Late on Wednesday morning we took Non Sequitur ashore for the second time in the twelve days that we have been waiting in the anchorage at Las Hadas. We secured it to the dinghy dock in the marina and walked up to the marina office to pick-up the package FedEx had delivered on Tuesday evening. The office was closed; we were too early, it was only 1120, and the sign said the office opened at 0900.
As we walked past Freda's Café, we saw Ruben inside having breakfast, so we spoke with him briefly, confirming the arrival of the FedEx package and telling him we would stop by on our way back from shopping and errands. We asked him for the location of the closest post office. He didn't know, and a discussion sprung-up in the restaurant among staff and regulars. They eventually agreed there was none in Santiago, and they told us we would have to go into downtown Manzanillo.
On our way up from the water we walked through the lobby of Las Hadas Resort and at the front desk asked where there was a post office. We were told of one in Santaigo next to the medical centre. Again, we proved the value of asking more than one source. Then at the taxi stand the waiting drivers discussed and confirmed the location of the post office in Santiago, and off we went for 40 pesos. As we rode, I kept an eye out for a branch of Banamex so I could make the direct deposit to FedEx for the second package. I saw none, and as we were getting out of the cab, I asked the driver. He told us there was one at the Centre Commercial.
Other than the two employees behind the counter, we were the only people in the post office. This certainly gave some strength to the argument that Mexicans do not trust their post office. We committed our income tax returns and some other envelopes to their hands, hoping there is truth in the other side of the argument, that the post office has come a long way from the days that inspired the distrust.
We were still looking for Tef-Gel for the alternator installation, so I had also asked the cab driver for the location of La Casa del Pescador, the marine store. He had given us rough directions of a couple of blocks back and then in a few blocks. We walked back a couple of blocks to a ferriteria and asked in our rudimentary Spanish for directions and were told two blocks back and then in three and a half blocks. We found El Casa was exactly where it was supposed to be. It was staffed completely by young women, some not yet out of their teens, and mostly without any knowledge of things mechanical. We could find no Tef-Gel, nor any Duralac, and because of their non-experience, the discussing and thinking and analyzing and substituting thing did not happen. I did buy, somewhat in desperation a tube of Permatex anaerobic gasket maker.
We walked back down to the main street and caught a bus along to the Centre Commercial, where we located the branch of Banamex. There was a ticket dispenser by the door, with buttons for various transaction types. We were directed to push the first one and received a number. In the centre of the air-conditioned lobby were rows of comfortably upholstered chairs, probably two dozen of them, with people occupying them as they waited for their number to come-up on the electronic board. The six tellers cycled through the clients quickly, and our number soon lit-up. I had printed-out Fernando's emailed instructions and handed the sheet to the teller, and she keyed away at the computer, took my money and gave me a stamped receipt. It was a very comfortable and efficient operation.
We walked through the mall to the Mega supermarket and picked from a wonderful selection of fresh fruit and vegetables. We walked out with our two large cooler bags stuffed full and overflowing into three additional doubled supermarket bags; it was too much to juggle aboard the bus, so we flagged-down a taxi. We arrived back at the marina at 1430 to find the marina office closed. Of course it would be; the sign by its door said it was open from 0900 to 1800. Since we needed to have lunch anyway, we decided to have it at Freda's, next to the marina office and wait for Ruben.
The equivalent of $15 bought us a couple of Tecates with a bowl of nuts and a huge panini each. The paninis were so large that I had to finish Edi's. After a slow, relaxing time over lunch we walked next door to find the office still closed, so we loaded our groceries into the dinghy and went back out to Sequitur in the anchorage.
At 1543 I emailed Fernando giving him the Banamex branch address, the reference number and the time and amount of the deposit to the FedEx account, and I attached a PDF of the receipt. An hour later he replied to me with: "Would you be so kind to sent me this payment by this way, bcs i need this to clare pls". I ran the text of my previous email through Google Translator and sent him back: "He depositado los 3.539 pesos en la cuenta FexEx como usted instruido en 1300:14 hoy en el Banco Nacional de México en 944 sucursales Playa Salahla, Manzanillo, Ref: RODSCGDL51. Por favor, me informen lo más pronto que el paquete se borra.", again with the Banamex receipt as a PDF attachment. A few minutes later he replied: "Thks very much, in process". We may yet see the second package this week.
