So there we were, at last, off Colon, anchored on ‘The Flats’ with numerous other boats headed for the Panama Canal, the Pacific and all the exotic destinations that lay on the other side of the isthmus. Shortly after we arrived a couple of burly New Zealanders, walking outside the Yacht Club, were robbed at gun point in broad daylight and that was a good indicator to the way things go in the Canal Zone.

Still, with a bit of thought and by taking care, it was possible to survive the waiting period required to get organized, processed and through the canal. We were very lucky to have been introduced to ‘Rudy’, the best of the best when it came to getting yachts through the processing required for the transit. He was the expert on the bureaucratic paper trail and took us under his wing for a very modest fee, showed us what to do, where to go, what to take and provided first class transport in his Land Cruiser. Rudy is always on duty outside the Colon Yacht Club unless running people around, everyone knows and respects him so he’s very easy to find.

We met up with Rudy on the Monday morning (7th May) and by 1130hrs we were all ready for the ‘Admeasurer’ to visit us, this was arranged for the Tuesday morning. Rudy was to provide the tires for the transit and would have provided ropes if required, I didn’t want to hire ropes however but I did need to buy one and Rudy very kindly stopped at a hardware store so that I could do this. We could have managed the transit with the ropes we have on board (you need to have four unbroken lengths of 125’ in 5/8th diameter or more depending on your boat size). What we had was all Nylon or Dacron and I needed a hundred and fifty feet of Polypropylene for use in the Pacific; This I got at a very good price.

I was surprised at how many boats were having to hire ropes to get through the Canal, true there is a lot to be said to ‘not messing up your own good lines’ however when you are into something critical like the Canal, you really want to know that the rope you are using is up to the job; I’d be a little careful hiring lines! I think however that a lot of the boats transiting just didn’t have enough line on board. The equipment carried aboard many of todays Cruising Yachts is far short of what it used to be. I guess that must be the Marina Mentality.

Another thing that surprised me was the amount of boats headed for the Pacific at this late time. My own calculations predicted that the 10th March was the best time to leave Panama for the Galapagos and that that by mid April you’d have a tough beat getting down there. When I spoke with these people, most of them thought they’d be motoring most of the distance in calms……. Well, listening to the weather reports of those that were headed out that way whilst we were cruising north on the ‘other side’, I think some people got a rather shocking experience!

The Canal ‘Admeasurer’ did show up the next morning just a few seconds shy of Noon, He made a couple of quick measurements and went away requesting that we meet him in the Yacht Club in half an hour so that he could explain the transit procedures and complete the paperwork. He wanted to get both Ed and myself together so that he would only have to run through things the once. This worked quite well but by the time we were through it was too late to visit the Bank and pay our fees. Thus it was another day before we went on the transit list and it was the next evening (9th May) that we got our Transit Date (18th May).

Considering the amount of boats waiting for transit, this was not so bad. Just over a week was just enough time to get things done without being pushed. Of course, any time at all in Colon is much too long. It’s a filthy hole and the dirt blows out into the anchorage. They have situated their local rubbish tip adjacent to The Flats, so there is a pervading smell of garbage and a million and one fly’s that invade through any opening they can get through. Thank goodness for those $1 beers in the Yacht Club because sitting out on the boat was purgatory!

We did manage to take a day trip through to Panama City; we went with our good friends Ed and Ellen from “Entr’acte”. We all had things that we needed to get and also we were quite keen to look beyond Colon and see something of the Capitol City. The bus ride normally takes a little less than two hours but in our case it was four, students and others were out demonstrating against high prices and poor living conditions. From what we saw, they may have a valid point. Of course it rained for the duration of our visit and that did little to improve our poor impressions of the great city. It was however a day out and enjoyable for that alone; riding in buses is a great way to see a bit of whatever country ones in, being so high up and not having to concentrate on driving helps!

