Bye Bye Barra, Hello Zihuatenejo

The more things change, the more they stay the same. We spent the next week getting ready to head south, finally deciding to wait another day to see what the resort had decth eided about us. Tuesday came and went, so I inquired on Wed. morning and was invited toHe an evening meeintroduced with the director of the resort. He was busy and sent the food and beverage manager in his place. They offered to replace all the items for which we could produce an original sales invoice, and free moorage for the remainder of the month.
Fair enough, too bad we have almost no invoices. Another day or two shopping and getting what invoices we may have together, and off we go.
Thursday morning I head for town, stop for coffee and The coffee shop proprietess asks if I was the one who had a computer stolen and did my wife's name start with a J. If so they recovered the computer at the police station, and we should go retrieve it. Sigh, here we go again.
Next morning, we pop up and head off to the police station in Cihuatlan, accompanied by Jim from Hajime, our neighbor in the marina. Water taxi to Barra, 8 blocks to the bus stop, 30 minutes on the bus, and 8 bocks to the police station, and here we are. They have no idea why we are here, and when we explain, they want to know why we have no report on file for the robbery. After explaining that the marina is in the next state over, Colima, and that we did indeed file a claim in Colima. They seem to be scolding us for not filing a report here, and when we appear confused by their language, they talk louder and faster. They finally go for an interpreter who tells us he doesn't know english, but does know Dino, the harbormaster, so I get he and Dino together on the phone resulting in us being told to let the police handle it and we should come back to the marina.
Off we go to the supermarket, where I find a mount for the TV and a HDMI cable. It is the only supermarket in the area so we get as much supplies as we can carry. While waiting for the bus, Jim introduces me to Tubo, a fermented palm sap based drink, cold and refreshing with peanuts floating in it.
Long day, but not over yet. Dino wants to talk about our visit to Cihuatlan. I have also received an email from the coffee lady saying she talked to her friend Jimmy, and i t is definitely Joan's PC, but it is around the corner from where we went. I show him the e-mail and he wants me to meet with the manager and try to get to the bottom of this. I go see the manager and he pulls in the head of security, and tells him to send some guys with me to check it out. They show up at the boat with a suburban, a driver, 2 security guys and the dockmaster to help with the translation. We show up at the police station, it is high security with a steel door with bullet proof glass and a peephole. A guy in all bulletproof comes out to explain that this is the jail and maybe the ministry of justice is the place for us.
Back to the morning destination for another visit. It's friday after lunch on a fiesta weekend and no one is about. We scare up someone who thinks we should go to the public ministry  down the street because that is where stolen property goes. We head on over, but alas it is friday after lunch on a fiesta weekend. We wait around for half an hour so they can get someone to help us out. Yep, friday etc. Back to the land yacht for the return trip to the marina.
Next day, I return to the coffee shop for some coffee and hopefully some clarification. I ask coffee lady about Jimmy and she points him out to me a couple of doors down on  the  sidewalk. He didn't really know much about it, a mexican friend told him about it.  He called a friend who said it would definitely be at the public ministry, if they had it.
Monday we go to the office to see what is happening. They call security guy, he's in a meeting, but will be down in a bit. Around 3 hours later a guy with .45 in his belt shows up at the door and the security guys and another gunslinger whom I had met previously. The new guy is introduced as the jefe from Jalisco. I tell them about my weekend conversation with Jimmy, we talk about it for a while, and they decide to go talk to the coffee lady, her friend Jimmy, and the mexican guy who told him about the computer. After that, they will go to the public ministry and check on the computer.
I asked on Wed. For a progress report, and was told that the investigation continues. So on thurs. We set out on a shakedown cruise to make sure the boat was working properly. It went well enough that we sailed overnight and spent the next night in Coleta de Campos, 140 miles down the coast. Got up the next morning and sailed to Zihuatenejo, got here around 2 a.m.

