IN LATITUDES the country. Alas, its only a temporary entry stamp, as 3) You must proceed to Immigration at Diablo to get a Mariner's visa within 24 hours — 48 hours on weekends. The visas cost $105/person, no matter if you stay a day or a year. You won't be issued a zarpe to leave Panama without a Mariner's visa. Here is where it gets ugly. If you fly out of Panama, your Mariner's visa becomes invalid. When you return to Panama, you get a 90-day Tourist visa at the airport — but then have to go back to Diablo and pay another $105/person for a new Mariner's visa. You can't get a Mariner's visa at the airport. Ship's agents have a way around it, where they deliver a Mariner's visa to the airport — but there is naturally a charge for the service. "As with all things in Latin American countries," explains Nitte, "things change on a daily basis. And what happens in one jurisdiction can be totally different from another jurisdiction. So smile, keep calm, and don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff." Our final bad news from Panama is that the Balboa YC has raised rates on
mooring from 60 cents/ ft/day to 70 cents/ft/ day. That said, we at Latitude have fond memories of Panama, and of the Astilleros Shipyard at Vacamonte in par ticular. During Profligate's 2004 post-Ha-Ha sprint from Cabo San Lucas to St. Barth, both saildrives started to fail on approach to the Canal. In a major hurry to avoid the Christmas Winds of the Caribbean, we had the cat hauled at Astilleros on Thursday, the day after we ordered two saildrives from Yanmar in Florida. The saildrives were delivered and installed, and Profligate transited the Canal the next Tuesday, having spent just three business days in the yard. That's what we call taking care of business — even if the crew did much of the work. There was a bit of a
'Profligate', seen here levitating in St. Martin in 2004, was the beneficiary of a very fast — if not flawless — haulout in Panama.
leak as a result of the installation, so Profligate had to be hauled again briefly at St. Martin. But as Nitte says, you can't sweat the small stuff. "As we sit at anchor in Clifton Harbor, Union Island, in the southeast Caribbean, listening to Christmas carols on our stereo and enjoying the holiday, we reflect on the previous year," wrote Fred
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