Another requirement for the Canal Transit is to have four line handlers on every vessel, as well as the skipper and the Canal Advisor. This set us the task of hunting around for someone who would like to make the transit with us. Time passed and we were unable to find volunteers so we were looking at having to hire Panamanian Line-handlers at $110 a piece.
We were most fortunate that we got a visit from Jack and Jo from “Mystic Adventure” who we had met previously in the San Blas at a beach gathering. They were looking for a passage through, just for the experience as their own boat was in Shelter Bay Marina and they would not be making the transit through with her. We signed them up right away!
Shortly after that I made contact with Ross and Sue with the Australian Sailing Boat    “Y-Knot”, they had arrived to do the transit and whilst waiting for their turn Ross wanted to experience the transit himself so as to be pre-armed for taking his own boat through. Sue was to remain and look after the boat so that really worked out well as three was just the number we required.
I was also very happy that we had a good and experienced team on board with not only a great deal of sailing experience but also experience of locking in other canals. We were now as well set as we were ever likely to be.

Whilst waiting in Colon it is advisable to check in daily with the Canal Authority, first to keep them aware that you are still out there waiting and second, so that you are aware of any changes in the schedule. When I called them on the fifteenth we were notified that we were being set back a day to the nineteenth, fortunately this was still a good date for our volunteers. After that, all I had to do was sit back and worry about all those things that could go wrong!
Most days in Colon were wet and humid, most days it rained. We started to get mold and mildew in all sorts of places; nothing was spared this relentless attack from the environment. Thus it was that the nineteenth was no exception, the day started well but by afternoon we were getting the usual dousing.
In the morning I secured my clearance from Colon and got a Zarpe that took me to Puerto Armuelles which lies on the boarder just before Costa Rica, this saved having to see any more officials for quite some time. We already had a cruising permit for Panama and so we were set.
We heaved up the anchor at 1400hrs and went across to Shelter Bay where we picked up Jack and Jo, it took me the whole hour of getting there to clean off my anchor gear which was well fouled from laying on the bottom of Colon harbour for two weeks. The just made it on board before the heavens opened and it poured. Out in the bay I confirmed our Pilot on Board time and found that that had been put back an hour or so. Thus we killed the motor and sailed slowly back to the flats in the pouring rain. I held off from picking up Ross until the last moment in the hope that there might be a break in the rain, it didn’t happen.
We got the pilot, Adrian, at 1739hrs and soon after that the rain did ease off and eventually stopped. As we were still awaiting the ship that was to go in the lock ahead of us, we proceeded slowly towards the canal. The first lock was 2005hrs but prior to it we rafted up with the two other boats making the transit. “Entr’acte” took the port side and “Mirfak” (with Conrad a single-hander from Australia) took the Starboard side. We were the biggest boat for a change and thus occupied the centre spot. This was a small boat raft; normally we find most of the boats on the circuit are larger than us but this proved to be an exception.

Everything went well, the rain stopped and we had no major scares. At 2112hrs we came out into Gatun Lake and separated the raft before motoring around to where the Canal Authority has located several mooring buoys for the transiting yachts to hang onto overnight in the lake. We got there and secured for 2142hrs and the Pilot left us right away. We all settled down to sleep quite early as we were in for another full day starting soon!
We were very lucky to have a calm and peaceful night, no bugs and no rain! Only woken by the sound of the Howler Monkey’s making their woeful call in the early dawn. Even more fortunate for Ross who had volunteered to sleep out in the Cockpit, our accommodation was not designed with the Canal Transit in mind!
Sunday the 20th May and the Pilot, Victor, was on board at 0630hrs and we were off across Gatun Lake. There wasn’t a lot for the crew to do on this part of the journey so they were able to sit, relax and enjoy the view. This area is really very beautiful, at one time it was the biggest man-made lake in the world but recently some where else has earned that distinction. Still, it’s a huge are and is encompassed in several Panamanian National Parks. The Canal itself is a wonder to behold, one of mans greatest feats of engineering especially when one considers the tools and equipment available at the time of construction.

