Panama Canal: Tracking Post Day 2

10:00 AM EDT: ETA at Pedro Miguel lock is 1:30 PM EDT.

1:40 PM EDT: Entered Miraflores lock in a rainstorm!

Soggy Paws in the Miraflores Lock

Panama Canal: Tracking Post

This post will be updated as I receive new messages.

8:45 PM EDT: Soggy Paws entered the first Gatun lock (east). They are behind a ship?

9:30 PM EDT: Entered the 2nd lock. Waving at the cameras!

10:50 PM EDT: Done for the night.

Gatun locks: 8:15 PM EDT

This is Nicki posting for Sherry and Dave. I just received a text message from Sherry stating that their ETA for the Gatun locks is 7:50 PM EDT.

UPDATE: Current ETA at Gatun is 8:15 PM EDT, east locks.

Pilot Time: 5pm (6pm EDT)

We are supposed to meet our pilot on The Flats at 5pm. There is still a chance the schedule might get changed, however. Our friend here who is a retired pilot told us that anything could happen. She strongly recommended that we call about 2pm and double-check the time.

But for now we are planning to have all our stuff done by 3pm. Dorothy is working on a last load of laundry for everyone. Ron and Jim are inspecting the lines we got yesterday from Tito. Dave is working on paperwork... getting our Zarpe and paying our bill at PCYC. I am cooking a big stew for the crew and our 'Advisor'.

Tito Delivering Our Lines
I'll do another post when we confirm the pickup time (about 2:30pm Local Time.. add 1 hour for EDT).

Nicki has promised to do another post when we start through the locks at Gatun, but we will probably be going through about 6pm local, 7pm EDT.

The Gatun Locks webcam

Stocking Up

We are not sure when we are going to have as easy access to such a great variety of reasonably priced stuff. So we've been stocking up.

In the past week, we have bought 5 cases of rum in liter bottles and 3 cases of wine in liter boxes. And another $300 worth of groceries (that's on top of the $500 we bought 3 weeks ago).


And yesterday we did a final shopping, with friends Jim Yates and Dorothy Sheridan along. Everyone got a chance to see what a good Panamanian grocery store is like, and pick out their favorite brand of cereal, etc. (Meanwhile Dave and Ron were back at the boat swapping water maker pumps).

Stowing all that stuff has been fun, especially with Dave and Ron still with their heads in the engine room, and all the 'stuff' that normally lives in V-berth out in the salon.

On advice of some friends who have preceded us across the Pacific, we decanted 36 liters of rum into 2 5-gallon water containers. This makes a very space-efficient storage location, no glass, no cucaracha-laden cardboard boxes, only the weight of the rum itself. It also makes the rum less visible and therefore less likely to be taxed or confiscated by a Customs guy. The rest of the rum was 'socked' (each bottle put in 2 old socks for protection) and stored in nether lockers.

We bought our rum from a local guy who came out to the marina with a brochure, and he delivered it 4 hours later. (Umberto 6706-1015). We paid cash on delivery, $60/case for the good stuff and $45/per case for the mixing rum. Plus a $10 delivery fee. He has lots of other liquor in his brochures, and will sell individual bottles.

The boxed Clos brand wine (from Chile) we just bought at the grocery store for $2.09 per liter. That's a heckuva deal. There are better wines, but if you stop drinking 'the good stuff', the Clos is very drinkable, and the price is right. And this stuff is so much more convenient than wine in bottles. No bottle to break, less weight, much better storage form factor and much easier stowage. We put most of the wine under our bed. Dorothy did a great job of packing things around in there (while I was stowing stuff in the fridge).


Note the boxes of Triscuits... Jim Yates brought a case with him from the States. That is one of the few items we have been unable to find in Panama.

So we are well stocked, with plenty of food for the 5 of us for the next 10 days, and then enough staples to last Dave and I quite a long while.

Sightseeing a Little

Yesterday we took a break from 'getting ready' to go to Panama City.


It was partially a sightseeing trip, partially to go 'collect' 2 of our line handlers (Ron and Dorothy Sheridan) and partially to get a few things in Panama City.

Though taking a bus is the cheapest way... The bus departs once an hour from the Colon bus terminal near the marina, and only costs $2.50 for a luxury A/C bus with movie.


We opted to take the train. The train makes a round trip from Panama City daily, leaving Panama City about 7am and returning from Colon at 5:15pm. We originally thought is was totally a 'tourist train', but found out that it has a practical purpose. It brings workers from Panama City to Colon, primarily staff of the Free Trade Zone. Apparently the employers lease cars on the train to bring their workers back and forth.


