A Rough Day Checking In At Cocos
We didn't have enough copies of our papers: they
asked us to get two copies at immigration for our boat
documentation.
...Back in the port
captain's office, the officials were telling Eric that he needed another copy of
his passport.
...On the way walking
back to the port captain's office, we stopped by immigration again because we
thought they might have a copy
machine.
...They worked it out so that
the port captain was short the required forms, and gave his copies to the
customs guys.
We left Bahia Santa Elena yesterday to head to
Cocos to check in with Sula. We had an amazing sail the first half with wind aft
and abeam from 15 - 25 knots. We made great time. The wind died about 15 miles
out from Cocos though, and we were stuck motoring the rest of the
way.
We stayed the night at Playa de
Panama, which is a bay about 3 miles north of Cocos. The conditions there were
pretty good. Not too rolly, just a little. All in all, a nice place. The
cruising guides make it sound like Bahia de Culebra is a completely developed
place. We had visions of Puerto Vallarta or Acapulco in mind, but it is nothing
like that. In the huge 10 miles of shoreline in the bay, there are 4 hotels, and
they aren't monstrosities, they are fairly well blended in with the natural
landscaping.
This morning, we headed
over to Cocos to check in. Cocos is a nice little town. The anchorage is
somewhat rolly. We all went into town as Eric and I did the check-in
cha-cha.
We first hit the port
captain's office. There we showed our papers and after about 45 minutes got the
OK to go to immigration. The port captain also called customs in Liberia (about
1/2 hour away) to come out to clear us into the country. We didn't have enough
copies of our papers: they asked us to get two copies at immigration for our
boat documentation.
We headed to
immigration, which is a 1/2 mile away. They were nice too, and after another 45
minutes, we had our passports stamped and were ready to go. We asked about the
extra copies of the documentation, thinking that immigration had a copy machine
and would give us the copies. They said we had all the copies we
needed.
We were due back at the port
captain's office at 2 PM to meet the immigration folks. It was 1 PM, so we went
to find the wives and kids and have lunch. We finished lunch in a hurry and
rushed back to the port captain's office at 2. Then we waited for a half hour
until they showed up.
Eric was called
first. While he was getting his paperwork done, it started raining hard. Well,
we had left our boat open (because we weren't expecting it to take 4 hours to
check in) and we needed to go back out to the boat to close up. I ran out to
find Roma and give her the kill
switch.
When I found her and said she
needed to go out to the boat, she about killed me. She doesn't like doing dinghy
things herself, and it is hard for her to get the dinghy down the beach and into
the water. Melissa from Sula said she'd help out. I ran back to the port
captain, but not before Roma gave me the dagger-eyes. If looks could kill, I'd
be dead.
Back in the port captain's
office, the officials were telling Eric that he needed another copy of his
passport. He didn't have another
copy.
They took a look at my papers.
They said they needed another copy of my boat documentation. I didn't have
another copy.
They asked us to quickly
go down the street to the internet place and copy shop and make a copy of each
required document. We did, but the place was closed. We went back to the office.
They said they couldn't make a copy, but they thought there was another place
around the corner, but there wasn't. Then they said we needed to go down to the
supermarket and there was a copy shop upstairs. All the while, the customs guys
from Liberia wanted to leave, so we had to
hurry.
We walked down to the
supermarket, about 3/4 mile away. Unfortunately, the copy machine in the copy
shop was out of order! Ugh! On the way walking back to the port captain's
office, we stopped by immigration again because we thought they might have a
copy machine. Uh, no.
We went back to
the port captain. They worked it out so that the port captain was short the
required forms, and gave his copies to the customs guys. So now we just need to
print a couple more copies on our boats and go back in tomorrow and give him the
required docs.
Later that evening, it
poured hard. Gage had a great time swimming in the ocean in the rain until the
lightning started, at which time he had to get
out.
Just as we were going to head over
to Sula for dinner, Roma noticed our freezer had stopped working. Sure enough,
it looked like there was a blockage in the system somewhere because the
compressor was running but the liquid wasn't flowing through the evaporator
plate.
With Eric's help (he's been
dealing with the exact same issue for months), I got the freezer working again.
It turns out that some water must be in the system and it freezes and causes a
blockage. The "fix" is to heat the copper tubing where you think the ice is.
This frees the blockage and the system starts working again.
Posted: Tue - June 28, 2005 at 10:51 AM