Boats To And From Colombia And Panama

Okay, I've finally had a chance to stop and write a few details about getting boats / yachts from Panama to Colombia and back.

My wife and I took the trip from Panama in May of this year and it was a great experience. Through our investigations we have a few things to suggest and keep in mind if you are planning on taking this trip.

We went on a boat called "The Melody" captained by Captain Marcos originally from the USA, but who now lives in the San Blas Islands. His boat, experience, food and service we believe to be the best around. He charges the standard $275 for the 3-4 day journey, which includes all meals (other than alcohol, soft drinks and candy etc), arranging of the exit and entry stamps of Panama and Colombia. His lovely wife Paola cooks great food while you are out in the San Blas. Another big bonus of going with Mark is that at the time when we went, he had a huge fishing trawler anchored in the San Blas, which is nice to get off The Melody and stretch your legs, watch a DVD or just dive off the edge into the blue water. Mark usually takes all passengers out to the reef and spears some fish for dinner (so good), and he has snorkeling equipment for you to borrow if you take care of it.

It was also nice having the opportunity to co-captain The Melody. Everyone takes turns steering and navigating during the trip under Mark's supervision, and it's actually very appreciated by him because it gives him a bit of a rest.

A few things to keep in mind when taking any boat for the journey to or from Panama or Colombia:

Because of the remote location of the San Blas, and while out at sea, the captains are not always immediately available by phone or email when trying to arrange your trip. Attempt contact and wait a few days. We were a little concerned that we didn't hear from Mark for a few days at a time after originally making contact, but that is because he was out at sea with no internet and his mobile phone in and out of range.

Most of the captains need to have a minimum number of people to set sail. Therefore you will be given an estimated date of departure by the captain, but it could be a few days either side - as it was in our case.

Find out where the boat is leaving from. It's better if it leaves from the mainland when leaving Panama, such as from Portabello or Colone. If your boat leaves from the San Blas, this will add extra money to fly or bus/boat it out there before you set sail. Don't plan on hanging out in Portabello for several days. There really is not much to see there before you leave. 2 days is probably about the most you'd want there if you can help it.

If there is a delay in your boat leaving, some captains allow you to stay on their boat for free or an extra charge (Captain Mark doesn't allow this option). Ask your captain if this is an option.

Be prepared for extra time out on the water. When exiting Panama, the immigration office was closed at short notice on the Friday, so we had to spend an extra day out in the San Blas. If we had made firm arrangements in Cartagena, we would have been a day late.

Make sure all drinking water is included in the price, and take plenty of sunscreen.

While the idea of sailing from Panama to Colombia sounds great (and is), keep in mind it's not a luxury get away, lazily sailing around islands and sipping cocktails - it is a mode of transport between the 2 countries. By the time we got to Cartagena, all passengers had a great time, but were pretty happy to be back on solid ground and more space. A certain amount of tolerance is needed when living in a confined space. We are happy to say that everyone on our boat was great.

Take travel sickness tablets with you regardless of if you've ever had sea sickness before or not. Both of us had a bit of unexpected queasiness, and the tablets really helped. They are easily available from both Panama & Cartagena.

* Ask the captain what safety equipment they have. Make sure they have the following as a minimum, as some boats do not:

- Life jackets for ALL passengers on the vessel.
- Enough life raft or dingy space for ALL passengers.
- Years of experience (Captain Marcos for instance has been sailing for a very long time).
- Ample drinking water for additional days at sea in the event of problems (drinking water should always be included in the price you pay)
- Mechanical experience to fix problems with the vessel.
- Satellite navigation.

Nice to have extra safety equipment:

- Auto-pilot.
- An epurb distress signal.

There are hostels in both Cartagena and Panama that offer the service to book you onto a boat for a fee. Personally we would not bother with it. It costs you a decent amount more, and still does not guarantee you a spot. We met a couple who paid a hostel in Panama the extra money for a guaranteed spot - but the captain decided not to go at the last minute. I believe they got all their money back, but could have sorted it out all themselves.

If you are interested in this service here are a couple of contacts:

Hostel in Panama City: www.mamallena.com (there is a link on the main page to sailboat info)

Hostel in Cartagena: www.casaviena.com (again has a link on the main page to sailboat info, also with estimated dates of departure of some boats).

We would also recommend ducking your heads into these (and other) hostels for further details on departure dates, other boats etc, regardless of if you plan on using their service or not.

While we highly recommend Captain Marcos and The Melody, we have also heard good feedback about "The Seeadler" - Captain: Guido" and "The Tango" - Captain: Guillermo

Contact details for The Melody:
- freshaircharters@yahoo.com
- Panama: 6 669 9359

All in all, if you are keen for a different experience when travelling between Panama & Colombia, sailing is a great option. But if you have specific timescales or get bored easily, perhaps flying is more your go. Despite what people might say, and have put on other thorntree logs, it's not a dangerous trip to take. Yes, the sea can be unpredictable and rough at times, but many of these captains have been running the trips for years, and we don't think they'd do it if there was a large risk of pirates or sinking their ships.

