Everything you need to know to transit the Panama Canal

Canal Transiting Info

Terms:

• Captain: The person that will be at the helm as the boat transits the canal.  For boats under 65', this can be you.  For boats 65' and over, there will be a Canal Authority Pilot that will in control of the vessel as you transit. 
• Agent: Is a paid liaison between you and the Canal Authority.  They cost non-trivial money (~$500), but they make the process literally easy.
• Advisor: A Canal Authority employee that will be on your boat while you are moving in the canal.  They will tell you where to go, and at what speed.
• Line Handlers: You will need 4.  They can be friends/volunteers, they can be paid, or it can be a combination of both. We hade three amateurs (Sue being one of them) and we hired one professional.
• Locking: The process of going up or down a lock.

Basic Steps and Preparing

1. Contact a Canal Transit Agent, well before your transit.
   While you can do the process on your own, we felt the expense for our agent was extremely worth it.  Your Canal Agent can also help with getting your Panama Cruising Permit.  We used Erick Galvez (+507 6678-1376. info@centenarioconsulting.com) and highly recommend him! 
2. Make plans for who your line-handers will be; more on this later.
3. Complete the form given to you by your agent (it's a lot!), including very specific pictures of your boat and return them to your agent.
4. They will enter this information into the Canal Authority's system and you will be given preliminary approval.
5. Arrive to Colon (or Panama City) and let your agent know you have arrived.  The agent will ask for your preferred date and then contact the Canal Authority, who, after confirming your arrival, usually via AIS, will then assign you a date.
1. There are only a certain number of transits kept available for smaller yachts, so there will be a minimum waiting period which varies based on the time of the year.  Most of the year, the minimum wait is about 1-2 weeks.
   These estimates were given to us by Erick:
   February:  7-15 days
   March:  15- 20 days
   April:  20 - 25 days
6. At this point, you are free to leave Colon/Panama City; just make sure to arrive back at least 2-3 days before your scheduled transit.  We picked a date about 3-4 weeks out so we could go and spend some time in Bocas del Toro.
7. Consider booking a slip on the opposite side of the Canal.  This is not necessary, as both sides have suitable anchorages, but it does make it easier to return rented items and drop off line handlers.
8. Return to the canal entrance area a few days before your transit, you have some things to do to prepare!  We got a slip at Shelter Bay Marina (Colon) during this return time to make things easier. If you are on the Pacific Side, La Playita Marina is a great staging area.
9. Now that you are back, there are a few things you need to do:
1. Gather your line-handlers (you need 4).  They must be adults (18+) and comfortable handling boat lines is a huge plus. There are WhatsApp groups to help find line-handlers that are often other canal-transiters-to-be that want experience.  You usually pay for their trip back to the other side.
   We used one professional line handler and it worked out so well. You can hire them from your agent and I'm sure all of them are very good at what they do, but we hired Tito, who has been doing this for something like 40 years and he probably holds the record for most transits ever. Tito (+507 6463-5009) He charged $100 at the time and made the actual transit about as close to stress-free as possible. (Tell him Mike and Sue say hi!)
2. Get your Lines and Fenders.  These can be rented from your agent or Tito.  They need to be very long lines, so the best bet is to rent them and they will get picked up on the other side.  The fenders may be between you and the concrete wall as you go up or down, so renting is a great option here.
3. Prepare Meals.  We did this and it made meal time a lot easier and more stress-free. You are responsible for providing hot meals to your line handlers and agent. The exact details of the transit vary based on factors I don't know, but they try to have yachts <65' go through during daylight hours and usually you will spend a night in Gatun Lake.
   That meant we provided:
• A quick lunch to Tito before we left the marina for the canal entrance (He was fine with a cold-cut sandwich).
• Dinner (Chuleta and papas - Pork cutlet and potatoes, I asked Tito what was his favorite ahead of time) for everyone after we were through the 3 locks on the east side.
• Breakfast for everyone (scrambled eggs, juice, fruit salad and some pastries we bought) the morning we awoke in the Lake .
• Lunch for everyone (chicken, potato and vegetable stew we made ahead of time) right as we were going through locks 2 and 3 on day two.
  
• Note, if you are scheduled for a one day transit, this may adjust, but you will likely still have to provide at least 3 meals.
4. Make sure you have adequate fuel and water.
10. The day before your transit, your agent will give you your transit schedule and arrange for the delivery of your lines and fenders. This starting time is what time you need to be out in the designated anchorage (ask your advisor).
11. The morning of your transit, you will call into the appropriate Signal Station on VHF12 to confirm your start time.
• East/Colon - Cristobal Signal Station
• West/Panama City - Flamenco Signal Station
12. All of your line handlers should be on the boat with plenty of time to spare.
13. Make sure to get yourself to the designated anchorage area in plenty of time.  Once there, you will again hail the Signal Station, and let them know you are ready to receive your Advisor.
14. At this point, you will want to have all of your fenders where ever it will be easiest for the advisor to hop onto your vessel. For us (catamaran), the advisor was dropped off on the leeward side, mid-ship near the Shrouds, which the advisor grabbed coming aboard.

