Our friends Peter and Olivia had made landfall in Mexico before we did. With their own boat, the 38-foot Hans Christian Kessel, all tied up, they guided us into the slip alongside. Their dog, Ginger, was quick to greet us with sloppy, wet kisses.
We only had an hour to check in with the marina and Mexican customs, so we left our own boat, the 1979 Cheoy Lee 41, Avocet, in the condition we’d arrived in.
At the office, checking in with the marina was fairly straightforward. Afterward, marina staff escorted our group to customs officials. That service alone was the reason why we chose Marina Coral in Ensanada. Although it is a more expensive berthing option than some other marinas where we could’ve checked in, Marina Coral had promised to help us through the process, which can be tedious and which, in our case, became problematic pretty quickly.
All vessels checking into Mexico need to obtain a temporary import permit, or TIP, either online or in person. Back when we had bought Avocet, the broker had assured us that the boat’s TIP had expired, leading us to believe we were clear to apply for a new one.
What we didn’t know, and what we quickly learned in Ensenada that day, is that “expired” and “canceled” are two different things.
We had actually tried to get our TIP online prior to arrival, but we kept running into an error code that said we needed to mail the application and money. The Mexican postal system is notoriously unreliable, so we’d decided to figure it out in person once we arrived in Mexico aboard Avocet.
Now, our check-in process was going smoothly until it came to that TIP. The agent behind the counter shook her head and whispered something to our Marina Coral escort.
He then told us that we had 48 hours to leave the country.
Wait, what?
It turned out that Avocet’s previous owner had never checked out of Mexico before crossing the border, and hadn’t canceled the TIP, probably because he had intentions of sailing back. Then, he had fallen ill. During the sale of Avocet, he was in poor health, so his daughter and close friends had handled our purchase of Avocet from him. The TIP had likely slipped through the cracks at that time.
To satisfy the Mexican government, we needed to provide a document showing the previous owner’s exit from Mexico and his arrival in the United States—something that would be even more complicated now, since he had since died. The boat’s bill of sale would not do.
I called Avocet’s past two marinas, trying to get a lease contract with the previous owner’s name, but there was no luck there. I reached out to his daughter on Instagram, where she keeps up with our journey, to see if she had any paperwork laying around. Nope.
The clock was ticking, and our Marina Coral escort suggested that we all go back to the marina to see if the previous owner was in its system. Maybe the marina could provide some sort of proof of exit.
Even better, we would soon learn, our escort already had another solution hiding up his sleeve.
Lesson learned: When buying a boat, make sure that the broker fully understands your cruising plans, and that everything about the boat is in order for those plans to become reality.
Coming next: Part 5, a problem that could’ve been a lot more expensive, and why it pays to have local assistance on your side.