Only one car on the train is for the tourists, a nice observation car. It fills up quickly, so we were glad we got there early (about 4:45pm). It was a nice 1 hour ride to Panama City.

Gatun Lake from the Train

We stayed overnight in La Estancia, a small bed and breakfast situated in what used to be Officers Quarters on Ancon Hill. This is a nice setting, close to the city, but away from the city. At $70 it is a little higher than we usually choose to pay, but breakfast was included and it was really a nice place (hot water, very good beds, nicely kept). There were birds and monkeys in the trees.


Dave and I did some running around in Panama City early in the morning. When Ron and Dorothy arrived, we all headed out to Miraflores Lock to have lunch and see the museum. We also got to see a ship transiting the lock.

Dirty Nasty Colon, Panama

Well, now I know why Dave really avoided Colon before.

The Panama Canal 'Yacht Club' is living on borrowed time. Everyone expects that eventually the port operations will force them out. So the yacht club facilities have been allowed to decline. The docks are OK but the building is old and dirty.


The facility has been totally surrounded by the industrial shipping operations.

The Front of PCYC, Container Terminal in the Background
We currently have a ship just across the canal that is unloading powdered cement. They drop a big scoop into the hold and bring it up and across into the back of an open semi truck. The wind has been blowing from the ship directly toward the yacht club. So EVERYTHING is coated with a layer of cement dust. I have never seen Soggy Paws so dirty. It is driving Dave crazy.



Dave Working on a Project in the Yard
Also, with the wind blowing from the docks, yesterday we got a large slug of diesel fuel down in our corner of the marina. It was a large spill... or someone flushing their bilges. No one seems to care here.

And did I mention the dump? The Colon dump is nearby. It's not too bad except when it catches fire. Then a stinky smoke hangs over all of downtown Colon and the marina. It was on fire last night.

And the crime? The Colon bus station is only about 2 blocks away, but its not safe to walk there. In the area along where you'd walk is lined with apartment building that in the States would be called slums. Everyone has anecdotes about cruisers getting mugged, robbed, and at least one guy was knifed 17 times. We take a taxi. At $1 it's reasonable (or $10/hour to take you around town).



All that said, the facility is convenient for transiting the Canal and for provisioning. It is only a $1 taxi ride to get to several huge grocery stores. And of course being able to order stuff from Panama City and the States via Marine Warehouse is very useful.

But I can't wait to get out of here!!

Go Gators!

No, this doesn't have anything about traveling in Panama.

Sometimes, we revert back to old patterns (especially during college football season).

Thanks to the internet, we were able to hear the Gator Radio Network tonight and listen to the Gators beat Miami. On ESPN.com we were also able to monitor the play-by-play on the FSU game and get updates on the USF/UCF game.

For the purpose of football, we really wish we were back in the Rio at Catamaran Marina, where Kevin maintained about 3 satellite dishes with U.S. based programming and the NFL and NCAA game packs. We could get every game there.

Dave is really proud of the 69-0 score that FSU racked up (against West Carolina Junior College). Hopefully it's a sign of better days for FSU. They struggled painfully last year. So much so that even THIS Gator fan was feeling bad for them.

Here in Panama, the satellite dishes only bring in Latin American versions. ESPN big games are soccer, not football.

Official Panama Canal Transit Date: September 12

Well, we have it. An official date for our Panama Canal Transit. We will leave Colon the evening of September 12, and do our up-locking during the late hours of the 12th. We stay overnight on a mooring in Gatun Lake, and then lock down to Balboa on the 13th.

Yesterday our agent, Tito, took us down to the ACP (Authority Canal de Panama) office and we registered Soggy Paws with the ACP. After registering and scheduling the measurement, Tito got us in to the Canal Operations Room. This is where the guys that actually control the traffic at the Colon end of the canal operate. They have a control tower view of the port and the beginning of the Canal, and an electronic status board of where all the ships are (probably using AIS). We got to meet the head guy, Captain Federico Cockburn, whose official title is Senior Canal Port Captain. He gave us a tour of the control room.

Dave in the Canal Operations Room with Captain Federico
Then the measurer came to the docks to do the official measurement.

Dave thought Soggy Paws was a shade over 50 feet, from the tip of the bowsprit to the aft end of the dinghy davits/solar panel arch. We were anticipating getting hit with the 'over 50 feet' fee, which is $250 more than the 'under 50 feet' fee. We had contemplated disassembling the arch, but decided it was too much work (not just the structure but the wiring for the solar array, the radar, the anchor light, etc).

We were pleasantly surprised to find that we measured out at a few inches under 50 feet.

