We made it to the entrance of the Colon side of the canal at about 4:30 am, but had to wait outside of the breakwater until about 8am. The area is very interesting. To the left, there is a dirty downtown, but to the right, beautiful green jungle. We entered the "flats" and dropped anchor among about 30 other sailboats.

Chris, as captain, had to go ashore to check in before any of us were allowed to leave the boat. We were expecting we wouldn't see him for about 12 hours, but he came back in about 30 minutes with a local guide, Rudy, who turned out to be our savior. He took us into town to get our visas and then took Chris around for the rest of the day to complete the rest of the formalities. Tara and I hung out at the Panama Canal Yacht Club which has a small bar and restaurant that is frequented by all of the yachties and has $1 drinks. Perhaps that's why.