One of the reasons that we came to Isla Mujeres was to get
the boat in a place that prospective buyers could easily travel to see the boat
and there were facilities available for a haul out for the boat survey. We had the boat listed only for 3 months, so we wanted to make sure that our broker had a good chance to sell the boat. As we left Belize, we had an offer and
acceptance, but the brokers and buyer only had May 22 available. After the busy Easter Weekend, we motored
over to La Amada Marina, over by Cancun.
It was an easy 4 NM motor over and we called ahead to reserve a
slip. This would give us time to wash
the boat before the buyers and brokers would arrive on Tuesday.
Heading out of the harbor at Isla Mujeres
Beautiful clear water with strange stripes
The marina was a huge and modern facility. It is located north of Cancun about 10 miles
and it is in the middle of a large condo development. You can tell that it caters to large power
boats, as we were just one of a couple of sailboats in the marina. Actually, the marina was about 90% empty, and
the occupied slips had large power boats.
We received assistance getting tied up in our slip. The dock fingers were all concrete, but only
came out about 20 feet. The set up wasn't
too convenient for a sailboat, but we managed to get tied up and secured. We spent the next few hours washing the boat
and polishing the stainless. The boat
looked great!!!
Entrance to la Amada Marina
Mom guiding me into the marina entrance
One of the small yachts tied up here :)
Getting tied up in our slip
Finishing up the dock lines
That night we figured out why there wasn't too many
liveaboards in the marina. The 10 feet
high concrete walls that surround the marina block all of the ocean
breeze. This might be good for the power
boats with A/C running full blast, but it made it hot for us. The other issue was the large population of mosquitoes
that took advantage of the light winds to come torment us! It was a long sleepless night!
The next morning, the surveyor, brokers, and possible buyer
all showed up, ready to take the boat. I
decided to head into Cancun with all of the boat papers to try to temporally
import the boat, something that has to be
done if the boat is in Mexican waters for more than 7 days. So I left the boat in the care of the
brokers, mom headed to the laundry room to wash clothes, and Kathi and I caught
a taxi. Kathi was heading to the airport
to head home, and I was heading over to the port captain for the importation. It was going to be long day!
Ready for the buyers and brokers
Brokers, buyer, and the surveyor crawling all over the boat
They are off on the sea-trial! Fair winds!!!
Travel lift waits for the survey
The importation of the boat was supposed to be a 30 minute
process and only costs $52, so I was hopeful in getting it done quickly. I have heard stories about how the lady that
was working there never accepted the paperwork in your first visit. I had Julio, our agent, get all of my
paperwork together, so I expected a smooth process. As I approached the lady, I spoke a greeting
in Spanish. She then continued on in
Spanish, and I tried to follow the best that I could. She never said anything about speaking
English, so I just assumed that she didn't know. We went back and forth for a few minutes, her
asking for specific papers and me providing them. After all of the papers were together, and I
thought that I was home free, she said that she needed a notarized paper stating
that I was CEO and President of MokaKat Sailing Inc, the LLC that the boat is
titled to. I tried to show her all of
the letters that stated me as President, but they were not notarized. I explained that this would be impossible to
get before my 7 days expired, but she said that it was required. Uggg..this day was turning out to be longer
than I thought and it was just 10:00 am!
I returned back to the marina and checked in on the boat survey. It looked like the boat was still sitting at
the haulout facility, waiting on the haul out.
There was a large powerboat on the travel lift, so much for planning and
scheduling. I headed over to the Captain’s
Lounge at the marina, which had US TV and Internet! Several hours later, the survey was done and
the boat was back in the slip. Since the
brokers and buyers were finished and heading back to the airport, I decided
that I had enough of La Amada Marina, and we checked out! It was a very nice place, but just not for sailboat
liveaboards without A/C and at $65 per night, a little expensive!
One nice surprise that we got was that my good friend James,
his wife Kim, and their son Jeremy had been in Cancun for a week or so prior to
our arriving, and were planning on staying a couple days with us on the
boat! They arrived at the marina just
after we checked out, hopped on board.
We then headed back over to Isla Mujeres and anchored before it got
dark. We enjoyed the sunset and relaxed
back in the cool breezes of the anchorage!
Beautiful sunset in Isla Mujeres harbor
Happy Sailing on MokaKat!
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