The measurer is also supposed to inspect and make sure that we had the required 4 125-foot lines, and appropriate fenders. However, all we had to do was wave Tito's receipt at him, and he checked the box that said 'inspected'. Tito will furnish the lines and fenders on the day of our transit, and be responsible for getting them back after the transit. He is well known at the ACP, and one of the reasons we chose to use him, rather than try to do it all ourselves 'on the cheap'.

After about an hour of paperwork and discussion with the measurer, we had our official ACP Number.

The next step was to go pay the fee at the bank. They made a credit card impression that INCLUDED the $891 damage deposit. They hold this credit open until you actually complete your transit, and then close out the transaction without the damage deposit (hopefully). This process is much easier now with credit cards than it used to be with cash transactions.

Here are the fees we paid for Panama:

Panama Canal Fees
- Transit for vessel < 50 feet $500
- TVI Inspection (Measurement) $54
- Security Charge $55
- Buffer (Damage Deposit) $891
- Tito's Service Fee $50
- Taxi (ACP visit, bank, etc) $20
- Line Rental (4 125-foot lines) $60
- Fender Rental (10 fenders) $30
- Agro/Health Inspection $17
- Linehandler Fees (if any) $110 per person

Customs Fees
- Cruising Permit for Panama $69
- Passport Stamps $10 per person $20
- International Zarpe (to leave) $20

We think we have 3 friends coming from the States to do line handling, and are looking for the required 4th line handler from the cruising community locally. Hopefully we won't have to PAY for a line handler, but we've already had offers from the local dock hands.

After 6pm on the day we completed the paperwork, we called the ACP scheduler for our transit date. Though I think we could have gotten through earlier, we asked for a date of Friday, September 12th, because we have friends flying in to help with the transit, and they don't arrive til the 11th.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
The Panama Canal has webcams on the main locks. We will be passing through Gatun Lock, southbound, on the evening of Friday, Sep 12, and through Miraflores Lock, southbound, on the morning of Saturday, Sep 13.

Here's the link to the Panama Canal webcams page. Maybe you can see us transit. We won't get specific times until the day before, and as soon as we get them, we'll post what we know.

Background information on the canal is better found at the Panama Canal Wikipedia Link

A great history of the Panama Canal is The Path Between the Seas. You can order a used copy at Amazon.com for under $10, or probably find it at the library. Very fascinating, both the engineering side of the construction and the international politics at the time.

Goodbye Nicki, Goodbye Infini, Goodbye San Blas

I have been having email-to-the-blog problems, so haven't been doing updates regularly. The previous 2 posts are old, I've just resent them.

We put Nicki and friend Phil on the plane from Porvenir last Wednesday. We had a great time and I think they did too. It was especially nice to have Mike and Sue's son Ty visiting on s/v Infini at the same time. The kids had some fun together without the old folks. It was a nice visit, but we were all ready for them to leave. They started talking about driving from the airport directly to a hamburger joint 2 days before they left! I'll get some pics posted soon.

We spent a few days lounging in the 'Swimming Pool' with Infini and about 10 other boats there. We took a couple of trips out to the Grottoes, showing others where they were. On the last visit, I accidentally put my hand down on a Scorpion Fish and got a really bad sting. Fortunately, Mike on Infini is a doctor and gave us some invaluable advice. (get her back to the boat immediately, take some Benadryl, and soak in hot water, start antibiotics). It hurt like heck for a few hours, but the hot
water soak (and a couple of Advil and a shot of rum) subdued the pain pretty quickly. My hand was very swollen for about 24 hours and then gradually returned to normal. It looks normal now, but still hurts a little. The 2 punctures on the palm just under the two middle fingers are looking OK. (Thanks Mike and Sue!)

Infini left the San Blas for Cartagena 2 days ago, and we left yesterday headed in the other direction... for Colon. We arrived this afternoon at the Panama Canal Yacht Club.

As we entered the breakwater at Colon, Dave said "Say goodbye to the Atlantic Ocean... we won't be seeing it again for a long time." Snif

We plan to go through the Canal to the Pacific about Sept 15. More details later when we have them.

It's a little scary contemplating the jump. Nobody else seems to be moving much this time of year, so we feel we are leaving all our friends behind. We know virtually nothing about the weather patterns or the radio schedules on the other side, and certainly will have a hard time getting used to the 10-15 foot tides. I'm sure we'll figure it all out, and find some new friends. But we do have a little anxiety over the change.

We'll be in internet contact til at least the 11th of Sep. (Anxiously watching a string of hurricanes zero in on our home in Florida).