you don’t want to anchor, etc. It seems that if you are willing to do all the running around and fill out all of the forms on your own, and put up a $800 or so refundable deposit you might get that $1000 down to about $700 or so. Best I can tell there are three options when it comes to preparing to transit the canal. The easiest, smoothest, most expensive way is to hire an agent for around $250 to $500 depending on what agent you get and if they will negotiate. The agent fee is in addition to the transit canal transit fees. Don’t quote me on these numbers but I seem to recall that the Canal fee itself is only $500, but then you have to spend another $100 fee to get ‘measured’ for the canal. The $500 goes up quite a bit if your boats actual length is more than 50 feet. Then there is this “buffer fee” or deposit that most agents can arrange to pay for you, or if you go it alone you have to pay with a credit card or cash that you can get back after the transit. It is to cover any fees you incur if you have problems (engine, crew, etc) during your transit. Then you have to have four lines, I think 150’ each and 3 / 4 inch thick, some people have a few lines on board that meet those specks but usually just rent them anyway for $15 each or $60 for the set of four. Then you have to have around 10 old tires unless you happen to have a zillion huge fenders on board. I think the tires are around $3 each, and then another dollar or two get rid of them on the other side if you can’t find someone who needs them. I ended up paying $600 for the canal fees, plus $350 to the agent, but that covered my lines and tires and a few other fees so I figure Stanley the agent profited about $250 or $300 from me.
The other option (and I think the best one) is to go into the Marina (Panama Canal Yacht Club) and tell them you need to transit the canal. They will probably put you in touch with Tito, he seems to work in the office and does ALMOST everything the agent does for you but for about a tenth of the price ($35-$50). The biggest difference is that you will have to go with him to fill out the forms but he assists you not being a licensed agent he cant exactly do it for you. You will also have to pay your $800 buffer yourself. Basically this will save you several hundred dollars and seems like the obvious way to go unless you are in a huge hurry, hate paperwork, or don’t want to spend half a day running around the deadly (not exaggerating) city of Colon filling out forms.
The last and cheapest option is to do it all on your own. When you check in with immigration at the Yacht Club you can get a vague list of procedures to transit the canal. Find all of the offices, fill out the forms on your own (you almost need to speak Spanish to do this) and deal with the various offices and port captain on your own. In my opinion you would be an idiot to go that route rather than paying Tito at the marina or a local experienced, knowledgeable English-speaking taxi driver to help you.

Plus you have to have four line handlers on your boat during the transit, in addition to the captain, and an advisor / pilot. So this means you will have six people on the boat total, that you will have to provide three meals and snacks and drinks for, plus you will have to sleep five for one night. Generally the advisor boards you boat around 6pm on the night of the transit, you go through the first three locks (Gatun Locks) on the Atlantic side, this gets you into lake Gatun around 11PM where the advisor disembarks and you spend the night. Then around 8am the next morning you motor about 21 miles through like Gatun to the next two sets of locks (three more total) that drop you back down to sea level and into the Pacific, usually around 2PM or so depending on your boat speed and lock availability. They normally send three yachts at a time that raft together while they transit the locks, this makes the line handling easier, the center (and largest) boat usually is the ‘motor’ and steering, while the two smaller boats on the side handle two of the lock-lines each. Basically just taking up slack as you rise up through the locks, and then on the opposite side paying out line as you descend through the locks. Its pretty simple, and most cruisers help each other get through the canal by line-handling for each other. It costs less than $10 for Bus and taxi fairs (about 2.5 hours total) to get from Colon to Panama city, and the transiting yacht covers the food and drinks for their line handlers. A few people who failed to find volunteers to handle the lines hire some Panamanian ‘pros’ for about $100 each. They generally know what they are doing and make the locking an even smoother process, but some people complained that they were a bit crude and disrespectful. Some people even took on back-packers as line handlers which went OK since you only really use two line handlers and you have to have four on board, just be sure you have at least two people that can work and ease a cleat hitch, tie a bowline, etc.
I could write a lot more about the Canal transit but I suppose that’s enough, feel free to email me if you have any questions or even call if its before June 12 th or so at which point I will no longer have a cell phone since I’ll be crossing the Pacific (hopefully).

