With the start of the 18th — ‘Barely Legal’ — Baja Ha-Ha less than six weeks away, we’re getting a few letters about clearing into Mexico. This is all covered in Latitude‘s ‘First Timers Guide to Cruising Mexico’, which Ha-Ha’ers can find in their registration packet or you can read directly from the Ha-Ha site. But it’s so simple we can cover the basics in a few sentences. 

1) Every boat must carry a copy of their state registration or federal documentation.
2) Every crewmember must have a passport.
3) Every boat must clear in at their first port of entry. For the Ha-Ha boats, this will be Cabo San Lucas.

1) If you plan on checking into a marina, you may be required to have a copy of your boat insurance — assuming that you have it. Many cruisers self-insure. We’re not exactly sure how marinas deal with such boats.

2) You can get Mexican fishing licenses online, at tackle shops in San Diego, Turtle Bay or Cabo. If you have any fishing equipment aboard, you must have a license for every crewmember, regardless of age and whether or not they’ll ever hold a pole.
3) If you want to get a 10-Year Import Permit for your boat — something you’ll eventually want if you spend more than a few months in Mexico — you can either get one online or at various ports in Mexico. Because there is no army bank in Cabo or Puerto Vallarta, you can’t get one in either of those places. But you can get one in La Paz, Mazatlan or Manzanillo. This is nothing to be worried about.
4) The other ports of entry along the Baja coast are Ensenada, Cedros Village, and Mag Bay. If you stop at any of these prior to arriving in Cabo, you’ll have to clear in at whichever you stop at first. For the record, Issac Lopez, our friend and the port captain at Cedros Village, which has a nice little harbor, says he’d love to clear boats into Mexico. Make sure you say ‘hello’ to him from his amiga Doña. And for the first time ever, Ha-Ha boats may — we can’t guarantee it — be able to clear in at Bahia Santa Maria.

You can clear in yourself, or you can have an agent do it for you. It takes a few hours to do yourself, but it’s usually a bit of fun, and can save you $50 to $75. That’s about eight to ten dinners at the kind of places we eat at in Mexico. But it’s all a matter of how important time and money are to you. In any event, each crewmember has to pay about $25 for his/her tourist visa, there is some boat fee of $30 or so, and maybe a few other small charges. But you’re not going to get gouged as you might at places such as Greece or Anguilla.

One of the biggest surprises first-time cruisers usually have upon arriving in Mexico is how just friendly everyone is. We’re talking about everyone from the man on the street, the woman working in a store, the kids playing on the beach, the port officials, the police, the park rangers — everyone! And they aren’t doing it because they have to or somebody at corporate headquarters sent out a memo, they’re just wired that way. So as long as you’re not one of the very few arrogant and aggressive Americans who tries to bully everyone in your path, the kind disliked the world over, you’re in for a very pleasant surprise.

The more we know of the world of cruising, the more we come to appreciate having such a terrific — and large — cruising ground as Mexico so close. We were reminded of this by a recent email from Jim and Kent Milski of the Colorado based Schionning 49 cat Sea Level, who spent a couple of seasons cruising in Mexico before setting sail across the Pacific. They write: "We just arrived in Bali, where we plan to leave our boat for a couple of months to go home to see the kids and friends. We know you’ll probably be in Mexico — which is still one of the best cruising grounds in the world."