Colon

Wednesday, March 6, 2002

009-20.940 N
079-54.000 W

The Port of Colon is the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal and as a result has a ton of shipping traffic. Other than New York Harbor, I've never seen so many ships on the move. As we approached the harbor entrance I counted 16 ships anchored outside the breakwall and there were too many to count inside. Needless to say, one keeps a sharp eye out for large, moving ships, and believe me, they're moving 24 hours a day!

Small boats, like BlueJacket, are required to anchor in area F, which is outside of Panama Yacht Club (PYC). When we got there the anchorage was down quite a bit as there had been a price increase effective Mar 1 for transiting the canal. Lots of boats had made the jump to avoid this increase, but it was once again filling up. The holding in the anchorage is not good, and lots of boats drag. Fun!

The PYC is almost always full. It's first-come, first serve. The don't take reservations, checks, money orders, or credit cards. Cash only. As soon as a boat pulls out, another is literally waiting to pull in. You have to walk the docks to find out when someone is leaving and arrange to be there when they leave. Conversations such as "Why don't you come over for 'coffee' in 1/2 of an hour" are coded messages often heard on the VHF. The depths at the docks vary tremendously and there's no plan to show you how much water is available. You have to sound it out yourself. Upon arrival there weren't any spots available, and the one boat that was going to leave decided to stay for longer. It didn't look good, but luckily a spot that was reported to be too shallow cleared out and it ended up being 5'4" deep...BlueJacket draws 5'2"! When tug wakes come through at low tide you can feel the keel bumping.

Colon was probably once a very beautiful city, but at this point it's one of the most decrepit cities that I've been in. Everything is filthy and falling apart. You're warned not to walk anywhere and to take taxies. Good advice. I can't wait to get out of here! But they yacht club is safe & the people there are very nice, so it's a good place to leave the boat for a while.
Log ID: 181