It remained overcast until we were abeam of Gamboa at 0944hrs, when a weak sun appeared from behind the clouds, then by 1100hrs when we arrived at Pedro Miguel Locks we were into a sunny day and looking for shade. Down locking went much the same as the up locking; we rafted together again but this time had the whole lock to ourselves. There is only a short run between Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks and we remained rafted up for it. A video camera on the control tower at Miraflores captured our transit and we were very lucky that some old friends of Ed’s (Greg and Jill with “Guenevere”) were able to capture our images and then post them on the video section of their very extensive Web Blog.

We were out of the Canal for 1313hrs and cast off the other boats for the last time. At 1406hrs we went alongside at the Balboa Yacht Club dock and were there for less than one minute whilst we landed both our Line Handlers and our fenders. There were eight tires that we had secured along the hull to protect it during the transit; under this I’d used a large fender skirt of plastic and it all did a very good job.
Once away from the Yacht Club we took our Pilot down to Flamenco Island where we discharged him into a Pilot Boat and carried on ourselves to anchor just north of the Marina Breakwater for the Flamenco Island Marina. We were all secure at 1500hrs and celebrated our arrival with a bottle of Bubbly! The Bubbly was meant to be shared by all the crew including our line-handlers however we had to land them so quickly at the Yacht Club there was no time for festivities. We were however most grateful to them for doing such a great job and being good company for the transit.

The next day we quickly realized that we were not going to get much done at this end of the Canal unless we returned to the Balboa Yacht Club and took a mooring. This we did and were secure before noon on one of their ‘rolly specials’. Despite the wakes of passing launches and the tide ripping passed al the time the Yacht Club staff were most welcoming and friendly. There is not much of a Yacht Club at the moment as it burned down a little ways back, however they are rebuilding and in the meantime still provide the necessities. Fuel, water, laundry and a small bar where the beer is cheap and you can get a Hot Dog to stave off hunger. The Taxi’s that operate from outside all seem to know the places that the yachties want to go, they are also good for advise as some of those places are in rather “unsafe” parts of the city. We certainly did get to see a lot of places we would not have normally gone whilst zipping about in Taxi’s looking for parts and canvas and the like.

We stayed at the Yacht Club two nights on the mooring at an all inclusive fee of $0.50/ft/day, which was actually quite reasonable especially considering there is a free twenty-four hour launch service to the moorings. One of the High Points of our stay in Balboa was a visit to the Miraflores Locks; here the Canal Authority has a Museam and Show Case on the Canals history. It was extremely interesting although I have to say that I wish we’d done it before the transit rather than after as I would have had more to look out for and a better insight into the technical aspects of the construction period.

On the 23rd of May we left early and proceeded to Toboga Island, about ten miles to the south. With the ‘southerly season’ winds, the north anchorage at Morro de Toboga was quite attractive. It wasa little rolly at times but no where near as bad as the Yacht Club moorings! Ashore there was a little ‘touristy’ village with a couple of small shops and a greater number of bars, most of which were closed as it was now ‘out of season’. We spent two nights here before taking off to the Las Pearlas Islands.

The most known place in the Las Pearlas and in this part of the world is Isla Contadora, this is the place where Central American heads of state gather for meetings when they can’t get the Mexicans to put them up in Cancun. I guess that it’s good for security, being an island with limited hotel accommodation and limited access. Anyway, I did want to have a look so we spent two days there and walked around ashore checking out the Hotels, the apartments and the more ‘glitzy’ villas. It wasn’t a lot to write home about but it was more up-market than downtown Panama City!
Our second anchorage was off Isla Ampon which is a part of Isla Casaya, this we found very peaceful and relaxing; it was our first really good Pacific Anchorage! We went ashore to what was a small fishing village, it was rather poor and run down but we discovered the local fishermen were most friendly and very industrious in that they had a side-line of making jewelry from the local pearls (from which Las Pearlas gets it’s name) and from carving out pendants from bits of shell they have collected. They seemed to be putting a huge amount of effort into for very little reward so we did support them a little by purchasing a small carved dolphin pendant for Paula.

