Sorry my whole email did not go out. I am in Freeport Bahamas right now and the wifi fails at times. I went through the Panama Canal in 2005. I used an agent for all the panamanian paper work. Which can be a lot. My first two times through I did it myself. The agent Peter Stevens was great very friendly and helpful. He normally hanldes larger yachts, but he handled our 60" powercat. The price for everything was $1650 a bargin for us seeing he some how was able to get us a pilot rather than an adviser. The advisers at that time were all busy with projects. We arrived on Mon. and Went through on Thur. We would have had to wait a long time to get through and spent more than his personal fee of $500 on dockage or moorings. I recommend an agent. He will advise you on everything you need to know including security which is an issue. We were luck and from the Pacific to the Carribean waters took us 6.5 hours. The first transit in 1979 was one whole day and the second in 1991 was two days. the stay in the lake was fun. Dennis Raedeke 60' Pachoud