Cleared to Go

When I left the little office last night after filling out the clearance forms my fingers were numb with cold and I was thinking about the dropping voltage of the battery bank. I decided to run the engine for an hour in order to solve both problems. With the recent last-minute failures I had experienced I was a bit apprehensive about starting the engine in the cold of the night but it fired up instantly and began ticking over at about 300 rpm. I made sure that the exhaust was working, engaged the gear, brought it up to 1000 rpm, then went below and started the Red Dot heater. It was like old times on the way to the Horn, with my little friend humming as it delivered warmth and comfort into the cabin. Between the Red Dot and the fan heater running of shore power the cabin was pleasantly warm after the one-hour run. Even though the the battery bank was at 12.2V at the beginning of the run, I got no battery fault alarm and noticed that the voltmeter was registering over 13.5V. During the run the alternator delivered 50-55 amps to the bank and before retiring I checked and saw that the bank was at 12.5V.

As I settled down to sleep I recalled how open and informative I had been with Luis and the rest of the marina staff. For at least a week they had known of my plans, and on Tuesday I paid a special visit to tell them that I had settled accounts at the main office and I expected to leave on Thursday. You'd think that somewhere along the line somebody would have thought to give me those papers to fill in ahead of time.

I was up again at 6 AM still planning to be at the immigration office before 9 AM and wondering what the day would bring. The wind was up, gusting to 20 knots from the west, though it would probably be stronger and steadier off the coast. Even though the sun wasn't up I could see that it was going to be a clear day. The boat was registering an acceptable 2.4 meters of water at 7 AM, and I was wondering how the tide would behave during the day.

To my surprise the migration office was open when I arrived at 8.30 AM. The agent asked me when I had arrived at MdP and when I told him 15 February he replied that I would have to pay a “multa” or fine. When I asked him why he explained that it was because I had stayed beyond my 3 month visa. He relented when I told him that I had obtained a second 3 month visa.

But things got better after that. After dealing with someone who was representing several people he dealt with me in a very friendly and helpful manner. At 9.30 AM I had my Immigration clearance and headed for the Prefectura.

Things went very well at the Prefectura where I dealt with a more mature man who was also friendly and helpful. At 10 AM after a brief discussion of my visit to the Cataratas, San Martin, and Bariloche he wished me a good trip and I was on my way. After I explained my problem with the tides he was very generous in giving me until noon tomorrow to clear out.  I was asked to report once per day at either 9AM or 9PM via email until I have left Argentinian waters.

I got back to the boat with the intention of visiting the market before the 1 PM closing to say goodbye to a few of the people and spend my last 300 pesos, probably on booze.

But first I visited Luis at the office, handed him the club copy of my clearance then asked him if it would be OK to use one of the club moorings on the other side of the bridge in deeper water for the night. He said OK and said that he would help me leave at my planned time of 3 or 4 PM.

The refrigerator is still working fine.