Sail the sea with The Merry Lee

Hola Amigos, One of the must do right away chores on our to do list in Mexico was to get our 10 year temporary importation document for our boat. While we have been in Mexico for 3 months, we had not gotten around to getting it. As you will see you need to be pretty motivated to spend the effort to get it. We are thinking of visiting Grandkids in April and you need it to leave your boat in Mexico while you visit the USA. Talk about motivation.

First Lewis took pictures of the Merry Lee from 4 sides. Then he had to figure out how to change the language on our new camera from Spanish to English so he could find the macro function. He then took pictures of the engine and transmission serial numbers and the serial number on the side of the boat. We then made copies of our passports, visa's , the boat's insurance and documentation papers.

We then were fortunate to have our new relative , Stan, drive us to the custom's office at the port. There are only a few ports where you can get this form without paying an agent and Mazanillo is one of the. We presented our documents to an official there who said, " I will be back". We did not know that that means, " I hope you brought a book and some water and the WC is down the hall". Really we only had to wait 1 ½ hours. We then had to go the Federal Bank (Banjercito). There we were given some more papers to fill out detailing the equipment on our boat. Luckily they did not require all of the serial or VIN numbers. We were then told to come back in 30 minutes. That means, " Go to a bar, have a couple of beers, lunch and come back in an hour". When we returned 75 minutes later, we were told 5 more minutes. 2 minutes means: 10 to 20 minutes, 5 minutes means: 20 to 40 minutes and 10 minutes means: 40 to 60 minutes. Sure enough 20 minutes later we presented him with our credit card and received the papers. We had timed it perfectly because the bank was going to close in 15 minutes and not reopen for 3 days.

We celebrated with another lunch and motored back to the Merry Lee and told her that she was now legal.

Happy 30 minutes to you until you wait for us to Blog again.

Mary Lee and Lewis