This is a little narrrative concerning the local agents that try to secure a mandate from yacht owners and captains for their services, in doing all the paper work and securing a speedy transit through the canal. During our stay we talked with several yacht owners and the general consensus was that the agents are useless in speeding up the process and their fees quite expensive for the little services provided. We were approached and contacted several agents and their fees ranged from $350-450.- for doing all the necessary paperwork to get passage. Now the following procedures are required to secure the passage through the Panama canal:
1) You have to call the measurement office and secure a date and time to have the boat inspected and measured. This is done with a phone call to a local number and no agent can provide a faster service, if you call them right after your arrival and follow up with calls to see, if there is an earlier date available.
2) You have to see the captain of the port to show him the departure papers from the last port outside of Panama and fill out the paperwork for your next port of call. You can fill out the papers at his office and if there are additional photo copies neeeded, he will make them for you (expecting a $20-40 tip, he will tell you). You need a cruising permit for Panamanian waters, which can be obtained at the office beside the port captain's office, by filling out another form and paying a substantial fee of course. We already passed immigration in Porvenir, hence we did not have to go to immigration, except show the passports to an official in the local immigration office at the Shelter Bay Marina. All in all, not a complicated process but you need to fill out the paperwork and use taxis to go to the different offices.
3) Once the boat has been measured, you get a paper with a number and documentation for the payment of the transit fee. First you go to the Citibank branch opposite the port captain's office and you pay the transit fee and security deposit (no credit cards accepted). Then you you have to call a Panama Canal Authority number after 18:00 hrs. to receive a date for passage. Here the agents claim to have influence in getting you an earlier date but from out experience and from the stories that we heard from other yacht owners, the agents have no influence at all, zero and zilch. If you get a late date, you can call the same number every day and hopefully, somebody does not show up and they give you an earlier date, but other than that, you are stuck with the date given and it can happen, that you get moved to a later date, if they don't have enough advisors on hand for private yachts. The only way to secure a fast passage (2-3 day's after measuring), is by paying an additional fee of $2,300.- to hire an advisor, exclusively for your boat.
Now while we were staying at Club Nautico, we were approached by a taxi driver, who also works as an assistent for an agent. He promised to get us set up for passage a few days after the measuring, and promised to return the $100.- required, if he was not successful. Well he was not sucessful and we were not able to contact him anymore, the last days before passage. His name is Francisco, he speaks passable English and his mobile number is: 6214-0455. If you are a yacht owner and happen to be reading this narrative,. if you are approached by a friendly taxi driver named Francisco, keep him as far away as possible or you will spend money without any return. To say it in Spanish, we were conned by "el ladrón Francisco".