Getting spare parts for your boat in the sea of cortez
Updated 21 Aug 2022
The old adage that the cruising life is mostly boat maintenance in exotic locations is no less true in the Sea of Cortez. In this article I'll detail what you can find in the country and where, and share our strategy for getting spares (and upgrades) into the country when you can't get what you need locally or when it's so expensive you're getting cramps in your arm from squeezing your wallet so hard.
Finding parts in Mexico can be a bit hit or miss, there's a huge boating community, and there is a reasonably well established industry in popular cruising locations which can supply, make, or refurbish parts.
Generally speaking, we try to carry spares and consumables for the coming six to twelve months, when something breaks that we weren't expecting, we typically buy two replacements so we have a spare unless they are really a freak failure, and or super expensive.
What you can find easily
You'd be surprised at what you can find locally, and even what you can have rebuilt or repaired here, often at a fraction of the price you might expect to pay back home.
Seals, Bearings, and Generic Parts
I've had to replace a bunch of oil and water seals over the last four years, these have been:
Perkins 4108 Rear Crankshaft seal
Perkins 4108 Front Crankshaft seal
Paragon P200 Main Bearing, and full set of seals
Raw water pump water seal and bearing
Fresh water pump seals and bearings
In all but one of these cases I was able to get them off the shelf from an auto parts store. Bearings and Seals of La Paz was especially helpful.
Generally it is easier to take the dimensions of the part you want, (Or take the part you need a replacement for with you) or a part number from SKF/Timkin rather than a marine part number from say paragon. It might surprise you, but bearings and seals are pretty standardized, and most manufacturers use an off-the-shelf part for cost and convenience which means that $200 part from Volvo is probably just a standard $20 seal from SKF with a $180 markup for 'marinizing' it.
The same goes for engine parts, if you have a marinized engine that's based on Kubota (Like a Beta or Nanni) or a westerbeke (Perkins based) you can often find the part you might need at an auto factor, or even autozone. Good examples of this kind of thing are solenoids and relays (Contactors) for your starter, injection pumps and alternators.
If your starter or alternator fails, it's usually easy to get them rebuilt in Mexico, this will usually involve them being rewound, and having new bearings and bushes, and having the commutator machined. We had a motor for our water maker repaired, it cost us around $200 peso. A replacement from the manufacturer would have cost around $800USD.
Boat Specific Parts In Country
There are a few chandleries in La Paz, San Carlos/Guaymas, and Loreto which stock most consumables for your boat, such as filters, impellers, zincs, that sort of thing, as well as the stuff you tend to do odd jobs like cables, hose, plumbing fittings, that sort of thing.
Cleaning solutions, especially generic ones rather than brand names are easy to find, TSP, Teak brightener, that sort of thing.
Ferremar in La Paz, and Loreto are usually well stocked, but often you'll need to run around town a bit to find what you need. Often you'll also need to compromise, for example I had a 5/8" raw water hose which was starting to fail, i had to replace it quickly which meant i ended up having to buy sanitation hose which was the only thing in the right size available whilst I waited on stuff being shipped in from the US.
Bottom Paint
We've gotten our bottom paint by ordering it to Tucson, but you may find it's actually easier or cheaper to get it in Mexico. In Guaymas the fishing cooperative sell 5 gallon drums of bottom paint for a pretty decent price. Interlux can also order it in if they don't already have it in stock.
Mexico marine stock sea-hawk brand paints and can ship them to you all over Mexico.
Zaragoza marine also stock bottom paint, as do most of the chandleries in and around La Paz, but don't expect a bargain on your favorite paint there.
Buying Online
You'd be surprised what you can get delivered online from mainland Mexico - Zaragoza Marine in Puerto Vallarta, and Mexico Marine all ship, and have relatively competitive pricing. It's often worth calling them if you can't find it on their website as they unfortunately don't list their inventory that well.
