We made a boat trip from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas in December 2015. What follows is a series of blogs with updated information on the several places we stopped on the way.
First stop was Ensenada where we went to Cruise Port Village Marina. Jonathon the dockmaster helped us with port clearance. The CIS office on the waterfront contains all the agencies necessary to get the job done. We made it in 45 minutes start to finish an all-time record. We have to compare that to the bad old days when it was at least a half day and in some other Mexican ports all day of running around from one end of town to the other to the various necessary offices and banks.
Mexico is trying to set the internet up for you to do some of these things in advance, but so far we’ve found this to be ponderous and really it’s much quicker just to do it all in Ensenada provided you have all the necessary documents:
Valid ship’s document
Passports for each crew member
Crew List
Engine serial numbers (for the temporary import permit TIP)
Insurance (to show the marina)
What you get with all this: Tourist Cards, TIP, Fishing Licenses. Stamped crew list from the port captain showing you have cleared in.
Fito the dockmaster at Marina Coral also helps you with paperwork. For more details read our Mexico Boating Guide.