After a couple of days we took off again, time was pressing us as we were now close to the end of the three months granted on our visa. We could have extended for another three months without too much difficulty but it would have meant a return to Panama City and that we did not want to do. At this time we discovered that the weather faxes and ‘Grib’ files available over the internet, were not really very trustworthy, we didn’t get very far out of Las Pearlas before we were crashing to windward in conditions we would have much rather done without. It blew twenty plus knots out of the SW and made the whole bay really lumpy We ended up in Bahia de Chame and that was not really where we wanted to be. Still with not much choice in the matter that’s where we went!
Bahia de Chame is only ten miles from Toboga and thus we were almost back at the Panama Canal!
We sat in this anchorage for two days waiting for a break in which we could get out to Cabo Mala and start heading north, up the coast. There was not a lot to this anchorage other than it was a good place to be in a south-westerly wind. There was nothing to go ashore for so we remained on board and worked on a few projects around the boat. Ed and Ellen with “Entr’acte” were still with us and in the same position of waiting for weather.
On the 30th May we headed out early in the morning but were soon back as we found the wind was still fresh on the nose. As soon as we got the anchor down I dropped the No.1 Genoa and hoisted the old No.2; there was little doubt in my mind that the wind would never go down whilst I had that sail on. Just to confirm this, no sooner than the No.1 was bagged than the wind died completely! We left to try again just as soon as we were ready and this time “Entr’acte” was four hours ahead of us and motoring hard.
Thus we motored, sailed and motor-sailed our way down to Cabo Mala which we passed in the early hours of May 31st and shortly after we were hard on the wind in an increasing west-south-west breeze. The sea became very lumpy and the tide turned against us reducing progress to snails pace. As the wind went over fifteen knots we went to the Staysail and a reef in the Mainsail. It was not good but we were fortunate that the end of our second tack took us directly into an anchorage under the lee of Punta Guanico where we decided to take shelter behind the steep headland. We got the anchor down just after Noon and “Entr’acte” rolled in about two hours later having been ahead of us and turned back when they found they were ‘going backwards’ off Morro Puerecos which we later discovered was the main obstacle to getting along this coast.

The fishermen here were very friendly and very helpful, Ed arranged an expedition ashore for shopping and to get fuel as he had motored all the way from Bahia de Chame and was running low. We discovered a thing or two about the weather and the tides from them and also picked up a few tips from the Panama Connection Net so that when we did leave, after the wind and sea went down, we had a fair current to get us all the way to our next anchorage.
There was a little swell that got around the point but it was OK and the holding ground was good. When we first arrived there were occasional heavy downdrafts but these went away as the weather improved. One bonus was that we could hear a troop of Howler Monkey’s close by on shore and there was plenty of bird life around. I bought some fish from the local fishermen who stopped by and whilst the fish was good I noticed later that they had left their calling card; there were several new marks on our beautiful blue hull.
I noted that when they came back to deliver Paula from ashore, despite me having three fenders and a foam fender skirt out, they managed to miss all that and put another mark on the Port side……..I was not impressed!
On the 2nd of June we managed to get a break and eventually made it to Isla Cebaco in a heavy thunderstorm with torrential rain and little visibility. We didn’t get any sailing in at all on that leg and I was beginning to have visions of us motoring all the way to Mexico!
The anchorage at Platanal was good for the night but did not inspire us to linger. We were also considering our time restraints regarding our cruising permit and visa’s, so we pushed on to Bahia Honda where we remained for two days.