I guess this is the first real update covering my stay here in Colon. My first impression of Panama was more or less dismal. Overall the 11 day passage here was OK, asides from a few minor mishaps I already covered. The last two days as I approached Colon Panama the freighter traffic really picked up putting a damper on the sleeping, but I’m sure I still had some reserve energy as I made the final approach to the harbor. The wind was still blowing nicely from the stern and I’m sure I didn’t need my motor running however considering how busy the harbor was I thought it might be nice to have a little extra maneuverability, so I started to fire up the diesel. It started ok, but after just about a minute the temperature / oil pressure alarm came on… sort of. The alarm just whined a bit like it was halfway on, plenty loud enough to make me nervous. I decided to tack back offshore through a maze of anchored freighters waiting to enter the harbor. This gave me time to check the oil, coolant, etc. I couldn’t find anything wrong but went I went to start it again the alarm was sort of on again, so I opted to leave the motor off and just sail into the anchorage rather than risk damaging something. That went smoothly, I found a nice wide open spot to drop the hook at the outside edge of the anchorage and luckily the anchor set on the first try. Then again the 35LB delta has pretty much always set on the first try in all condition. I love that anchor (its connected to Salsa with 150ft of 5/16″ High-Test chain then another 150’ of nylon rode) this allows me to get a 5:1 ratio / scope even in 50’ of water. In fact the anchor hasn’t even failed to set and hold with only a 3:1 scope and all chain rode.

Arriving in Puerto Cristobol / Colon Panama was a weird feeling. I remember noticing the industrial hum coming from the freighters and equipment on the piers. I also noticed an eerie smog and smell that just stifles the entire area. I did know at least one other boat in the anchorage from chatting on the SSB radio during the passage so I gave them a call and found out they were only a few boats over from where I was. I kind of wanted to get off of the boat and check out the marina and bar, have a beer, and just unwind however John suggested that I get a little rest first so for some reason I listened and laid down for a little bit to take a nap. About 18 hours later I woke up filling a little better but still in the same smelly, noisy, hazy anchorage. I launched the inflatable dinghy and went over to visit with John and Mat. After chatting with him briefly I realized that I needed to start working on immigration, and the procedure for transiting the canal. That’s when I ran into my first problem. I think I covered it earlier but basically when I left the Bahamas I failed to check out with customs. Panama (and most anywhere else I suspect) has serious problems with boats showing up without a clearance / zarpe from the last country. Then I made another stupid mistake, after being told that the only way I would be able to check into the country was with the assistance of an agent, I hired Stanley at a slightly negotiated rate.

I must have been in Georgetown just about a week before a weather window for the Windward Passage to Panama that I couldn’t refuse was forecasted. It was going to be an 1100 mile cruise to Panama, by far my longest non-stop solo passage, with virtually no possible stops or anchorages after the first 350 miles or four days. So the route was to leave via the southwestern cut out of Elizabeth harbor, it was a few extra miles but I had already ran the cut once and didn’t feel like stressing my self through a new one. The cut went smooth, in fact another vessel hailed me just to chat on the radio, they assumed I was heading north to Nassau like everyone else that day and thought we might buddy boat or something up the Exuma sound until I informed then I was heading in the opposite direction, however I also told them I would follow them out the cut since I didn’t have a chart plotter and they said fine. Then I watched them head off toward very shallow water (at least it wasn’t a reef) and I decided to follow the same course I took last time, luckily, as I watched them come to a halt as they bumped bottom. It was mostly just sand so it looked like they just powered through the shoal and carried on ok, I stayed way off in only slightly deeper water.

