{"id":569,"date":"2013-12-24T09:46:26","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T17:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/?p=569"},"modified":"2014-06-22T06:59:36","modified_gmt":"2014-06-22T13:59:36","slug":"clearing-the-way-to-do-the-canal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/?p=569","title":{"rendered":"Clearing the Way to Do the Canal"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve had a lot of questions about going through the Canal.\u00a0 Often referred to as “locking through” by sailors since we transit through locks.\u00a0 The French originally tried to cut a channel – sea to sea (Atlantic to Pacific) like they did when they built the Suez Canal, but that approach failed.\u00a0 More on the history of the Canal in a future post.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is the process for getting your Canal transits scheduled<\/b> (this is after you have cleared into the country with the Port Captain, Immigration, and Customs: $20 Port Captain fee; $193 cruising permit for our boat; $105 each, tourist visa (which BTW it is only like $10 if you arrive by plane).\u00a0 Clearing into Panama is completely separate than getting cleared to transit the Canal.<\/p>\n

Transiting the Canal begins by first contacting Panama Canal Authority and informing them of you desire to pass through, in our case Pacific to Atlantic (a Northbound transits), and providing some basic information about your vessel, size, dimensions, etc. and a copy of your boat registration or documentation.\u00a0 Next you schedule an appointment with an admeasurement officer who boards your boat and literally measures it from bow to stern and completes a BUNCH of paperwork.\u00a0 This process is done once for first time vessels.<\/p>\n

\"11534380414_b17fcdf5f3_c\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The captain got within in 3 feet of us our inspector leaped from this boat to ours. \u00a0All without bumping boats.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you pass the inspection you are issued a Ship Identification Number which is good for life for our boat.\u00a0 Next time we Transits the Canal we just provide this number and pay our fees and we are good to go.\u00a0 The photo is of our admeasurement officer, Joseph, issuing us our Ship ID #.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"11534290964_c7f186ae2b_c\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With the inspection done we now have to pay our Canal fees which are done, in cash, at a bank in Panama City.\u00a0 That is the adventure we went on yesterday.\u00a0 The fees are as follows for boats < 50 feet:<\/p>\n

1) Transit fee = $800; 2) Inspection fee = $54; Insurance Deposit (we’re unclear on this one) $130; Buffer fee = $891.\u00a0 The buffer fee is refunded if you complete your transits on scheduled.\u00a0 We must maintain a minimum of 5 kts.\u00a0 If we breakdown and are delayed we forfeit that fee.\u00a0 So assuming we complete on time total fees for passing through (including clearing into Panama) are ….. $2,403.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This doesn’t include taxi fees, renting lines and fenders, and feeding our advisor (I’ll explain in a moment). \u00a0BTW – the primary currency is the US Dollar, but they also have a local currency called…. are you ready for this….. cue up the music – Balboas.\u00a0 I hear the theme to Rocky every time I pay in Balboas.\u00a0 Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the Spanish explore, with the help of the Natives, who identified a pass from Atlantic to the Pacific in 1513.<\/p>\n

OK – so you would think we are all set…. nope!\u00a0 We are required to have 4 lines that are each 125 feet long and 7\/8″ to 1.25″ in diameter.\u00a0 That is some large rope which boats our size don’t have.\u00a0 We’ll have to rent the lines.\u00a0 How do we find … no problem, jump in a cab and tell them you need “cabo” and off you go.\u00a0 We also need four line handlers, two in the bow, and two in the stern.\u00a0 I can’t be a line handler – I have to pilot the boat, Dante can’t he’s too young (we’ll find a way to squeeze him in for the experience).\u00a0 So we need three line handlers.\u00a0 We can, for a fee, hire them – however, a lot of sailors will just help each other out for free to gain the experience.\u00a0 We found a Spanish sailing couples, living in Panama who have locked through several times, that are going to help us.\u00a0 They have friends visiting that are coming along to help to so we have 4 line handlers – Jen will be our Panama Canal Hostess, keeping us feed and well watered.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t need to rent fenders.\u00a0 We have plenty of those, including fender boards we made just for this.<\/p>\n

Finally, we\u2019ll have a Canal advisor on board.\u00a0 I still pilot the boat, but he provides guidance and handles all the communications with the Panama Canal Traffic control (like traffic control at an airport).\u00a0 They track us all the way through.\u00a0 From what we have been told these advisors can be real prima donnas.\u00a0 We have to provide all their meals and water.\u00a0 They are very picky about what they will eat and drink.\u00a0 Should be interesting.<\/p>\n

We are scheduled to transiting on the 28th (Saturday). \u00a0We’ll send out a link to the webcam for one of the locks. \u00a0You’ll be able to watch us lock through the Miraflores Lock.<\/p>\n

See Part 2 \u2013 Lock N\u2019 Roll \u2013 Transiting the canal sea to sea, what’s involved..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve had a lot of questions about going through the Canal.\u00a0 Often referred to as “locking through” by sailors since we transit through locks.\u00a0 The French originally tried to cut a channel – sea to sea (Atlantic to Pacific) like they did when they built the Suez Canal, but that approach failed.\u00a0 More on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sailing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=569"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions\/573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}