Ready to Go

This is Wednesday night and everything seems ready for my departure tomorrow at noon.

Just after 10 AM the representative from Eco Naviera arrived with the official who would issue the health certificate for Pachuca.  He inspected nothing and spent his time filling in a couple of forms, one of which I had to sign.  Armed with this, Eco Naviera would proceed with visits to Immigration, the harbor master, and the port captain and expected to have my zarpe ready mid afternoon.

Eco Naviera did some checking and I am planning the longest sail that they've ever dealt with.

I then dropped off the bodega keys to Roberto at Seamar then visited the marina office to state officially that I would be leaving tomorrow.  Adriana will draw up the final invoice, which will be composed of 6 days of slip fees and a bill of $61 sprung on me for work done by Joel in May.  On the other hand I'll be returning two keys, which will result in return of deposits that were hefty, if my memory serves me right.

When I was handed the impressive looking zarpe at 3 PM by Yolanda at Eco Naviera I noticed that it listed my middle name as "James" rather than "Jose".  This was not acceptable on such an important document and at 6 PM Yolanda was able to produce a proper zarpe.  I was now clear to sail out of Mexico.

Fortunately I asked about my status with the Immigration department then Yolanda recalled that I have an FM3 resident card and must either renew it or hand it in before it expires, otherwise I will face a big fine when I return to Mexico.  The card expires in July 2012 so I left it in her care and will contact her in June to hand it in on my behalf - for a fee, of course. 

In the evening Bob Carroll treated me to a meal on the terrace at Rancho Viejo overlooking the bay.  Bob was the first "local" that I met here in La Paz when Arnold and I were still anchored at the Mogote.  He then helped me learn the ropes on living in La Paz and introduced me to people helped make La Paz such a great experience for me.  It was fitting that I spend the last evening with Bob overlooking the bay.

I feel very comfortable about the situation on the eve of departure.

The boat is in the best condition that it has been in during my tenure, and certainly much, much better than when we sailed out of Fremantle in May 2008.  And no wonder.   My spreadsheet shows $202,000 spent on new equipment, repairs, and routine maintenance since I purchased the boat.  She's got equipment not dreamed of when she was built (e.g. AIS, Pactor communication), and replacement equipment better than the original (e.g. engine, sails).  The keel, hull, deck, internal furnishings and mast are original, but just about everything else has been renovated, repaired, replaced, or added.

I'm feeling good about the sailing plan.  I'll be taking the traditional route to the Horn from this part of the world and will be going around at the optimal part of the year with  generally favorable winds and currents.

Thanks to very specific information from Dan at Port Townsend Rigging about how to manage my sails I will be driving the boat much less hard than I did before.  (For example, he advised switching to the storm trysail when the wind reaches 30 knots, which was about the time I'd be putting my first reef on the mainsail.  And when I do reef I expect it to be from the safety of the cockpit with the new system that I have set up.)

I'll be sailing out with over 300 movies and over a hundred music albums stored in my 1 terabyte external disc drive, as well as dozens of books.  And I'm very satisfied with the provisions on the boat.

It's been a wonderful 3 years but it is time to get back to Australia while I'm still feeling physically up to it and am still able to resist the siren call of La Paz.

So I'm ready and the boat is ready.

Let's see what Providence has to say.