Finally arrived in Chiapas, Mexico
25 January 2018 | Chiapas Marina, Mexico
Helen/Mark
It was quite the busy night on the ocean. At various times we had wind to sail but it was short lived. Also, just as the sun was setting there were several Guatemalan shrimp boats in our area. Of course as soon as we came near them, they changed course making us change course to get around them. Then the one tried to do a 360 into us. That was not very good boating. Someone said it may have been because they were curious and wanted to get close to us. I am not sure what it did to their nets with reckless maneuvers. I took the first shift, but much like the night before the waves were choppy and the boat was bouncing. I slept in the salon for about 2 hours and woke up and then tried to sleep some more. It was after midnight when I took the helm. There were lights from shore on the starboard side. Also, many boats on both sides and all looked to be working their way in our direction. I was more than scared when I changed course to go around a smaller boat and he ended up too close to us. There was a half moon lighting the waters to the port side, but it set in a beautiful orange glow, soon after. Both of our sleeps were interrupted with the boat traffic. The breeze kicked in and we tried to sail. Then we sailed too fast, as we wanted to arrive at the marina entrance during day light, so Mark reefed and slowed us down. I got a little more sleep and then was not able to fall asleep. The coast line of Mexico was covered in a white color at sun rise. You could see the mountain peaks behind a flat coast line. We tried calling the marina but no one would answer. Finally, Mark called the Port Captain and requested entrance. He replied, 'Welcome'. So, we headed up the long channel and noticed two huge shrimp boats following us in. Now, the ocean swells were huge going into the channel and then we had to share the channel with the two shrimp boats. One boat still had their net lines in the water on both sides. Oh my. Let them pass and then they stopped to pull up their nets. We found the channel and motored into the marina area at the end. The office must have seen us and called us on the radio. They told us to proceed to the last dock and there would be someone to catch us. Mark nosed us into an empty double slip and two marina hands caught our lines. They informed us that we would have some visitors. The first was the Port Captain, who had a form to fill out. He didn't speak much English, but the document was completed. Then a small boat with, six khaki dressed Naval men showed up in the empty slip beside us. They brought onto our boat a drug sniffing dog! They had someone taking pictures of the boat. At least two guys were part of the Mexican Navy Marines with M16's. And at least a couple others with side arms all boarded Charabia. The dog got to wander around either looking for drugs or looking for illegal's. Thankfully, none were found. That was a quick visit. They all left. Then a lady came from Customs. The form she needed us to fill out was difficult as she didn't speak English. She asked for the original TIP (Temporary Import Permit) document. Mark filled it out online in Panama and paid the fee also, put our Jax address. The document was mailed to Florida. They need that document before we can leave this port. Mark will check with our mail forwarding service. We had the email and a document that stated that we paid. So, we printed both out and headed to the marina office. There were two boats leaving tomorrow that needed to visit the same offices as us. The marina general manager drove us in his big pickup truck. We all fit in. Stops included the Customs, the Port Office, Immigration and the Port Captains' Office. We waited a good length of time in the Port Captains' office as their office had trouble processing payments. We had a good introduction to Mexico and it seemed very similar to Costa Rica. We did not get back to the marina until 2:30 so we decided to visit the marina restaurant as we were beyond wiped. Had a very nice lunch with homemade salsa and chips. Yum! Very reasonable prices too. Got our wifi address but it really only works when we are close to the office as this marina sustained an earth quake and tsunami which broke up all the floating docks. That was in September. All the docks were rebuilt since then. Visited the air conditioned marina office to send some emails but they closed just after 5. Then we tried to stay close by but the bugs came out with a lack of breeze. We created this blog entry and will send it using our single side band instead of marina wifi and then it's bed time!!