it's worked perfectly ever since. We have become big fans of electric heads. Of the 148 skippers in this year's Baja Ha-Ha, Dennis Thompson of the Seattlebased Pearson 40 Dream Catcher was one of the few who sailed all three legs — even though the third leg sailing was canceled because of a lack of wind. Thompson was also unusual in that he has one of the more distant ultimate destinations — Norway. We thought only John Neal and Amanda Swan Neal of the Friday Harbor-based Hallberg-Rassy 46 Mahina Tiare III wanted to sail to 'the land of the midnight sun'. But Thompson, a delivery skipper, wants to sail to Norway because he has family there. Thompson actually didn't want to sail all three legs, but he had to because of problems with his fuel system. Indeed, his boat had been bedeviled by fuel problems ever since he left Seattle. Didn't we just mention something about fuel problems? "Can you publish Cabo ship agent Victor Barreda's contact information again?" asks Michael Balfany. "The boat I recently purchased had a TIP
(Temporary Import Permit) obtained by Victor, and I need to get it canceled. I know, I know, please don't lecture me as I should have known better, thanks to the advice in fantastic Latitude, than to have bought a boat that already has a TIP. But my newto-me boat is hobbled until I can get the TIP cancelled." Michael and everyone else who needs TIP help can look up Victor Barreda, ship's agent, Cabo San Lucas, on Google. He can be reached by email at: agebarr@ prodigy.net.mex. The Wanderer saw Victor not an hour before he wrote this item, and Barreda said that he'd checked about 90 of the 148 Ha-Ha boats into Mexico this year. Just to keep things confusing, Neil Shroyer of Marina de La Paz wrote Latitude to say there is actually nothing in Mexican law that says a boat can't have two TIPs. Shroyer is one of the few people
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IN LATITUDES
Ship's agent Victor Barreda, lower left, checked about 90 Ha-Ha boats into Mexico last month. But as he'll tell you, you can do it yourself.
in Mexico who has the patience to actually read Mexican law. We haven't asked him, but we're pretty sure Neil would tell you that no matter what the law says, it's best to do what officials and most marinas demand — which is that there only be one TIP per boat, and that it be in the name of the current owner. While a lot of Ha-Ha entrants had no trouble getting a new TIP online, others had difficulty. Which makes it so exas-
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Latitude 38
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