Depth Sounder, Fuel, and Clearance from Mexico

Yesterday was a very good one for me.

Transducer in black

The recent sea trial was marred by an intermittent problem with the Raymarine depth sounder: most of the time it would not be able to report the depth, but once in a while it would work OK.  As usual I worst-cased the problem and concluded that there would be no time to bring up a replacement and if I had do I'd rely on a plumb line to confirm the depth before dropping anchor.

My prime suspect was a loose wire behind the teak panel that Reggie had made for my instruments.  That proved not to be the problem so the last bolt left in my meager locker was the transducer, which is an "in hull" unit that must be immersed in a fluid so that the acoustic signal will pass from the transducer, to the hull, through it, into the sea, and return if bottom is found.  The signal will not pass through air.  I unscrewed transducer from the cylinder that houses it in a bath of liquid and found water about half way up the cylinder. I sponged the cylinder dry, cleaned it with a solution of water and bleach, then filled it with olive oil.  I powered up the sounder and to my great relief it  functioned properly. 

Deck containers as they will go

Monday was one of Lupe's propane gas day so I removed the gas cylinder that I had been using for the last year and found it to be very light, which meant that it was nearly empty.  I dropped it off to Lupe for a refill at a cost of 200 pesos.  I asked him if he could get me a protective cover for the threads on the cylinder that Rick had given to me and he soon produced a pair of freebies.  I used the screw-in plug type and returned the cover-all type back to him.  At 1.30 PM I picked up the full cylinder, connected it, tested the connection with soapy water, then took my time to secure it and the smaller cylinder with plenty of shock cord.  At this point all of Pachuca's gas cylinders are full.

I then used my two 10 liter diesel containers to top up the main tanks (they took 12 liters) then went to the Pemex station to fill both containers.  At this point all of Pachuca's diesel tanks are full: 37 gallons in the main tanks and 60 gallons on the deck.

That evening I devoted an hour to fill in the two forms given to my by the port  captain's office using the Google translator and my Spanish-English dictionary.   This morning I got help from Rick and his friend Mike to make final corrections and soon I was on my bicycle to 5 de Mayo street on the other side of town to get Pachuca's health certificate.

The receptionist looked at my request, looked at my two forms, and told me that I needed another form.  I replied that I had been given only two forms by the port captain's office.   She conferred with a colleague and then told me that I was in the wrong place and at my request wrote the address of COEPRIS at Hospital Salvatierra far up Bravo street.

I peddled through the heat and traffic to the place, which looked like a big hospital in a white building.  Inside the foyer there was no receptionist and no activity.  An arrow pointed up the stairs so I went up and found a row of people sitting in chairs waiting for ... a lone guy in a tiny office attending to a customer with the help of a computer.  Otherwise it was a dead end.  Since I had no confidence that this office would know what to do with me I concluded that this nonsense would be a waste of time and ran up the white flag.

I rode back to the marina, walked into Eco Naviera, and fortunately found Yolanda at her desk. I told her that I had done the best to help myself but needed her to assistance to get my port clearance.   No problem.  Fortunately I had all of my documentation and was able to provide all of the information that she needed.

The plan is simple from my point of view.  On Wednesday 26 October at 10 AM Yolanda will show up at my boat with the health inspector. I said Fine, that will take care of the health inspection. Would we then go to Immigration and the Port Authority offices?  Nope, she'll take care that herself.

The costs in pesos will be as follows:

- Health inspection (which is a sham) ... $1435
- Port Captain ... $206
- Eco Naviera for their services: $1640 (about  $125 USD)

Given what is at stake I consider that money well spent.  (As Ib once told me, 'There are ways to save money, but this isn't one of them.')

As I walked out I turned and said "Yolanda, I'm going to miss you."

On the weather front there are no threatening weather systems to the south.  The statements were made in a discussion over the Club Cruceros net this morning that there has been no hurricane activity in this area after 17 October in modern times, and more importantly, the sea temperature has dropped low enough to take us out of danger.

So my prospects of departure from La Paz on  Thursday 27 October are very good.