Fort Lauderdale to Panama Non-Stop (Route Recommendations)

[Montanan]

The Windward Passage is a practical route.

The Bahamas are presently closed to transit through their country; you will need to go around that country for the foreseeable future.

As to Panama:

Noonsite's most recent updates are:

https://www.noonsite.com/place/panam...curity-section

COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS RESTRICTIONS:

April 15, 2020:

Colon and Panama City are well set-up now with all arriving yachts undertaking a 14-day quarantine on arrival.
After 14 days yachts are then processed for access to a marina.
Linton Bay Marina have confirmed they too are open to new arrivals with the same procedures as above. Contact via e-mail (staff@lintonbaymarina.com) or VHF Ch. 72. No outgoing zarpes are being processed at this time.
In other Panama ports quarantine is difficult.
Vessels can depart Panama, however it is complicated in some ports as port captains are closed (e.g. Armuelles, Pedregal, Linton Bay) making obtaining exit zarpes difficult.
Lock down continues with six hours of movement permitted per person per week based on gender and ID number (see below).
Lock down ends on April 22nd, however, it is expected to be extended until probably May or longer.
Panama airport is closed until April 22nd.
Domestic cruising is not possible: crossing provincial borders invokes a new 14-day quarantine (e.g. San Blas to Colon) and many smaller communities are closed (e.g. populated Perlas islands).
All paperwork for visiting yachts, including visas and cruising permits, are being extended by 90 days.
See April 7 (below) for details on Panama Canal transits.


Panama is taking a new -- if somewhat unorthodox — measure to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus: separation of the sexes.

Starting on Wednesday, only women will be able to leave their homes to buy necessities on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Men in Panama will be allowed to venture outside to run errands on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Everyone will have to stay home on Sundays.
Even on their designated days both men and women will only have two hours to do their shopping
The country has banned all domestic and international travel. It has shut down airports and -- after a March 22 deadline -- prevented even Panamanian citizens from traveling to the country.
A nightly curfew had already kept Panamanians from leaving their homes between 9pm and 5am each day. Under the new, more stringent measures, the curfew will now begin at 5pm.

[jmschmidt]

Did the west end of Cuba route out of Key West a few years ago. Stayed pretty close to Cuba to reduce the current effect as much as possible (1.5k most of the way) but outside their territorial waters but inside their economic zone. They had a big oil rig several miles offshore (probably still there). We hailed them on several frequencies, no response. They sent out a gun boat to check us out. They watched us through binos as we did them. They paralleled our course 2-3 hundred yards out side of us for a few miles. As soon as we passed the oil rig they gave us a wave and pealed off to go back to the rig.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

...
Don't want to stay right here for rainy season so still possibly getting thru the canal still in next 2 weeks.

...

Where too after transit?

[Moontide]

Think the only practical / safe course is around the east end of Cuba (Windward Passage). If you go around the west end you have to come a long ways east to get away from the Honduras Banks. Have been several pirate incidents there over the last few years (even 100 miles off the mainland).

[Four Coconuts]

Red frog marina gets my vote. What a simply beautiful breathtaking place particularly the beaches that you can walk to on the backside. It also has the best zip line that I’ve ever done. Definitely read up on entering the Bocas del Toro area because it is a bit tricky. There’s also a former plantation that is owned by the Smithsonian that is well worth a visit. It’s off towards Dolphin Bay.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by Moontide

Think the only practical / safe course is around the east end of Cuba (Windward Passage). If you go around the west end you have to come a long ways east to get away from the Honduras Banks. Have been several pirate incidents there over the last few years (even 100 miles off the mainland).

Agreed. Rhumb line from Panama Canal to west end of Cuba brings you within a few miles of Gracias o Dios, the cape at the northern end of Nicaragua. It's a tempting route as the Gulf Stream will eventually give a healthy push around Cuba, and you can stop at Isla Provencia if needed. However, pirate attacks against transiting yachts in these waters are not unheard of and are frequent/severe enough to cause me to steer a very wide berth as Moontide suggests. A partner site to Noonsite tracks crimes against yachts and has reported close to ten attacks in the last 5-years or so. These are extremely brazen attacks where at least one (or usually two or more) fishing vessels with multiple well-armed men board the yacht. These pirates will travel to find you - well over 25 miles have been reported, with attacks on vessels enroute to Provedencia (albeit from Honduras vs from Panama).

I did this trip in March 2004 on a Nordhavn 57 and went straight from Panama to Ft Lauderdale, and passed within about 15-miles of Gracias o Dios, which scares me in hindsight. Winds were out of the NE so was pushing me into Nicaragua. I plan to transit this again in my personal boat within the next 2-years - a much, much better route would have been to head to Jamaica and around the east end of Cuba (a Delivery Skipper on this forum recently gave me the idea - many thanks to him). You should be able to stay well out of territorial waters of both Bahamas and Cuba.

Good luck!

Peter