JollyDogs Mexico checkout Part 2

8º 55.040s 140º 06.217w

Mon May 13 2019

JollyDogs Mexico checkout Part 2

Isabel’s Spanish is pretty good, so I asked her to inform the official that we could not possibly moor to the industrial piers and would have to stand off and dinghy officials out to our boat. She did her best, but finally he gave up and fetched a fellow who spoke pretty decent English. He was equipped with a handheld radio so we abandoned shouting back and forth and began attempting to communicate more clearly via VHF. Naturally there was something wrong with his radio, so after several minutes of unintelligible conversation and arm waving he departed the scene, then returned shortly thereafter with an operable hand held. Isabel and he arrived at an agreement so that I could go ashore to deal with all the paperwork, then I would shuttle the customs official out to the boat for the inspection. Off I went, leaving Thad and Isabel to motor gently around in a circle, holding position for about 3 hours while I did my thing. Remember that scene in Blazing Saddles where they circle the wagon?

Fortunately the office wasn’t very busy so Nurse Ratchet and I got straight to work. After about an hour of filling out forms and watching her stamp them or wander off for some superior’s signature, she instructed me to report to the customs office down the street and have them add their data and signature to the form. Down the street I went, only to meet a friendly and efficient fellow who spoke great English. He was done with my paperwork in a flash, then asked me “as a favor” could I please return the form once the Port Captain’s office had added additional signatures and stamps.

I marched back to the Port Captain’s office only to find that the crowd had grown significantly, and it was about a half hour before Nurse Ratchet wanted to talk to me again. Eventually it was my turn, and after another 20 minutes of faffing around an official from the customs office arrived. He and Nurse Ratchet discussed what he was supposed to do, then the two of us departed to the dinghy for our short ride out to JollyDogs.

The fellow spoke virtually no English, so Isabel did her best to ascertain what he wanted to see. Ultimately, he looked around the cockpit, examined the same paperwork I had taken ashore to the Port Captain’s office, then seemed to be satisfied. As he and I departed in the dinghy, he motioned me to position him to get some photographs of the vessel from various angles.

We returned to the office whereupon we both got to wait for our turn with Nurse Ratchet. In the meantime, he found our JollyDogs Facebook page and “liked” it. He showed me his photos of JollyDogs, and I showed him my favorite which I had saved on my phone. We looked like a couple of teenagers comparing cell phone photos until our turn finally came to approach the window. He and Nurse Ratchet chatted for a bit, more paperwork was stamped and signed, then she gave me a big smile and handshake and so did he, and everything was done! Almost.

I then marched back down the street to the customs office to deliver a copy of the completed paperwork to the nice English-speaking gentleman, then with a sigh of relief began looking for a path from there to the dinghy. I could see one that seemed to be associated with the cruise ship terminal but feeling emboldened by my recent success I strolled on in there, keeping my eye on the path to the dinghy. Of course I got stopped by some security guard who wanted to see my cruise ship ID card, and of course “no I couldn’t go through this way”, but with the assistance of another individual I was able to communicate my need to get to my dinghy without further troubling the very busy folks in the Port Captain’s office, and ultimately everyone relented and smiled and escorted me through the metal detector and such. A couple minutes later I was back on board JollyDogs with a fistful of fancy paperwork that said we were “free at last”, and off we motored back to the marina.

I went into the marina office to pay our final invoice and inform them of our status, and it was smiles all round. We departed on schedule from the marina that Sunday morning, stopping to top our fuel, then proceeded to the anchorage to await our weather window. Recall we were technically legal to be onshore until that evening, so we went ashore to meet friends for some dinner and really really good margaritas a La Cruz Inn, then the following day we cheated and went ashore again to get some copies made of paperwork.

As my old test pilot pal Bert Rhine used to say about being in a new or tenuous situation, “keep your hair short, your mouth shut, and your ears open” and you generally won’t have any trouble. Nobody cared that we were onshore after we should have left the country, but if one of us had gotten into a scrape with a peace officer or port official, woe be unto us.

And now we’re here, anchored in Taiohae bay of the island Nuku Hiva, which is part of the island group called the Marquesas, and a subset of French Polynesia which includes several separate groups of islands. Quite a mouthful; we’ll address checking in here in our next installment of “the adventures of JollyDogs”.