Amazon deliver to all the marinas we've stayed at, and usually the delivery time is a lot less than the quoted delivery time on the amazon site - usually parts turn up in 2-3 days rather than the 5-6 quoted.
If you can't find it on the amazon.com.mx site, it's worth trying on the US site, as there are quite often a mismatch in both pricing, and availability between the two. We've found a lot of semi-consumable parts this way from bulbs, wire, electrical components, thermostats, fenders, boat hooks, that sort of thing. It's also very convenient for every day items too. Mercado Libre can also be a good bet, it's safe and secure but a bit of a pain in the ass as you are dealing with individual merchants so things tend to be more laborious.
Defender and West Marine all ship to Mexico. Delivery from either of them is pretty reasonable and is relative to the weight of the item. You'll pay about 20% over on top of whatever the value of your shopping cart was when you pick it up from DHL or UPS.
Be aware that DHL will slap an admin fee of about USD10 on any item which requires duties to be paid, which will then also be taxed. This is less annoying on a $1000 order, but if you just needed something cheap it can be infuriating when you pay more in admin fees than you did on duties.
Defender typically deliver to Mexico in a few days, not much longer than US delivery. West Marine often want to speak to you before dispatching the order because they can't believe anybody is capable of typing in an address correctly. This has resulted in a 2-week delay on our order because we were offline whilst we cruised to the marina - not their finest moment but the part turned up quickly after they dispatched it.
The main issue you'll have ordering from Defender or West Marine is simply the size or weight of items, if it's above a certain size (Think dinghys) or weight (Anchor chain) or contains anything remotely dangerous (Cleaning lotions and potions, epoxy, etc) then they wont be able to ship it.
Freight Forwarders
In Baja, ACV logistics have the import game down, they don't deal with customers directly, so you have to use a third party. The way this works is you ship it to a warehouse in San Diego, and about 2 weeks later it turns up in Baja. You pay shipping from Tijuana to wherever you want it delivered, and you pay a fixed percentage based on the value of the goods being imported. This is typically in the 20-30% range, but it does include the import fees.
A lot of people use Carlos at Deko Marine - we tried this once, and ended up having to pay duty twice, which was mostly bad luck, but also down to just poor processes, we'd do it again if we needed to, but given the markup involved we were a bit disappointed. Carlos did promise to sort it out, but we were flying back, and it never really got sorted out properly, it wasn't worth making a song and dance about at the time. Carlos does however generally have the cheapest rates
Baja Mail and Ship also offer this, and you can collect it from their offices which saves you some shipping domestically. The Borens also offer this service at La Paz cruisers supply, they charge the highest rate, but they are great people to deal with, and would trust that they would make sure anything you order gets to you in one piece.
The Tucson Dash
If you are in San Carlos, you can also do a dash up to Tucson. We typically do this when we're hauled out for a biennial refit. The drive from Guaymas to the border takes about 5 hours, and once across the border (Anything from five minutes to hours depending on traffic) its another hour or so to Tucson.
Transport
We typically rent a car from Europcar at Hermosillo Airport, unless we need something really awkwardly sized, we rent the cheapest car we can. Unless you rent something fancy you're going to get a Chevy Shit Box (Usually an Aveo, but sometimes a beat) regardless of what it says on the booking website.
This is typically in the 25USD a day range including insurance. On top of that you'll need US insurance which they charge about 10USD a day for. You only need this for the days you are going to be in the USA, so it's ok if you want a car for a week to run around in.
We've found Europcar at HMO to be the cheapest option, especially for a week or more, and we usually time this in for when we arrive or are leaving so we can just pick the car up at the airport and head stateside, or conversely finish everything and drop the car off before we fly out.
The drive up and down is on highway 15, which is a toll road, so take some pesos (cash only) for the toll booths.
Crossing the Border Northbound
When you get to Nogales, we take the freight route, which takes you to the Mariposa crossing. The border guard will ask you why you are visiting the US, then if like me you are not a US (or Canadian) citizen, you'll get escorted into the office to pay for your formalities, get your passport stamped, and fill in the immigration form.
