Panama Canal

[GordMay]

Understand the ACP (Panama Canal Authority)has inaugurated several new regulations. Can anyone confirm/correct and/or add to these?

1. Minimum speed increased (from 4kt) to 7 Knots.

2. New Pilot Delay Fee of $450 (if you cannot make the 7kt min.)

3. Buffer fee of $850 (refundable?)

4. Transit fee of ???

Regards,
Gord

[delmarrey]

Check out this site for more info:

http://www.pmbc.net/

[delmarrey]

On the previous site given there is a link to:

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html

On their Home page goto: General Information: Panama Canal Tolls

If that doesn't do it, goto: Contat info at the top RH of the page and it gives you a phone number in Flordia which should be the last stop.

enjoy............._/)

[GordMay]

A recent informative report on a Panama Canal transit posted April 22, 2005 at:
http://www.onpassage.com/Panama_Cana...asia_email.htm
Marie Tomasia
Panama, April 2005

[GordMay]

From: “Noonsite” http://www.noonsite.com/

New Panama Canal Procedure For Yachts

Last modified on 2005-04-27 13:17:55

Noonsite has just received the following report from Giorgio Cagliero who had just transited the Panama canal, and found that both the fees and procedure for pleasure craft has been changed:

We just completed our southbound transit of the Panama Canal on our Hallberg-Rassy 46, and found the new way of handling sailboats to be quite different from what it used to be (not to mention much more pricey) or from what cruising guides say.

We used Tina McBride as our handling agent and we think she did a great job. However there are new fees that add up quite a bit. The new thing is that sailboats transits start around 5 pm or 6 pm, or sometimes later at night. Your advisor/pilot takes you through the first locks into Gatun Lake where you moor to a big mooring buoy to spend the rest of the night. Normally 3 sailboats go through each day and they raft together at the buoy. The advisor then leaves and another advisor arrives in the morning to complete the transit. So far so good. And these are the fees for a sailboat less than 50':

$600 transit fee

$850 buffer (to be refunded)

$440 delay fee (because you did not complete your transit in one day...like you had a choice..)

$320 launch fee (to get your advisors back and forth to your boat)

$100 mooring fee (to be rafted to a rusty mooring buoy in Gatun)

Total fees : $1,460 + $850 buffer + $500 handling agent (if you use one)

And then there is the wait: this season was anywhere from 10 to 19 days, most of the time being 15 days.

Now if you don't want to wait for 15 or more days in “lovely” Colon, you may request a pilot instead of an advisor and you can pick any day you like to transit and most likely you'll start the transit early morning and you might (underline MIGHT) even complete it in one day; some of the other fees are waived also, but there is the pilot fee, a whopping $2,250.

Clearly the days of transiting the Canal for $ 500 are gone for good !

Giorgio Cagliero
***

Latest Panama Canal Report - Alternative

Just read your above report of Panama Canal transit costs. I think it could mislead having just transited ourselves two weeks ago. It is the case that the transit is over two days (which we consider a good thing anyway). We had an 11 day wait, which was a 10 day improvement over their initial estimate on the day we were measured.

Although not essential, we used an agent (Stanley) who charged only $300 including lines and tyre hire. Transit charges for a 44́ sailboat were the advertised $600. Total cost $900. No other charges were raised and the agent covered the security deposit as part of his service. Many boats transited successfully without an agent for $600.

Hope this gives an alternative and largely positive (except Colon) experience.

Henry Capleton
***

Contact info'

The Panama Canal Authority: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html

E-mail:
General Information: info@pancanal.com
Customer Enquiries: customerelations@pancanal.com

Mailing Address Only:
Panama Canal Authority
P.O. Box 526725
Miami, FL 33152-6725
U.S.A

Corporate Communications Division: (507) 272-7602
or 272-1465
Central Telephone Exchange:
(507) 272-1111
Note: (507) is the country code for the Republic of Panama. If calling from the United States, please dial 011(507)272-1111.
If calling from another country, dial 00(507)272-1111

[GordMay]

Anyone have any current Panama Canal transit information ?

[GordMay]

More News (Good and Bad) From Panama ~ by doina. (Sept. 21/05)
A report received by Noonsite from a Panama corespondent. Anyone planning a visit to, or a transit of, Panama should read this Noonsite report.
http://www.noonsite.com/Members/doina/R2005-09-21-2

[Euro Cruiser]

Gord, that was an interesting post you mentioned and I find Noonsite to be a usually credible source, if only one of many.

My take on the write-up is that it does not much impact those who are planning to *use* the Canal and transit either into the Caribbean or Pacific, except that it eliminates for most of us the opportunity for the experience to be unrushed and relatively more pleasant. It sounds like crews planning to transit e.g. N to S will still go to the Flats, run around doing the provisioning game with a taxi while awaiting their admeasurement and assignment, and then pass thru and remove themselves to the offshore Panamanian islands which are lovely and less rigorously 'managed'. (The exception to what I just said is this business about 'approved' agents; we'll have to see how that plays out...).

OTOH those folks, predominantly ' Caribbean cruisers', who use Panama as a rest stop while doing a Caribbean Circle or after having reached the bottom end of their W Caribbean cruise, will be more significantly impacted.

I think something we should do that might prove payback in a few months is to post this Noonsite link over on the SSCA Board, and then invite members of both boards who plan a Canal transit to agree to pass back info on their own experiences this coming winter...so we can hear a few anecdotal but first-hand accounts to give perspective to the 'sweeping' or general reports such as Noonsite has published. I also note, now that our mail is catching up with us, that even in the last few SSCA Bulletins there have been opposite reports on the canal transit. It sounded to me like those with smaller budgets figure out how to do it for less, and those on bigger budgets spend more (and perhaps have it a bit easier). So it surely seems to me to be a moving target!

I'll post something over on the SSCA BB with the Noonsite URL and how about you starting a new thread here, since you're already well into this one? Think I'll title mine something like "If you plan to transit the Panama Canal..."

Jack

[GordMay]

The Panama Cruising Guide, A Complete Sailor's Guide to the Isthmus of Panama
by
Eric Bauhaus
ISBN: 9962028299

A comprehensive, complete and easy to use cruising guide to the beautiful Isthmus of Panama. 188 proprietary charts, 195 waypoints and 229 color photographs, including many aerials. The canal transit is covered in every detail, from ACP requirements to average transit time. This is the second edition, which also gives detailed information for the surrounding islands, such as Las Perlas, and includes coastal information on where to anchor, where to dock and how to get there. The charts, which have been surveyed by the author, are incredibly detailed and easy to read. The book also contains a lot of information on what to do ashore as well as on the water.