AZSaguaro

21 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

I believe that is to exit the Canal's traffic separation scheme, go around the Canal anchorages, and then enter the Colon traffic separation scheme.

Many thanks for your explanation! It's totally logical.

This segment between the Panama Canal and Colon dock is what I'm referring to. This segment is made on every cruise to/from the Panama Canal from/to the dock at Colon.

Some cruise lines (Viking, specifically) when entering or departing the Panama Canal when also docking at Colon Panama... make a trip (usually during the night) out into the Caribbean and back to the Colon dock. That segment usually goes out about 10 or 15 miles and returns to Colon. Is this some government regulation that causes this?