They will also ask you about the car, be sure to explain it's a rental, and probably because it's a rental, you'll be sent for an additional inspection, this is pretty straight forward, you'll drive through a big backscatter x-ray machine, then when you are in the office, they will have a check of your car to make sure you haven't got anything you shouldn't have.
This can be quite intimidating the first time, especially if you are not used to land border crossings, I'm a seasoned traveller, and spend a lot of time in the middle east and north Africa, so I'm no stranger to border guards. However apparently I'm not used to a bunch of guys dressed like imperial storm troopers asking me questions about why i'm going into the middle of the desert to buy boat parts, or what year my rental car is etc, so I felt a bit flustered the first time.
Regardless, my experience with the actual people there is that they are professional, and generally aren't trying to give you a hard time, they have a difficult job to do, and if you just answer clearly and explain what you are doing, you wont have any real issues.
The last time I crossed, the guy was super friendly and explained the whole process before we got started, which I wish they had done the first time as it would have helped me understand what i was supposed to be doing.
Note. The visa waiver (ESTA) is not valid at the land border here, so you must have a B1/B2 visa to cross this way. This isn't an issue for Americans or Canadians, but I believe for other countries you must have a visa. I'm not an immigration lawyer, and I already have a B1/B2 visa, so i've never dug into this much, but be warned.
Where to send packages
We book a hotel and stay the night in Tucson, usually at the airport and have most stuff shipped there. It's worth checking in with the hotel before you order anything big or heavy just to let them know. To put it in perspective, we ordered about 10 different packages, including 4 massive solar panels to our hotel there and nobody batted an eye lid.
If you need to have something shipped freight, then it's usually best to collect it from the depot, and you can usually arrange this even for regular packages shipped with UPS, DHL, etc. This makes life a lot easier as you can just rock up whenever suits, pick up everything that was delivered and if there's an issue you can deal with it directly rather than playing he-said-she-said with the hotel, shipper, and supplier.
Pakmail also allow package delivery, and can be a good option if you just want to go there and back in a day.
The Return Trip
Heading back to Mexico couldn't be simpler, you basically head south to the border, and the key here is whatever you do, do not blink because you'll miss it. If you are traveling on a US visa, you need to return this through a mailbox just before the border itself. It's not signposted, don't expect to see it if you're blasting through at 85mph, and if you overshoot, you're gonna have a really long day. (Don't ask me how I know...)
We asked the Border Guard on our way up the next time to show us exactly where it was, and it's pretty obvious if you know what to look for.
Once you drop off your form, that's it, you're in Mexico. About a mile or so later you'll come to a set of traffic lights. If you are carrying more than your duty free allowance (Around 600USD per person) you should stop and declare. The first time we did this we ended up in the wrong lane and were somehow waved through despite almost scraping the ground, but the fine can be quite steep if you are accused of intensionally importing something illegally.
If you do get stopped, you'll typically pay 16% of the value of the goods, so make sure you take the receipts for them, or you'll pay whatever the customs agent decides their worth, which is usually the first price they find online. You can pay cash or card.
If you need an FMM, you should then stop at KM17 which is about another ten miles down the road, again blink and you'll miss it, but it's a bit easier to get back to, you can just do a couple of U-turns and pull in. You'll do some paperwork, then go pay, then bring the receipt back, everything gets stamped, and you are on your way.
From there you just haul ass back to Guaymas/San Carlos, with an optional Costco stop, and you're good to go.
Lukeville Express
We haven't done this as we haven't ever hauled out in Penasco, but from what I understand you can drive up from Penasco to Lukeville, there's a gas station about 100 yards from the border which accept packages for a small fee, and you can be back in the boat yard in no time at all, or obviously continue up to Pheonix or Tucson if you need to.
All the information regarding procedures and options for Tucson should be the same or similar for this route, and we would probably take full advantage of this.