Bahia Honda is a great little anchorage, plenty of weather protection and away from the swell, a place one could linger and explore. We were welcomed in by a lovely family that resided on the northern shore. Domingo, the Grandfather, came out to greet us in his canoe and steered us to a good anchorage where we were able to drop with just a couple of feet under the keel at low water in sand and mud; it was a very relaxing spot to be in.
The only drawback was that the social interactivity was a bit intense…… I guess the locals look out and see a yacht arriving, basically through their front door and without an invitation so they tend to expect that you are going to give them something, at least some business. They didn’t actually ask for money but we paid then for some vegetables and hired Domingo to go and fill our fuel containers with Diesel. None of which worked out cheap but we look on this as “selective charity” and supporting the local communities where we visit.
We were invited ashore to see where they lived and were impressed by their spirit, their will to improve what little they had in face of much adversity and what we would probably call poverty; although to them this was not poverty, this was life! Domingo and his wife lived in one house whilst his daughter Olivia and son in law Kennedy lived next door with their three children. They all put a team effort into their existence and worked at whatever they could. Kennedy had a job at the local hotel where the Rich and Famous would fly in for a quiet break or to do some sports fishing just offshore. He was getting U.S.$8/day but at least he was home each night with his family. The houses they had built were far from finished but they were progressing slowly, one block at a time. With an induction of a large lump of cash, they could be beautiful waterfront homes. Maybe by the time they grow old they may just have enough saved to have a few of the luxury’s we all take too easily for granted.

We left Bahia Honda with a lighter boat, having parted with everything from knives through clothes to a spark plug for Domingo’s outboard. It was stuff we weren’t using and they had greater need of it.
Our next stop was Islas Secas where we just spent a night, ashore was a resort where they charged $300 to rent tents which were strategically located around the bay. I think we would have been able to walk on the beach but the rest of the island was private. That was the same for the next island we visited, Isla Parida. We did manage to get a little sailing on the trip down but the winds could have been better, we had a quick look at the various bays before deciding that Playa Socorro would be our best bet. Unfortunately soon after we arrived a large power yacht also decided it was the place to be and we ended up listening to his generator all night. I went ashore for a walk on the beach which was a dark and course sand, thus rather hot on the feet in the afternoon sun. There was a large sign at the head of the beach declaring the rest of the island to be “Private Property” with “Prohibited Entry” so we were certainly limited to the boat with little chance of exercise. By this time we were longing to go for a walk and feeling rather boat bound since we left from Colon.

The next day we motored across to Armuelles, the last port in Panama. It was our intention to clear out the next day and leave on the Sunday to arrive in Costa Rica on the Monday thus avoiding overtime charges. That all changed when we dropped the anchor and found our boat rolling heavily in the swell that was hooking into the bay. We rapidly decided that we would clear out immediately and head out that evening; if we were going to bounce around we may as well be at sea. Getting ashore was quite an exercise, there was far too much surf on the beach to attempt a landing and the old pier was in a very bad state of repair. We managed however to get onto a broken ladder and clamber up without taking a swim, it wasn’t a great place to leave the dinghy but we had little option and one of the locals said that he would keep an eye on it.
The next hour was a farcical dance through bureaucracy; we went through several offices paying out the dollars in each one. In the end it cost us U.S.$80.00 just to clear out. We even had to pay for a quarantine inspection and the guy didn’t inspect anything! When this sort of thing happens I don’t blame those who just avoid all officials and sail around without clearing and without worrying about their paperwork. We were all done by 1630hrs and this gave us a few minutes to dash around the town (which seemed quite a nice little place), buy some provisions and some more diesel before heading back to the boat. Getting back in the dinghy with all our stuff was a balancing act but we managed it without damage or a soaking. Having said that the heavens opened just as soon as we left the pier so that we were both wet by the time we got back on board and got the dinghy stowed. We were also worn out and that was not a good way to start an offshore passage but we had no choice in the matter. Thus it was that we departed Panama and made our way towards Costa Rica.

John & Paula
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