Aye Caramba, Trouble in Paradise

After concluding our business in the US, we headed back to Mexico for more sailing adventures. Unfortunately, we were in for an unpleasant surprise upon returning to the boat. The hatch board had been cut with a torch to remove the lock hasp and gain entry. We immediately informed marina security, they appeared as surprised as we were. After each level of security checked it out, we got new and more senior level of security. Everyone seemed to think "this can't happen here". Tell  that to our computers, telvisions, and handheld radios and GPS's. Though not entirely inconceivable, this is a part of travel in a foreign country with a lot of stuff. I went to the justice department wirh the harbormaster, and several levels of security guys the next day to file a formal report. We have been hanging around waiting for a detective to come investgate for about a week now. It is very important that we be here to complete the process. We are getting our slip for free until this happens.
It is just as well, as I have determined that our inability to stop the boat with reverse power appears to be a transmission problem. When we had the local gringo mechanic take a look, he pointed out a coolant leak likely caused by a corroded exhaust manifold. He proposes that we pull the transmission and engine, and take it to his shop for evaluation. He has never seen a saildrive like we have before. Honest, I didn't mean to punch that tarbaby again and again, but we appear stuck for the moment. A local mechanic is coming by today after lunch to disassemble it and assess the damage. We have a few options at this point, but they will all take some time to happen.
Local mechanic comes by, takes a look, and asks how long I will be here. Upon explaining that we want to be on our way soon, he recommends a friend who can mess with it now, as he is in the middle of a big job and has little time available. The other guy shows up in a couple of hours and looks in the transmission and sees that now and then the gears don't quite slide into place but hit on edge and go no further. The gears have flattened edges from wear and could be replaced if you could find them. In the absence of that, the solution is to  put it in neutral and try again. He takes the manifold off to check for leaks and takes it with him to check and clean the heat exchanger core. We don't see him for three days until visiting day on Thursday.
On thursday, we get two groups of crime scene investigators, detectives and photographers to chronicle what went on with the robbery. In between the two groups the mechanic shows up at the end of the dock, hands me the mainfold all clean and freshly painted, and says ne needs to find O-rings to re-install the heat exchanger. About a 2 minute interchange and he is gone back on the boat and the second group of investigators shows up to check out the boat. Altogether 15 officials visited us and took the details of our stuff, where it was on the boat and where we thought it might have gone. Now we have done our civic duty and the management of the marina will meet to determine fair compensation for our trials and tribulations.
Meanwhile back in the engine room, nothing heard from the mechanic for the rest of the week. On Saturday, the mechanic shows up, but without o-rings as they are made of a triangular material instead of the usual round stuff. We settle on a nice coating of high temp silicone on the old ones and put the engine back together. Alas,the control cable doesn't fit with the new controller, and we need to find another one. So off they go to find a cable and they will come back on Lunes (monday). I tell them they never come when they say and he tells me "hey, it's Mexico, land of manana". I give them my saddest look and say it would please me if they would actually show up on monday.
The guy comes back on monday amazingly, and we see that the new cable doesn't fit either. Turns out to be operator error, I couldn't tell whether the throttle was pull type or push type,  so I just guessed and I guessed wrong. When we sorted that out and switched the controller connection, the throttle worked fine. The new cable is much smoother than the old one, so it is all good.When we fired up the engine, there was a leak at the exhaust elbow. On closer examination, there was a hairline crack in the weld, which we had all overlooked. He came back the next day with a fresh weld on the exhaust elbow, we installed it and everything looks good. Total cost for the repair was about $200us. Pretty amazing as the first guy to come to the boat wanted to take it all back to his shop and charge us aobut $4-6000 for a bunch of stuff we didn't need. "Hold on to your wallet" is my mantra when dealing with Americans in Mexico from now on.
Meanwhile back at the Marina, the local management seems to lack authority to make a final determination, so we will be waiting on the big guns in wherever they hang out to figure it out. We were asked to stay 6 more days and for certain it will be a done deal. Seems like a Mexican standoff, but who knows. Maybe they are hoping we will just leave, absolving them of responsibility, or the police will find our stuff and return it. We still have a little more to do, so we may keep playing a bit longer, and get a few more things off our boat improvement wish list. Sorry, I can't seem to upload pictures without a pc at this time, so use your imagination.