One major cruising hurdle down... (Monday, March 29, 2010)

Things are better... Jim and I have made a pact to try and be nicer. Believe it or not, it has worked! Putting on a smile and being more polite has been a pleasure. Of course, it has also helped that we have made a little progress with the boat.

Until today, we have been unable to change the name of our Tartan to ‘Hotspur’. This has been a source of major confusion amonst cruisers here in Mazatlan. The former Windfall crew is on a boat named 'Our Story' (which some of these cruisers know will be changed to 'Hotspur') while the new owners of 'Windfall' are calling themselves 'Hana Crew'? None of the boat's names have been changed on the outside due to typical political red tape. Mainly, we have been waiting on documents so that we can proceed with more documents, and then go forward with obtaining more documents still.

The first very important document that we waited to receive was the US Coast Guard certificate and we needed that before we could do anything else. The cost was $75US to have a courier deliver the official paperwork to us in Mazatlan and we took the cheap route... we had our friend, Don, bring it to us on his vacation. In the interim, Don changed his arrival date to March instead of February due to cheaper airfare (and what kind of cheap friends would we be if we didn’t understand that?). Eventually, Don arrived and delivered the goods as promised. Step one accomplished.

Then, we needed to procure Mexican liability insurance... this was the most simple to resolve because all we had to do was to go online with any company (we use www.assuremex.com) and purchase their Mexican liability insurance. The cost is $195US per year. You must have MX liability insurance when you go into a marina. And, of course, should you have an unfortunate encounter with another vessel (or other private property in the water and/or on the hard) it is worth keeping your fanny out of a Mexican jail for the low cost of liability!

Next, we needed to transfer the Mexican importation documents. This turned out to be trickier than imagined. The Mexican import documents should have been left on the boat by the previous owners or the brokers should have had them... but alas, neither was true. Yes, there was a copy of the original... but that won’t do... it must be the 'original'. Well, what do you do if you can't get your hands on the original? A few cruising gringos gave us suggestions. One suggestion was that we hire some guy named Jorge and pay him to have the boat boarded by officials who look at our trash and determine that we have just entered the country from the United States. We were told the stinkier the trash the better. The cost was high and I really didn’t feel real comfortable going through a big charade of "entering Mexico for the first time" in a boat that has been here for several years, and the stinky trash trick didn’t appeal to me either. Ix-nay on the inky-stay ash-tray!

The anxiety we were feeling over how to handle this was ridiculous. We absolutely did not want to do this the wrong way and have this end up costing us more in the long run! My Spanish is improving dramatically, but the language barrier isn't the only worry. Sometimes getting things "corrected" in Mexico can cost an arm and a leg. Jim suggested I go talk with Elvira in the Marina Mazatlan office. She is local, bilingual and very helpful. Elvira told me to go to the Banjercitos bank and speak with Paula. Elvira was a dear and told me that Paula would fix everything. I felt more confident having Elvira’s name to use. So, Jim the kids and I pile onto a bus and go to visit Paula with all our documentation we needed to proceed with obtaining more documentation. The Banjercitos is a tiny bank surrounded by armed guards with semi-automatic (I think) rifles. Turns out it’s the Mexican Army Bank... hence, the Mexican Army guards. We just needed boat papers, so we waved to the friendly army men and advanced! Upon entering the bank, I smugly use Elvira's name and say that Elvira told us to speak with Paula... only to be told that Paula is on vacation for two weeks! ARGH! And, it is not uncommon in Mexico for offices to have only one individual that handles a specific area and no one else trained in that area (talk about job security!) . To our surprise, Paula’s stand-in was fully qualified to help us. Relieved, we filled out forms and waited for two hours because there is no such thing as quick Mexican bureaucracy. After a 657 peso fee (roughly $53US), we had our documents and could change our name on the boat legally. No one needed to board the boat, no mordidas (bribes) needed to be paid, no stinky trash needed to be made... it was very simple, fairly cheap and it was a relief! Okay... one big, fat problem solved! Now, moving right along to the next...