January, 2013

We arrived back at NEOS in Marina Cortez January 5 and quickly got back into the cruising routine.

One item we had ordered while we were back in the States arrived the Monday after we left, so we arranged for Michelle to mail it to a place in San Diego area to be picked up by a cruiser who was going home and driving back. We got the boat all cleaned up and were scheduled to leave the slip on January 12. There was some significant wind in the forecast for the following week, so we decided to spend another week in the slip. It blew like crazy for four days. Marina Cortez has a very different kind of dock and slip arrangement. The docks are held in place by cables…no piers. There is no seawall to block the fetch. The result is that the boat is constantly pulling on its lines, jerking us around a bit. So even though we were somewhat protected (especially from dragging boats), we were not comfortable. Add to that the local trigger fish who started banging against the boat at sundown and continued knocking and banging for 3 or 4 hours. Egads. So although it was nice to have nice hot showers in a large stall, be able to walk the malecon and we could go to the store when we wanted, we looked forward to leaving and returning to the anchorage.

We did take advantage of being in the slip to hit a few dinner spots we had always wanted to go to. Banditos is a hamburger restaurant. The grill they cook on is under the hood of an old Chevrolet pickup. Cruisers claim it is the best hamburger in town. After 2 years here, we finally tried it out. We made plans to hit the other dinner place, Gina’s, before we left the slip. The day before we headed back out, I woke up worried about the date our FM3 was due for renewal. The FM3 is the special visa we have that allows us to remain in Mexico for a year at a time. I pulled out our cards and although the date at the top said January 30, the date below it for “renewal” was January 20. The 20th was a Sunday and this little discovery was made on Friday morning, the 18th.

So we spent a few hours getting registered online and pulling required paperwork together. Of course, our printer decided to stop working as well so I had to transfer things to a memory card to take to the copy place. We headed out for the walk to immigration about 10:30, stopping along the way to get photos taken and copies made. We arrived at the immigration center about 11:30am and waited…… Since we only do this once a year, I forget the little things. Like the need to have a folder for your documents, and to bring a book for the wait, and that they close at 1pm. We were finally called up to the desk at about 1:15 (they do seem to stay open until 1:30 to “catch up”) only to be told that we had printed out the wrong paperwork and needed to come back. I showed the clerk that our FM3 expired on Sunday and then got chastised for waiting until the last minute. But he went online, printed out the correct forms, gave me a nasty look for not having a folder, and processed us. We headed to McDonalds for a much deserved lunch and ice cream. What an exhausting experience. Now we wait until someone does their job and prepares the documents for Mexico City. Then we go back and pay, then wait while everything is sent to the capital. That can take another month or two.

That night, since we were still in the slip, we went out to dinner at Gina’s with Russ and Janet. Gina opens at 7pm in her driveway, about a block up from the marina. She is like In N Out; she limits her menu to 3 items; hamburgers, hot dogs, and burritos. We had the burrito and I couldn’t even finish mine. Huge and delicious. Russ came in his dinghy the following morning to help us out of the slip and we were back in the anchorage. We had to reanchor a few days later…the navy thought we were a bit too close to their base. So we moved a bit further north.

Then we started to tackle a few projects. I sewed some chaffing strips to the soft bimini and Rog installed the new battery monitor. I am now convinced that our old monitor was not only giving us some inaccurate readings, but maybe draining the system a bit. Whatever….the new monitor seems to give good, consistent readings and the whole system seems to work better. So I am a happy camper!

By the end of the month, we were back in our usual routine and playing cards with Rock N Roll in the afternoons, enjoying the warm sunshine of these lazy days in La Paz. We have another prospective buyer coming to look at the boat February 5 so did some of the usual cleaning. Glad we are not back up in the States right now…weather looks really nasty up there!!!!