Edi and I took Non Sequitur back into the marina shortly after 1700 to see if we could pick-up the first FedEx package, but when we arrived, the marina office was closed. Two marina employees were sitting outside on the bench, and they said Rubin should be along shortly. To fill the waiting time, we strolled along the short malecon, passing through the restaurants that spilled out across it to the water's edge, and we continued on to the breakwater that protects the southern side of the marina.
Then following a short wait back at the office, Ruben finally arrived and we picked-up the package. After I told him that another package might be coming from FedEx on Thursday or Friday, we went back out to the anchorage.
I opened the package and did an inventory, comparing the contents to the enclosed full-colour photo-inventories of the kits. Besides the Tef-Gel and Loctite, missing were all four of the smaller hex-socket cap screws from serpentine kit and all three of the small hex-socket cap screws from 2nd alternator kit. I emailed Craig at AltMount, with a copy to Jesus of FedEx, asking him to confirm that the cap screws were in the package when it left his facility. I also asked him if the cap screws somehow ended-up being sent back to him with the Tef-Gel and Loctite.
It seems strange that similar rather attractive little pieces are missing from each kit, and with the package sitting around opened for over a week in Guadalajara, I really don't really know what to think. The cap screws are not expensive, but without their exact specifications, I will be unable to replace them here. Even with their exact specifications, I doubt that I could find them anywhere around here. We'll have to have them shipped in from the States and go through the Mexican Customs bureaucratic nonsense again.
It is beginning to look like it would have been less expensive, and certainly much quicker and much less frustrating to have Balmar ship the alternators to AltMount, and then for me to fly to San Francisco and pick-up the kits and alternators and fly back. But then we would have missed another lesson in third-world petty bureaucracy. And so we went to bed on Wednesday night wondering not only about the clearance of the delayed second package, but also about the missing pieces from the first package.
On Thursday morning there was no change to the online status of the package, there was no email from Fernando, there was no reply from Jesus, and it was still a bit early to expect a reply from Craig in California, a couple of time zones to the west. Also there was no response to the emails I had sent to the watermaker dealers in Puerto Vallarta, San Carlos and Tijuana. And so we waited in a communications desert.
At 1130 I ran some text through Google Translator and sent it in an email to Fernando: "No veo ningún cambio en línea con el estado del paquete. Podría usted por favor dígame lo que está sucediendo; no queremos tener que esperar aquí para otro fin de semana. Estamos en necesidad desesperada de las partes para que podamos reparar nuestro barco y continuar nuestro viaje. Por favor hacer todo lo que usted puede apresurar este proceso." To be sure of the translation, I had run the Spanish text back through in the opposite direction and got: "I see no change in line with the state of the package. Could you please tell me what is going on, do not want to have to wait here for another weekend. We are in desperate need of the parties so that we can repair our boat and continue our journey. Please do everything you can speed this process." I was amazed at the closeness of the re-translation.
At 1240 I received the following from Fernando: "Saludos, le informo que de hecho como el corte de liberacion es a las 14.00 hrs no se pudo liberary ayer, en proceso para liberar hoy, gracias", which translated to: "Greetings, I inform you that in fact as the court of liberation is at 1400 hrs liberary failed yesterday in process for release today, thanks". And then we waited for the court of liberation to convene, while we entertained visions of the presiding judge in his powdered wig.
At 1336 the online tracking changed to 'In transit' again for the first time in over a week, with the note 'Paperwork available'. I have learned that this means the clearance documentation has been completed and is ready for the Customs officers to play bureaucrat with. At least something was happening.
At 1710 I received from Craig a reply to my email reporting the missing cap screws. He confirmed that the seven missing cap screws had in fact been sent back. I was relieved to see that there had not been any pilferage from the package. OK, but now what? Since it would be much easier for him to deal with FedEx from California than it would be for me from Mexico, I asked him if he would contact FedEx and try to sort-out the mess. I suggested that since it was a FedEx error, they should expedite the shipment of the cap screws back to me, including pre-clearance through Customs at their expense.
