Haganes – En Route Panama –  5^th Aug. 2012. – 11 00N – 090 00W

 

The last couple of weeks in Mexico would have been enough to make a saint swear. In fact I am sure that if the saints had spent any time in Mexico, they would have been ‘red carded’ early on in the piece and there wouldn’t be any today.

 

I note that the last posting was on July 15^th and I said we were pretty much ready to go. No we weren’t!

 

Took most of the week for them to fix the autopilot. After a few days they announced proudly it was fixed. Inspection turned from delight to dismay  when I realised when you adjusted the course to port the helm turned to starboard. Change the wires around I hear you say, but which ones? This unit is not like anything you’ve come across before. Well another day had it sorted and I rushed to the office to get them to make up the  final bill so the company could pay it and we could get a release letter from the ship yard which we needed to produce to the Port Captains office in order for them to let us go.

 

The view astern from our sanitary position at the ship yard - Mazatlan’s power plant that apparently burns anything from crude oil to fish oil from the tuna processing plant just ahead of us. There they make chicken feed pellets out of the tuna waste and the smell emanating from the place is something to behold.

 

During this time I was struggling to convince the agent we didn’t need the insurance cover he was insisting on, to leave. Why would the authorities insist that you had local third party insurance to leave the country.

 

Below a couple of experts from the journal :

 

Wednesday 26^th July 2012

 

Payment received by the yard and non-debt notice and guarantee furnished – still no word on the insurance. Hassled Carlos the agent. Tried to get an appointment with immigration but the guy we apparently need to see (why do we need to see him??) is in Guadalajara. Come back tomorrow.

 

Thursday 27^th July 2012

 

Went to the agent’s office and after an hour filling out forms we went to our 10.30 appointment with the immigration guy. He turned up at 11.15 read the paperwork and sent us back to the agency office to redo it because they had given him the wrong title on the form. Repeat steps 2 and 3! Eventually he verbally approved the forms and said they would come and check us out when we leave from the military dock at the entrance – so what did we achieve by going there in the first place? Me neither.

 

Another day running around.

 

Friday 28^th July

 

Cleared out!!

 

 

Went to the Port Captains Office and after the obligatory wait, got cleared out with $100 USD standard entry/exit payment. AND no insurance!

 

Paid the agent off with cash and we're all a little disbelieving of the fact that there is only one stop between us and the deep blue sea and that is the military/customs dock at the harbour entrance. We are scheduled there for inspection at 1130hrs tomorrow (Saturday) where they will check to make sure we don’t carry contraband either personnel or chemical, and we're sailing.

 

Sunday 29^th July 2012

 

Although it’s true  I didn’t expect 4 or 5 sombrero wearing Mexicans playing guitars, nor streamers, nor even a clutch of Mexican senioritas dabbing tearful eyes with pretty lace handkerchiefs, I did expect a slightly more smooth  departure than the one we finally had. I guess though with the way things have gone since I got here, and for sometime before, it was naive of me to think otherwise.

 

I thought it would be a simple case of the officials at the departure dock checking to make sure there were only the four of us on board and the obligatory drug dog inspection- but no.

 

First off they dropped Carol, the Filipino cook’s, immigration visa (credit card like thing) in the drink as one of them was thumbing through the passport whilst standing on the edge of the dock. Then one of the machine gun bedecked guys that were searching the boat, picked up that the life raft is out of service. I argued for an hour that a life raft service is valid for 2 years and it was a mistake of the service outfit in Malaysia that they put a date of service but not an expiry date on the thing. We eventually came to a deal - I wouldn’t report that the visa was dropped in the drink by one of their guys, and carol would to all intents, loose it tomorrow, (or their man would be in serious trouble) and they would overlook the life raft and let us go.

 

They left the boat and we were in the process of casting off when we were further detained by the port captains office. Thence ensued a meeting in the port captains office with the agent, me, the navy officer with whom I did the original deal, another kevlar and colt wearing marine looking type and 2 guys from the port captains office. They insisted we return to the ship yard and have the life raft serviced next week before they would let us leave. Then they came up with another one which was the H.F. radio we don’t have. Sat phones so far as they are concerned don't negate the need for an SSB even if we do have two sat phones. This all meant re-clearing in and going through the immigration and Port Captains process again.

 

The net result was that I made them an offer. If they looked after me in terms of letting us leave, I would look after them to the tune of $100USD each ($400). There was a lot of banter about this as they all had to agree to have a deal and each time it was raised, one didn’t. After arriving there at 1100hrs this morning, at 3.30pm we came to an agreement. They gave me a second report that said we had had the life raft serviced, and I gave them the $400 I had taken to the office in my wallet for the purpose. The SSB wasn't mentioned and you have never seen a ship leave the dock with greater dispatch!

 

Hallelujah!! Corruption is alive and well and living in Mexico. The irony is that this military post was set up at the entrance because of the corruption that had fishing boats doing more drug running an body dumping than fishing.

 

So that’s Mexico behind us- the passage down to Panama was relatively uneventful. Caught a yellow fin tuna most days and on the 2 we didn’t, we caught a Mahi Mahi.

 

There have been 6 hurricanes on our track so far this season. You don’t hear about them on the news unless they hit land and cause all sorts of mayhem and destruction, but they’re there. So we timed our departure well and slipped down to panama with no more than 30kts, and most days ‘light and variable’. Not a lot of sun but very hot and humid. Water temperature in excess of 30C (good for spawning hurricanes). Most days would start out with bout 50% cloud cover and as the day progresses in come the heavy rain squalls. By nightfall there were usually serious thunderstorms with fork lightning cracking down and simultaneous thunder not much more than 25-30kts wind, but they definitely get your attention.

 

Arrived in Panama on Wednesday 8^th Aug. 0800hrs - 10 days 17 hrs from Mazatlan. And hopeful for an early transit maybe Saturday.

 

More later.

 

 

Some well set up locals fishing in the lagoon.

 

 

 

Some not so well set up locals fishing in the lagoon.

 

 

Some guys are really good at casting those nets. This guy isn’t one of them.

 

 

That’s her. Built in 1907 in Norway. Slipped again so the ship yard can adjust the variable pitch prop.

 

 

Mexican ship yard workers flat out resetting the variable pitch prop.

 

 

 

 

Some of the huge shrimp boat fleet waiting for the season to start again  in September.

 

 

A couple of the local “meet and greet” team sharpening their claws on the fishing boat in front of us before they come and have a crack at us.

 

 

1st Mate Ray, like all of us, pleased to see the back of Mazatlan on our first night out. Tough conditions for a first night as you can see.

 

 

Passed myriads of turtles coming down to Panama. Many, like this one,  had a hitchhiker.