Arriving at Golfito one week after checking out at Balboa we anchored off Fish hook Marina. This Marina is welcoming with a free dinghy dock, water, WiFi, bar….

Next to the Marina office is an agency office who will check you in for a few hundred dollars, but they also advised us to do it ourselves and helped with forms for the medical check and gave us a check-in guide. Natasha phoned the duty doctor, e-mailed over our forms and we were cleared medically by phone.

Next stop was the immigration office 1/2 a mile down the road, $2 taxi in the heat. Again very helpful, assembled all our forms and copies for immigration, for customs and for the port captain, gave visas, stamped passports and forms, no charge.

Took a taxi to Aduana/customs, (all taxis in town are 1200 local or $2). Got the temporary import permit, no charge.

Another taxi to Port Captain, handed in our Zarpe and received ‘country clearance’ (i.e. cruising permit to Playa Coco at the other end of country), valid for departure within 24 hours of issue date and for a month, no charge.

All smooth, friendly and for the first time I can remember anywhere – all free.

Documents you will need: 

• Zarpe and 2 copies
• Ships papers 3 and original to be checked by customs
• Passports
• Passport copies x 3
• Crew list x 3 on local form, stamped by immigration.

A Note on Visas:

Kitty my wife is Thai and until you have traveled with a second or third world passport you will not realise the problems. The French say no entry everywhere, many countries charge more for visas … St Lucia $50, Cayman Islands $90, Costa Rica one month rather than my 3 and so on.

The saving grace in Central America is that Kitty has a B1/B2 USA Visa without which she would not have been allowed in anywhere apart from Panama.
How did we get the visa? We applied in London with stated need to arrive by yacht in Alaska without return ticket, approved on the spot.

Kitty and Brian Simm
SY Scraatch (Sundeer ’56)

See more reports by SY Scraatch 

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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.