Then at 1747, I received an automatic tracking update informing me that the status of the package had been changed to 'Int'l shipment release'. It seems the bewigged judges had acted fairly. I hope this means the package will be delivered on Friday.
On Friday morning there was no change to the online tracking of the package, nor were there any replies to our emails on the botched first shipment or on the watermaker filters. I did; however, receive a PDF of the Sequitur's insurance declaration, which I printed and put in our ship's papers binder. Now we won't have to show the expired declaration, hoping the date won't be noticed.
While we were waiting for developments on the FedEx front, I again looked at the gribs and weather forecasts for the following five days. It appears there will be 10 to 15 knot following winds from the northwest from noon on Saturday, backing to the west at 20 knots on Sunday. This looks like a nice breeze for sailing, though with the predicted 1 to 2 metre southwest swell on our beam, we'll probably roll a bit. All we need is the delivery of the FedEx package.
When by 1130, there was still no change at FedEx. I phoned the US 1-800 number and spoke with a very sympathetic international shipping agent. I told her we had seen no change in the status of the package since its clearance the previous afternoon, and was wondering what was happening. She looked into the file and told me there was a note that indicated 24-hour delivery. She was not sure what that meant.
At 1204 the online tracking changed to: 'At local FedEx Facility' in Guadalajara. It took 18 hours for the package to make it across the room. Let's hope it moves more quickly for the remainder of its trip! After a light lunch of yogurt with fresh papaya, mangos, oranges and strawberries, we took Non Sequitur into the marina and walked over to the office to speak with Ruben. He surprised us by being there, although he said he would soon be leaving. We installed ourselves at a table in the window at Freda's, with an unobstructed view up the road that leads down to the marina, so that we could see everyone approaching. And there we waited.
We ordered a couple of Tecates to show some support to the cafe, and set-up our computers to help occupy our time as we waited. There was sporadic walk-by traffic, mostly people heading to their boats, but some of the passers-by had the possible appearance of couriers, and I followed each to see where they headed around the corner. I questioned one with a clipboard, who had tried the marina office door, and Edi questioned another who appeared to be looking for a boat. The package is addressed to Canadian Yacht Sequitur c/o Marina Las Hadas, so we had to hedge all bets.
At around 1500, the online tracking site showed the inserted comment 'in transit' Mexico, MX and time-stamped 0000. This is similar to the sequence of events prior to the delivery of the first package, so we continued our vigil at Freda's with renewed hope and a large dish of fresh guacamole and tostados.
At 1536 I received a reply from Craig at AltMount concerning my request that he contact FedEx. He wrote: "FedEx can't do anything. They said is the customs controls it and they never know what is going to go through. The list changes daily and sometimes that does not matter. Mexico is the worst they said. It was not their agent that held it back, it was the customs." He continued: "I don't know what to do for bolts now". I replied asking for exact specifications of the missing cap screws, and then we continued to wait.
At 1637 I received a reply from Craig on the technical specifications of the cap screws, with some suggestions on alternates if we cannot find the exact match. He also suggested Duralac DTD369B, a chromate containing jointing compound designed to inhibit electrolytic decomposition between dissimilar metals, as a substitute for the Tef-Gel. I had already found Duralac in my Internet search, and had looked unsuccessfully ashore on a couple of occasions. I emailed him with my thanks, and we continued our FedEx vigil at Freda's.
While we were waiting, Edi finished knitting a second pair of socks for me. She seems to have mastered the art; she knit this pair in a little over a week. Mind you, sitting around as hostages to the petty bureaucrats in Mexican Customs does provide a lot of spare time. At the rate she is knitting we'll each have a dozen pair of new woollen socks by the time we reach Tierra del Fuego. We waited for the FedEx delivery until 2000, and then packed up the knitting and computers and took the dinghy back out to the anchorage.
There was no further change to the online tracking data before we went to bed on Friday night. On Saturday morning I could not access any free wifi connection in the anchorage, so we had no updates until we sat down for breakfast at Freda's. Once online there, and seeing nothing new from FedEx, I called their US 1-800 number and asked for an international shipping agent. He told me the package had gone out on Friday for delivery, but when I told him we had sat waiting at the delivery point until 2000, he suggested the package may merely have moved to the hands of a contracted local courier, and he told me they do not do Saturday delivery. I asked for contact information for the local courier, but he could find none. He did initiate a detailed trace with email updates to me.