Transiting Up

1. Once your advisor is on-board, your transit has started.
2. They will likely to tell you to turn off all radios (VHF, Audio and if AIS goes out offline too, that's fine)
3. Follow his directions and if you are not comfortable with a direction given, respectfully speak up. He will likely tell you to hug the right side of the channel and go at a certain speed.
4. At this point, your advisor should tell you who your "canal buddies" are.  It is typically a large ship (cruise ship, tanker, cargo, etc.) and one or more private yachts. The private yachts going together could be:
• You by yourself
• Two Catamarans or Monohulls together
• One monohull on each side of a catamaran in the center
• One large motoryacht and a sailboat (that's what we had)
5. The exact steps will vary based on the above, but you should have your fenders out and lines ready well before you enter the lock area. 
• Since we were against a motor yacht, we used the rental fenders and then placed our good fenders out as well, with fenders on both sides.  We also kept one of the rental lines on each corner of the boat, but used two of our own quality dock lines as spring lines to secure us to the motor yacht to our side.
• If you are an "outside" boat (closest to the wall), you will approach the wall, and the canal line handlers will toss down to your line handlers a weighted small line, onto which you will tie your heavy-duty lines, which they will pull up and cleat onto the canal walls.
• If you have a boat to your side, you will then toss your lines to one another and secure the boats together 
• If you have solar panels, position yourself away from the panels and the canal employees will toss the line (very accurately) to where you are. Then you can walk along the boat as needed.
• You will then take a wrap of the bitter end of your dock lines onto the boats cleats (maybe a s curve onto your cleat) and you will pull it in as you are raised.  
6. The Advisor will be on VHF speaking to the other agents/pilots and the lockmaster to coordinate actions and give the crew on your boat clear instructions.
7. Once you have locked up, you will reverse the steps and each drive forward to the next lock individually, under the guidance of your advisor.
8. After you have gone up through three locks, you will then either proceed directly to the "down locks", or you will spend the night in the Lake, where they tell you.
9. This is usually the time to eat or finish preparing any food, but ask your advisor what will work best for your transit when he first arrives.
10. You will be directed to a very large plastic coated mooring, which you should side tie to, with your fenders placed between the hull and the mooring. This is again where having Tito on-board was super helpful! He used three lines to secure us overnight (Bow, Stern, Midship). This is when we actually ate (although the advisor ate on route to the mooring before he was picked up for the night).
11. After getting tied up, your Advisor will eventually get picked up by another Pilot Boat and you will be given a new advisor the next morning.  Again, make sure to have fenders out for the pickup by the Pilot Boat and leave then there overnight for the next mornings drop off.
12. Celebrate your success on the first half of the transit, but not too much, as your day will start early the next day!

Transiting Down

1. Your day will start at about 6:00AM, as your advisor will arrive at around 7:00 - 7:30.
2. Have your VHF on to channel 12 and make breakfast for those on your boat and have another breakfast ready to go for when the Advisor shows up.
3. After he arrives and eats a quick breakfast, you will untie from the mooring and start your motor across Lake Gatun.  This will take 4 hours, give or take.
4. The process will be very similar for locking down.
• If you are heading towards the Pacific, the very last lock has a stronger current that will be coming from behind you.  Our advisor changed up the procedure for this last lock and didn't give us as much detail on those changes as I would have liked.  Everything worked out fine, but it ended up being more difficult and stressful than needed because of the lack of communication about the change-up.
5. If you are heading to the Pacific, you will likely start prepping the meal during the second lock. We ate as we were lowered on the third and final lock.
6. Have a camera ready, because when that last lock opens, you are looking at the Pacific!
7. You will motor for a mile or so and then be directed to a location out of the channel, where a Pilot Boat will again arrive to pick up your advisor.  Again, have those fenders ready!
8. If you rented lines and/or fenders from your Canal Agent, let him know you are through and when you will be able to have them dropped off at the marina for pickup.
• We got a slip on the Pacific Side, which made this process easier, as the Agent had access to the dock and he just came down when he got there, instead of us having to coordinate a trip in on the dinghy with all that gear when he arrived.
9. Once the pilot boat arrives and you bid farewell to your advisor, you will now continue on to the anchorage or marina, where you will return any rentals and drop off any line handlers.
10. Congratulations, you did it!

Good things to know and FAQs

• There are webcams for each lock, so your friends and family can watch you go through.  Here is the link to those webcams.  Note, the Miraflores camera provides the best, closest view.
• During your transit, you can not sail, fly a drone, or move your vessel without an advisor on-board.
• Our 44' boat cost about $4000 for the transit.
• We were very happy we hired an agent and highly recommend Erick Galvez.
• Tito will  help you through the process if you want to go without an agent. I would suggest you still pay him some extra if you go that route.
• If you don't use an agent, you will have to pay about $1000 in a refundable deposit, and you will have to pay all fees in cash. When you are done transiting, and nothing went wrong (?), you may have to go to an office and request the deposit back.  This should be an automated process, but we have heard some people have had difficulty with it. We have also been told this can take some time.
• We were very happy we hired one line handler and highly recommend Tito.
  
• Your agent can also provide line handlers.
  
• As a side note, our line handlers were Sue, friends Lisa and Erin, and Tito.
• You can rent lines and fenders from Tito as well, possibly for a little less than the agent.