If you want any more info, please feel free to drop me a line.

Cheers

Luke

Thanks for this report. Most helpful!

Brigitte

Glad you found it useful Brigitte.

Luke

Hey Luke, that was a great report and will be helpful to everybody looking to go. Thanks for putting us down as a point of contact, but I just wanted to clear a couple of things up.

We actually don´t charge an extra fee for arranging boats for people. We receive a commision from the captain, but this is not passed on to the passenger. You paid $275 with Mark and thats what most captains are charging. The commision comes from that. Mark doesn´t want to pay that so he doesn´t ask us for passengers. You still paid exactly the same price as my customers. You´re not going to get a boat any cheaper if you don´t go through us(unless you happen to meet somebody who just happens to be going that way). The advantage of going through us is that we´ll have the details of the majority of boats that are in port and ready to leave. That gives you more options. Especially if you don´t happen to have the contact details of a captain. Then there´s always the chance that they won´t be ready to leave when you are. We also make a point of telling you if we´ve heard anything bad about a certain captain and that gives you the option of going with them or taking another boat.

Our deposit system works like this. You pay the deposit and we call the captain and tell him how may people we have for him. Hopefully he gets enough people to leave on the day he wants. If not he will wait a little more time. We´ll always explain this to you. If he doesn´t leave when expected and you can´t wait anymore then we´ll refund your money. If another boat comes in and is leaving(and there are places) then we can roll the deposit over to that captain. The only way you´ll lose you´re deposit is if the boat is leaving on time and you don´t show up or change your mind(like the guy last week, that´ll teach him to drink too much the night before leaving!!!). I think this is pretty fair. If you go directly with a captain there´s a chance you may not get your money back.

Going from San Blas is going to cost a little more, but to me it´s worth it. These trips are 5 days. Most leave from Portobello and spend a day getting to San Blas(and the seas are rough). This will then give you 2 days in San Blas(excluding extra time like yours) and 2 days to Cartagena. I´d spend the few extra dollars, get the extra day in San Blas and skip the day of sailing on the rough seas. We´ll also arrange the transport to San Blas, it´ll cost about $25 extra. Thats not too bad for an extra day in San Blas. This isn´t an option with all captains though, a lot leave from Portobello because it´s more convenient. Closer to cheaper buses and supermarkets etc. But you´re right, I wouldn´t spend too much time in Portobello. It´s a nice little town but not much to do there.

I know what you´re saying about the couple, but I don´t think they could have done it better themselves. If they had arranged it themselves they would then have had no other boats as an option, and may have lost their deposit. With us, we´ll have hopefully have other boats we can put you on. This does happen everyso often but it´s beyond our control. We can only operate with the information we have from the captains, which we will pass on to passengers. I really hate it when they change the dates like that. Mostly it´s not a problem because we´ll have told you before hand to expect to have to wait if they don´t have enough passengers. It´s just when they have a problem that may cause further delays.

OK, I hope this clears a few things up. Basically it costs no more to use our service. You may say the captains would charge less without us, but they won´t. Doing it themselves costs them time and money. it really works for them(and you) when they call to say they want to leave in 3 days and the next day we have 5 passengers for them. It saves time for them and gets you out of here as fast as you want to go. If they do it themselves they have to come to the city and look for passengers, or wait for somebody to email them. If nobody has their contact details then this is a problem. Either way, I think we´re offering a decent service for both the captains and the passengers. And remember, we´re going to do as much as possible to NOT stuff our customers around. We´ve got a good name out there as a hostel and I don´t want to lose that. The captains deal with less people than we do so it doesn´t matter as much if they have a few unsatisfied passengers, to me it matters if I do.

Thanks again Luke, safe travels and have a great trip.

Stuart

Thank you Luke and Stuart for the updates. I will be passing from Panama to Colombia early next year and appreciate the crossing brief!
Much appreciated for your time in this.
All the best,
W

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Kisses

I am developing a site to coordinate and list boats going between Panama and Colombia via the San Blas islands.
Every endeveor is being made to put travellers in touch with captains. Posted dates of departures should help and advance booking is another option. Please support my site through curiosity and interest, word of mouth is almost as powerfull as the internet so please tell your friends about: sanblascartagena.com
Thanks

Hello. Thanks for the info on reliable captains. All I could find recently was horror stories. Two questions:
1) Is this info still up-to-date?
2) Do you know if the ships are motorcycle-friendly? I have been researching the possibility of taking a motorcycle trip from Alaska to the tip of South America and need to know if I could get myself AND my motorcycle across the Darien. Thanks!