Acting on the long-ago-learned lesson that it is necessary to ask more than one source, I called again, and this time the wheel stopped at a pleasant agent who dug a bit deeper into the file and found that the package had left the Guadalajara facility on Friday afternoon. She suggested it may have moved to a facility closer to the destination. She did not think that they did Saturday deliveries.
A third call to FedEx connected me to another helpful international agent. I asked for contact information for the local courier, and she gave me their Guadalajara office phone number. She also said the courier's pick-up agreement at 1204 on Friday was for a 24-hour delivery, and that meant delivery by the end of the business day on Friday or on Saturday morning. In my response to my question on Saturday delivery, she said that many of the contracted couriers do. I called the number she had given me but after twenty rings without an answer, I assumed the office in Guadalajara was closed.
On our way up to Freda's we had stopped in at the marina office, which was open, surprisingly, since it was less than an hour after the posted opening time. I had spoken with Rubin, who confirmed that he has regularly received FedEx packages on Saturdays. So we have two votes for Saturday delivery and two votes against. We sat in the window at Freda's waiting for the confirming vote to roll down the road.
Many people came by the window, many of them carrying, pushing or pulling loads. Some were restaurant supplies, but most were provisions for the boats heading out from the marina. Unfortunately, there was not a FedEx courier among them. It was a decidedly slow day for couriers, and at 1500 we closed our branch office at Freda's and headed back out to Sequitur in the anchorage. On our way past the marina office we stopped in to tell Ruben we were leaving, and he said he would be there for another couple of hours.
We went to bed Saturday night still waiting for any change in the online status of the package and for update emails from FedEx. On Sunday morning there were still no emails and the status was unchanged. We already knew that the delivery did not happen within the agreed 24 hours, and now we confirmed that even when translated into Mexican and multiplied by the manana factor, it had not arrived.
Our water tanks were again getting low; the gauge was indicating a bit above the upper end of the empty mark. It had been five days since we had made water and had brought our tanks to half full. I had hoped that by this time both FedEx packages would have arrived, and that we would be underway in water with less churned-up sediment, in waters more kind to the pre-filters. But here we sat, still in the anchorage at Las Hadas, and we needed water.
With the automatic five-day-interval membrane back-flush scheduled for mid-afternoon, it made sense to tie-in a watermaking session and save the additional 25 litres. I hauled-out the new brush we had bought to assist in cleaning the pre-filters, and I dry-brushed a pair that had been rinsed and left sitting in the sun since they had clogged after a run of only at 33 minutes the on their run a five days previously. I marked these set A and installed them in the machine. We got an hour and 14 minutes at high speed, giving us 83.7 litres of fresh water before the machine automatically switched to low speed to add life to the filters. It continued to run for 48 more minutes giving us an additional 43.3 litres on low speed, for a total of 127 litres on the filters. It looks like the little brush works.
I am delighted that we could fit the watermaker into such an easily accessed location; it is under the bed in the fore cabin, and the triple-articulated spring-filled mattress easily folds out of the way. I exchanged the filters with another pair, named set B that I had brushed, but these were considerably blackened by what appears to be oil contamination. They lasted only 15 minutes at 72 litres per hour before causing the machine to switch to slow speed, and then they ran for an additional 23 minutes in the 55 litre/hour range before shutting-down. They produced a total of 51.2 litres. A third pair, set C was brushed and inserted, and these lasted 30 minutes on high speed and 23 minutes on low for a total production of 56.8 litres.
Our fourth pair of used filters, set D is really black from oil contamination, so I bypassed it and rinsed and wet-brushed set A, which had given over two hours on the first run. This time it lasted only 41 minutes, 16.5 of them on high speed, for a total of 38.4 litres. I don't know if the reduced performance is from not allowing the filter to sun dry before brushing, or whether it has to do with a greater sedimentation in the water from the higher wind. The anchorage was quite calm on the first run, but a bit choppy with large surf for the second.
