Perhaps one reason for staying for months is that it takes most of that time to clear in and out.  All the officials are very relaxed and welcoming to their country but the Port Captain will not deal directly with masters, only with a professional agent who has to complete seven sets of forms, with multiple copies made with carbon paper.  Younger blog-readers may not remember carbon paper salesmen, the scourge of City secretaries.  Many a tearful girl had to go to her boss to explain that somehow, without really knowing how it had happened, she had contracted to buy ten years’ supply of carbon paper for delivery tomorrow.  So much of the stuff is used in this part of the world that I am sure there are Colombian carbon paper barons to rival the worst of another sort.  It needs skilful handling too.  Some forms have to be completed on both sides so the carbons must be extracted from the sheets in quintuplicate, turned over and re-inserted (doing this on a windy terrace is tricky).  The forms being in Spanish we did not understand everything that was being enquired into; probably a good thing - in Trinidad I had become rather exasperated at having to declare, among numerous highly relevant questions, how many tons of bauxite we were carrying.  The Port Captain's representative and the immigration officer had to come out to the marina to inspect us, but not the boat.  Because we stayed for only five days we enjoyed the benefits of expedited procedures. Nevertheless, everybody is extremely friendly!  Unlike Europe, where you can sail from country to country with very little fuss, here each set of authorities can turn very difficult indeed if you cannot produce a formal document of clearance out of your previous port.  What is more a new country’s officials may take a dim view of some previous country’s clearance documentation.  Too late!

Anyway, our man Manfred, a retired German master mariner, did a great job and all went smoothly.  We made some more new friends and were sorry to leave.

On arrival one gets passports stamped by the dockside immigration officer.  That is easy. Later, armed with photos and copies of the stamped passports one attends the Immigration Office in town and provides signatures and thumb prints.  One also provides money for fees and, er, supplementary payments so that the staff will deal with us before lunch (it is 11.55am) and fill in most of the sections for us.  Now we are cleared in and can cruise Panamanian waters for ninety days.  To transit the canal the boat is first visited by the Admeasurer who takes dimensions to determine the fee and assesses the boat for the level of equipment.  Among other requirements are 4 thick warps, each 125ft long, 8 motor tyre fenders wrapped in plastic, working toilets, an air horn, bottled water and food for all on board.  Each warp must have its own dedicated handler.  The assessed fee, $650, is paid over the counter at the local branch of Citibank together with a “buffer” of $800 in case we break down or cause chaos on the way through.  We get this back if we behave.  At the end of our dealings with the Admeasurer we give the Canal Authority an indemnity against anything that might happen to us.  It is agreed that it is never their fault!

Boats going west start late afternoon, anchor for the night in Gatun lake and reach the Pacific the following day.  In addition to 3 Panamanian line handlers, supplied by our agent with the ropes and fenders, we shall have an Adviser.  He is a trainee pilot working his time on small boats.  He goes home when we anchor but the handlers stay on board.  They will all be dedicated, experienced, clean living non smokers.  Good.   We have a provisional date fixed for Thursday 24^th but as usual we have a little mechanical problem.  The mechanic was due yesterday from Panama City but was waylaid by Australians and went to another boat by mistake.  He is coming again tomorrow.  (He didn’t).

We have done one big “shop” but we shall have to go again because this is the last convenient provisioning place before Tahiti.   Not all that convenient - 75% of all people who walk out of the marina on their own get mugged.  We must go everywhere by taxi, and, except in the big stores, which are safe, keep our taxi driver with us.  We went into a motor parts store yesterday.  Inside were 2 security guards, one toting very heavy weaponry.  It was a bit difficult remembering what we came in for.

One redeeming feature of the place is the marina restaurant, very low key, more of a “caff” really which dishes up excellent meals for from £5 to £6.  It is the first time that we can truly say that there is little point in cooking and washing up on board.

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