After the cut I was pleased to be able to sail close hauled, more or less a rum line for the north end of Long Island. Then next few hours were uneventful, the North swell they had been warning us about for the last several days was lingering but only a few feet and didn’t really slow me down or make the sail uncomfortable. Once I rounded Long Island? I was even happier to be heading more in the direction of Panama even though a wind shift forced me to make one or two short tacks off shore to keep my sea room, something I’m really learning to value especially if you want to get any rest. The next stop I was considering was the Acklins, one of the last few Bahamian Islands I would pass heading south. I opted to press on to the Windward Passage since I wasn’t quite completely exhausted yet and still had all of my fuel. Plus the two anchorages in the Acklins either involved a very tricky narrow cut between reefs or, an easy entrance but without 360′ protection. Since I was once again sailing in front of a front, I decided to press on, and glad I did since the radio indicated that that had winds well over 40kts North East of me. I was already at least one, maybe two days ahead of the front so even at 5kts I had a reasonable chance to say ahead and possibly avoid the worst of it if I didn’t stop. Things went more or less smooth until I rounded the North Eastern side of the Acklins. The wind got light and variable so I was constantly tacking, into what seemed like a knot or two of current and basically made lousy headway in addition to being tired. I remember looking at my tacks on the GPS thinking wow it looks like I’m just sailing back and fourth you would never guess I was trying to head south. Then for all my diligent sailing throughout the day I was rewarding at night with calms and squalls, not quite as dramatic as the ones I would encounter in the next few days but annoying none the less, It seemed that as each day went on I just got more and more tired not getting any decent rest, and I knew that this would persist till I was through the windward passage and in open ocean, free from hazards like reefs, islands, coastal traffic, etc.

It was somewhere North of the Windward passage when I had my closest call with another vessel that I can recall. I remember spotting this medium size freighter several miles off (still very big) and he appeared to be passing in front of me. About the same time a nice little storm popped up forcing me to reef the main, and continually adjust my course, plus the rain I discovered makes it nearly impossible to make out targets on the Radar. By the time I had my boat under control I realized that the freighter was on a collision course, no not one of those “he’s going to get really close” courses, I mean oh *!$# he’s heading right for me and very fast. I tried the radio over and over but no response, so I started the engine, I hadn’t even had the wind vane steering since I was just changing my course from the wind shifts in the storm, I wanted to run below and grab the spotlight (that from then on stayed in the cockpit at night easily at reach). So when one of the monster ships gets so close that you have to look UP at it, you better get the hell out of the way, I could reach the ignition while still steering by hand, so I fired the motor, tacked the boat, and I honestly think I had well under a minute to do it or I would have been little bits of pieces in his wake. In his defense I later realized that the radio wasn’t working so he couldn’t have heard me, and I should have (even though I shouldn’t have had to) altered my course earlier, only I was preoccupied with little storm that popped up. On the up side, you can be sure I kept a better watch, and stayed WAY clear of all traffic from then on.

I didn’t see a lot of traffic after that anyway until I was almost clear of the Windward Passage, near the South west tip of Haiti? Again, at night, and off course, again the wind had picked up from a near calm (this really seems to the routine until I got into the trade winds). So this small commercial looking vessel, maybe 100′ long, was actually following me. I see him on radar way off after the alarm alerted me, and basically just kept an eye on him as usual until I’m clear what his course is. Then I catch him in the Binoculars, both his red and green lights, meaning that he his heading right for me, plus I realized that the wind change had me on a course heading toward Haiti, not a problem since it was still 5 miles off but I realized that any military or coast guard might wonder where I was heading in the middle of the night just a few miles off of Haiti. Once again I alter my course, more than I had to, 180′ to get out of the way of this vessel still almost a mile off, and then I got nervous. He altered his course too! I turn and I see his red and green lights again! Again, I tired the broken radio with no luck (go figure). Plus it was really blowing, 25kts or more I had just put in the reef, finally when this guy got really close, within a quarter mile I started putting my spotlight on him, then on my sails, and after less than a minute of that, he just turned away. Funny thing was at this point he turned the same direction that I wanted to go, so now I was nervously following him, until he eventually disappeared into the night, he was going a lot faster than me. That was the end of the drama for several days. I had still had storms at night for the next day or two one even hit hard and fast, picked up some sizeable waves, and then went dead calm, I felt like I was in a washing machine. After two, not one but two big waves came over my stern and flooded the cockpit I decided to finally start the motor and get moving, I think that was the first time I ever sat in seas like that with absolutely no wind at all. Motoring on improved the motion of the boat, and it really wasn’t long before a steady breeze set back in. In fact I think that last storm was the front since the very steady NE winds that they were promising finally filled in and stayed steady for days. I actually read THREE books, caught up on all my sleep and with the exception of a strange injury to my finger that cost me the finger nail, it was a perfect sail.

