Current plans are to leave Colon Panama sometime this week and head towards the San Blas Islands. I’ve heard a lot of nice things about that area, blue water, lots of small islands, palm trees, your typical paradise. Then after maybe a few weeks there I will head to Cartagena Columbia for maybe a few months. Again, I’ve been hearing a lot of wonderful things about the town, sounds safe, not to expensive, and plenty to do. Next stop will be back to Colon Panama to transit the canal maybe around October or November unless I fall in love with Columbia and decide to spend the entire hurricane season there. Assuming I am back here and through the Canal into the Pacific still during hurricane / typhoon season with time to kill before heading off into the Pacific Ill head south to Ecuador for the remaining time, can you believe that they sell fuel there for only $1.05 a gallon !?!?! I’m told that there is low to no risk of serious storms from Ecuador to Galapagos and even to the Marquises which will allow me to get a nice jump on next years Pacific crossing season and maximize my time in the South Pacific islands as I head to most likely Australia. Getting fed up with the town here (Colon) and very ready for a change of scenery.

Currently I have one friend here in Panama that will join me for a day or two and jump off at a nearby port (Portobello) in Panama before I head to the San Blas Islands Solo, and presumably solo onto to Cartagena Columbia where I expect some friends to join me. Since I’ll likely be there for a few months if anyone else has some free time around August, September and maybe even November let me know since I’ll likely just be ‘hanging out’ I think airfare here is around $500 from the states. Some friends here gave me a spear gun so in addition to fishing I plan to try some free-diving spear-fishing that should at least prove interesting. Well that’s about it for now. I’ll be sending GPS-points / Google-Earth links to the website starting soon to keep everyone aware of my position once I leave here. Hope everyone is doing well and hope to update you from a new position soon!! –

Kirk

Monday June 16 th.
OK, I re-did the calculations, and since it is just too much of a pain to fix my motor I’m going to stay here in Colon Panama for a few years. Now don’t go criticizing me for making this decision, it has several merits. I figure that I’ll just stay here and then in three years I’ll come home and tell everyone that I sailed around the world. Here is the big bonus, I just did all the calculations. If I stay here in Colon, rather than sailing I should have enough money to stay drunk constantly, plus smoke all the pot I want and have an unlimited supply of cocaine (and most other illicit drugs), and now for the kicker, a new whore every night. Now what more could you ask for?? Now SERIOUSLY, here is what’s going on…

Let me recap for a moment and forgive me for the details but a few people have asked. I show up in Panama around April 2nd, and get sentenced to nearly a TWO-month delay to transit the canal. No big deal, I take it in stride, get some work done, meet a lot of nice locals and party with the cruisers plenty, well lets just say I wasn’t really getting bored. Not to mention FIVE times I have been through the canal on other boats as a line handler. Ok, so they say I don’t have to wait the two months, a spot comes open after only 6 weeks so I go for it. Then just a few days before the transit I’m sailing back from a river just a few miles from the canal here with Michael Lee, and the motor dies. There was no fixing it. Luckily I have amazing sailing skills and sailed back to anchorage here in Colon (now for the second time). With some help from some amazing friends (Peter and Kay from Milfuers Hobart) I probably spelled that wrong, anyway, Peter from Australia (Tasmania actually) by the way Tasmanians are all crazy… As I was saying. Peter helps me trouble shoot the motor down to the Fuel Injection Pump and then encourages me to pull it off of the motor myself. I did, it was easy, it had two (of three) broken springs. Apparently only a fuel injection specialist can fix this type of problem so I take the pump to Rivas E Picans in Panama city to get it fixed. At first they tell me $500 to get new springs sent in from the U.S. and that it will take a week or two. Well at that point my (first) transit date was only a few days away so I postponed it and the shop came up with this great solution. They had a few used springs around the shop and for the amazing price of only $85 they replace the two broken springs. The pump worked great, UNTIL it was time to transit. I had line handlers on the boat, the canal advisor on the boat, my Dad was here to go through, water and fuel topped off, lots of food and booze and then… THE MOTOR DOESN’T START, it was the fuel injector pump again!!!!

I get an $840 fee ICKKK from the canal, that’s right, they charge you more NOT to transit than for the actual transit!! But that’s all in the past. I bring the part back to the shop, continue to have a good time, and the part gets fixed. Turns out this time it was the fuel-throttle control and that the pump was stuck in a lower than idle setting. They fix it, another $85, no big deal, the engine runs GREAT again. Only sad part is that it delays me yet another two weeks to get through the canal, but once again I take it in stride. I’m doing the math, and it looks like I’ll need about 3 months of solid sailing to cross the pacific to Australia. I would have about 5 and a half months before cyclone season, so that leaves 2.5 months to see the entire South Pacific, I figure I’ll go for it. THEN, once again I have my line handlers on board, motor running, advisor is on his way, the motor dies. It was the third spring, the one that wasn’t replaced before. That brings us to now. Waiting for parts for the motor.

I finally found a reasonably priced fuel pump so I think I’ll buy it and make the old one a spare, plus all that cranking of the motor has got my starter sounding a bit uh… slow, so I’m ordering one of those as well. The extra parts and the second fee from the canal, has got me almost $3000 over budget, good thing James (atomvoyages.com) talked me out of the Mediterranean a long time ago. So what now, I’m pretty sure it’s too late to pass the entire Pacific so that leaves me with a few options. Haul ass to Australia and skip half of the South Pacific. OR fine some hurricane hole in the South Pacific islands and either wait there or fly home to work. Lastly, wait here in South America until the cyclone season is over and then head across and maximize my time in the islands. At this point I’m really not sure what I’m doing and I’m surely open for suggestions. I have gotten several emails asking me what’s going on so hopefully this answers most of the questions. I admit I have left out a lot of the juicy details of partying in Panama city after the transits, late nights on other boats in Colon, and blah blah blah, but that will just have to wait till later! Hope everyone is doing well and when I know what I’m up to, so will you ! –Kirk

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.