JollyDogs Mexico checkout Part 1

8º 55.040s 140º 06.217w

Mon May 13 2019

JollyDogs – the odyssey of checking in and out of Mexico, Part 1

After purchasing our Seawind 1160 in April of 2013 we sailed her down to San Diego, mooring her at Intrepid Marina on Shelter Island. She became our weekend retreat, and initially we flew our tiny airplane from our home near Phoenix, Arizona to San Diego then used the bus and light rail system to reach the marina. When we got serious about moving bulkier personnel possessions onto her, we drove.

We moved her to Ensenada, Mexico just before Labor Day weekend in September of 2013. Mark was going on a 6-month flight test program about 2300 miles away, and we needed to evacuate California before their tax authorities levied property taxes upon us. With the assistance of the Cruise Port marina by downtown Ensenada, we executed all the paperwork and received a 10-year Temporary Import Permit (TIP). Altogether the process took about 2 hours and cost under $100.

One of the nautical oddities (or niceties, depending upon your point of view) is that when departing the USA there is no requirement for a US flagged vessel to check out of the country. It makes departing easy, but the downside is that there is no official US government record of the departure. That can create complications we’ll discuss another time.

Mexico operates like most countries I suppose, so prior to departing for the South Pacific we were required to check out of the country. Moored at the marina in La Cruz at the time, we asked around and spoke with various folks who offered their version of the checkout procedure. We arrived at two options; one of which involved an initial trip to Marina Nuevo Vallarta to submit paperwork, whereupon an appointment for a physical boat inspection would be scheduled. That meant a return trip with the boat and crew for the inspection and final out-processing, altogether a minimum of 2 days of effort. We spoke with another boat crew who had gone directly to the Puerto Vallarta Port Captain’s office and done all the paperwork in about 2 hours with no boat inspection required. That sounded a lot better to us, so we elected to pursue that option.

In Mexico, if there are an abundance of boats in an area, there’s usually an official Port Captain. At the larger locations such as Mazatlan, La Paz, Santa Rosalia, etc. there is a requirement to check in and out. If taking a slip in a marina, the marina management is generally authorized to do all the arrival and departure paperwork, so it’s not at all onerous and takes about 10 minutes. In La Paz the boat captain is simply required to make a radio call to the local Port Captain and announce an arrival or departure (to from wherever), along with the number of souls on board. At Marina Riveria Nayarit at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, the local Port Captain requires the captain of each vessel to report to the office and officially check in and out. They’re friendly but they like their procedures. I suspect it’s also a bit like a control tower at any airport in the USA; they record every takeoff and landing operation, show Uncle Sam how busy they are, and get a larger share of the federal funding pie to make airport improvements, etc.

So the drill went a bit like this. First, we were required to “clear out” at the La Cruz Port Captain’s office, but we didn’t have to immediately vacate the marina. Next, Mark as the official JollyDogs captain reported to the Puerto Vallarta Port Captain’s office downtown by the cruise ship terminal to check in, with the added intention of immediately completing the checkout process. Recall that according to the captain of the boat we had chatted with previously, this was supposed to all take about 2 hours with no inspection required.

I guess if this had been a hospital we would have been dealing with a staff member who my sister would fondly refer to as “Nurse Ratchet”. The lovely lady performed my check in paperwork, then we discussed my desire to check out of the country immediately. She noted that would be quite impossible, as a physical inspection of the vessel would be required at that time. I would be required to report to the dock out front the following day with my vessel and crew whereupon we could complete all required paperwork and the customs inspection would be performed. She then informed me that the office was closed on both Saturday and Sunday, and that the following two weeks were part of the Easter holiday cycle so staffing would be minimal. I asked for a Sunday night departure from Mexican waters. She was willing to grant a 48-hour departure delay only because of the weekend office closure, otherwise we would have been required to depart immediately upon completing the checkout procedure. So the upside of the Friday checkout procedure meant that we could legally remain moored at Marina La Cruz until Sunday, whereupon we would need to depart for a local anchorage and “officially” not set foot on land afterwards.

Not exactly how I’d hoped things would go when I arrived at the office on that Thursday. I guest Forrest Gump’s mom was right all along. Feeling somewhat dejected, I took the bus back to La Cruz to inform my crew of our fate. The following morning (Friday) we quietly motored out of our slip in the marina and steamed towards the Port Captain’s office. Upon arriving we examined the various options for tying to a dock, which included several industrial strength concrete piers lined by old tires, and a small floating pontoon. That pontoon was the only acceptable option for a small fiberglass hulled vessel like JollyDogs, so we made our approach and tied alongside. A couple of things happened shortly thereafter. First, a bizarre swell created by local disturbances and eddy current inducing structures caused some crazy gyrations of our boat/pontoon assembly, prompting us to scramble around adding or moving fenders, tightening and loosening dock lines, and generally thinking “WTF?”. About the same time an official from the Port Captain’s strutted out and informed us that the floating pontoon was not available for our use, only for very small boats, and that we would be required to adjourn to one of the large concrete piers. Another WTF moment . . . then we got ourselves together and departed the floating pontoon.

(to be continued in Part 2)