I rinsed all the filters and laid them out in the sun in the cockpit to dry, turning them every fifteen or twenty minutes. After a couple of hours of drying, though it wasn't yet fully dry, I brushed set B, installed it and ran the machine again. It made only 5 minutes on high speed and another 12 on low for a total of 14.7 litres. I decided to call it quits for the day, ran the back-flush and we contented ourselves with a net production of 263 litres of fresh water, followed immediately by two longish hot showers, and a sun-drying in the cockpit next to the filters.
We went to bed on Sunday night with no emails from FedEx and no changes to the online status of the package. Monday morning we dinghied ashore to have breakfast and to set-up our FedEx vigil at Freda's, only to find it closed when we arrived at 0850. We assumed then that it would open at 0900, so we sat under an umbrella at an outside table and waited. When 0900 came and went and then 1000 and 1100, we started thinking about a noon opening. The bartender happened by shortly after 1100 and when asked, told us it was the end of the high season now, and they are closed on Mondays.
Around noon, we were getting a tad hungry and thirsty. I saw that Ruben was in the marina office so I went over and in response to my question, he told me he would be there until 1400. In response to my other question, he told me the hotel had the only restaurant open on Mondays. We left him in charge of the FedEx vigil and we walked along to the hotel, arriving at 1215 to find the restaurant shutting down. It closed for lunch. How novel! We were told that Las Delfines, further along the beach was open from 1230.
We shared a plate of shrimp tacos and one of dorado tacos and three bottles of Corona and spent a relaxing hour and a bit as the only customers in an up-scale hundred-seat waterfront restaurant. This is the place we had dined three weeks previously, the day after we had arrived in Las Hadas. Three weeks already! While it is a pleasant place, three weeks was way beyond the time we would have allotted to it had we not been held hostage by the petty bureaucrats in Mexican Customs.
We walked back over to Freda's tables, and Edi set-up her knitting station while I went to the marina office to tell Ruben we were back. When I walked in, I saw the FedEx box sitting on a chair by the window. Ruben said it had arrived only a couple of minutes previously. He also said he had to pay the courier 92.80 Pesos for it. I reimbursed him and he gave me the factura, which outlined the charge, calling it Gastos Administrativos, which I translated to mean Bribe.
We took the package back out to Sequitur and started preparing to head out. Our next port along the coast is Zihuatanejo, 200 nautical miles away, a 30 to 36-hour passage in the forecast 10 to 15 knot winds. Our thoughts are to do an early start and arrive late the following afternoon. By the time we arrived back onboard with the FedEx package, it was nearly 1430, too late to leave unless we wanted to face a night arrival in an unknown anchorage using questionable Mexican charts. As much as we wanted to get away, prudence spoke more loudly and we decided to spend one more night in the anchorage. Besides, our fresh fruit and vegetables were nearly depleted, and we could stand a restock for the four of five days we will spend getting to Acapulco.
We walked along the waterfront, through the grounds of the Mayan styled resort, which prides itself as being decorated in artefacts of the Mayan culture. We admired all the Chinese statuary, but could see very little Mayan. We made our way to the southern side of the grounds and had the guard unlock and open the gate so we could climb down a set of rough stone steps to wade across a narrow tidal inlet and gain access to the beach.
The beach is very steep and has surf that builds in the last ten or fifteen metres and then quickly crashes in a sand-churning froth. We walked along the beach looking back over the surf at Sequitur and a dozen-and-a-half other boats at anchor off Las Hadas. Less than a kilometre along we cut in from the beach and walked a couple of blocks up a street that ran between Wal-Mart and Mega.
We went into Mega and bought a selection of fresh produce, including papaya, mangos, Anjou pears, oranges, kiwis, mushrooms, Roma tomatoes, tomatillos, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, white onions and shallots. We also got six large skinless and boneless chicken breasts for just under $4 per kilo. The chicken and all the produce fit into our two insulated bags, and the eggs, bags of tostados and small items fit in a nylon boat bag. We couldn't get the taxi to lower his fare below 45 Pesos, so we walked across the street and caught a bus back to Las Hadas for 6 Pesos each.
Back onboard, I raised the dinghy on its davits and lashed it for sea, and we completed our preparations for leaving. At times we felt like captives here, hostages to the foibles of the petty bureaucrats in Mexican Customs. Now we are finally able to escape.