Notes from after our transit 10th March 2019
Panama City
Propane – you have to go to Chilibre, Panagas or Tropigas) ( to get your propane tanks filled. There isn’t any other place that we could find to get them filled. You can get an Uber for $15 ( one way ) but as we needed to wait and go somewhere else on the way we hired a taxi to take us, we agreed $40 total including our detour. If you want to go into the propane site yourself then you need to wear long trousers . They will come out and take them in for you.
It only cost $8 to fill 2 small galore gas and 1 small American gas bottle. They won’t fill your bottles if they are rotting.

Balboa Yacht Club

We took a mooring buoy after we had transited the canal and stayed for 2 weeks

There is a man who will take your tanks for you and get them filled. We don’t know how much he charges but he works on the launch ( water taxi) .

The swell from the boats passing here was not continuous and didn’t really bother us. We were there 2 weeks waiting to get work done on the boat.

The water taxi runs 24 hours, they get very busy when the tourist pleasure boats come back in – call on channel 6, not much English spoken and sometimes you have to call a few times. I thought at first it was because they did not understand, but we then had a local on board and it would seem they have the same problem. If you provision here and get to the yacht club then there are men with trolleys that can bring your stuff from the road to the pontoon. We tipped them $5.

We found Uber was cheaper and safer! Taxis don’t seem to have seat belts available in the back of their cars and they drive quite erratic.

We hauled out here and the guys were great. Cost for haul out was $206 for one day. We had help from 8 guys when coming into the slip and that was $30 paid in cash after we came out. We fixed our own propeller but there are people here to do every job. We paid $250 for 2 men to clean and polish the hull, clean the deck and Anti- foul some parts on the boat. I think I could have got it down to £200 but we were more than happy with the work.

There are washing machines and a tumble dryer ( in the boat yard), not the cleanest of places but the machines work and are only 50c a wash and 75c for drying.
There are toilets and showers there too but the ladies are always locked.

The bar/ restaurant is closed on Mondays and although it’s opening hours are stated as being open late every day, this is not the case. They also get quite busy and sometimes there is only one waitress. Best to order a drink at the bar and then take a seat to order your food.