Its funny how right now as I write, I vividly remember the close calls, the injury, the storms, etc, when there was a LOT more times where it was just smooooth sailing, stunning blue water, flying fish everywhere, just sitting back in the cockpit (when it was dry) sucking on a beer reading a book or napping, totally relaxed. I mention this because after I just reread the last few paragraphs it probably looks like the passage from hell, but in all honesty it just wasn’t. It had its share of excitement, and the fatigue from the first several days probably compounded everything, in reality there were no major issues with the boat or me, no navigation problems, etc, I don’t think I have any right to complain.

So something like days 5 through 9 were perfect sailing. Wind aft of the beam, following seas, almost never touched the sails or the rudder, some nights with the radar alarm and gps alarm set I would get several hours of rest in one shot, I was feeling good. I’m not sure what happened to my finger. I’m pretty sure I slammed it in something like a locker door or something, at the time I was half asleep, and just went back to bed. By morning it was throbbing in a bad way, turning blue, and getting bigger. I was actually a few days closer to Jamaica than Panama so the thought of turning back did cross my mind for a second, but the wind and sailing was too good, so I just laid in my bunk with the hand elevated and kept ice on it. I remembered a similar injury that the doctor drained by putting a small hole through my fingernail, but I was afraid to put any holes in myself and risk infection being several days from land. Finally about 2 days out from Panama it wasn’t hurting so much and I only had to peel up a little dead skin to drain out the… stuff. That made it feel even better. Three days or so after arriving in Panama the entire nail came off (now that was a little messy) I took a picture so you can see how pretty it was.

Back to sailing, everything was going very smooth up until the last night or two. Really only two minor things kept it from being as perfect as before. First off the wind had backed and was right on my stern, so I was sailing wing on wing, with the main on one side and the jib poled out the other side. I wont get into all the details but this sail configuration requires about 6 different lines and sheets (down hauls, preventers, etc) all set up to keep the boom and pole from banging around as the boat really rolls around down the waves, it also doesn’t make the wind vane too happy so it kind weaves back and forth between about 30 degrees like a drunk helmsman, only lightly jibing a few times a day so I suppose it was acceptable. The other thing that changed close to Panama was a LOT of traffic, I started to see boats on the radar constantly. Almost all of them gave me plenty of room, but a few came within a 1/2 mile or so, its hard to imagine how close that is until you see them, but its a just a tad too close for comfort, especially after my close call only a week or so back off of Haiti. I think that just about covers the trip to Panama except for the part where my motor was acting up (and still is) forcing me to sail through the port into the anchorage. Ill try to write more soon about my adventures in Colon, Panama, and cruising a local river with Michael Lee.

Oh, one quick up to date update…  My transit date is now delayed as I wait for a fuel injection pump that should be here Monday or Tuesday so hopefully I should be able to transit next week, more on that later. PLUS a few updates and several photos have been added to sailingsalsa.com. Gotta run, helping more friends through the canal tonight.  -Kirk