Getting checked in.
22 December 2015 | Durban, South Africa
Bill/Cloudy and cool
We finally had a quiet day with far less wind than what we have experienced since we got here. Puff got unstrapped and launched and the Tohatsu hooked to her stern. While Tracy was gone, I'd hooked the outboard to a hose and put her through a fresh water flush(twice). I'd pulled her spark plugs and made sure they we nice and clean and then ran the motor till she was empty of fuel. She must have liked the attention as she started up on the first pull this morning. It sure brought a smile to my place. Many times, outboard motors and I don't get along but today, all went well. It was time to go ashore and get checked in.
We tied up to the marina dock and got checked in with them. It's $100Rand, about $6.60US per day to anchor off their marina. I think it's more to cover the use of the marina facilities--showers, water, dinghy dock, etc. No big deal except that you pay it wether you go ashore or not. This was our first time ashore and we already owe them $400Rand. While checking into the marina, we were greeted by Bob, the "greeter" for the yacht club. A really nice guy that is there to help all the visiting cruisers. When you come in, you get two free weeks membership plus free internet if you use the club house. Their wifi signal doesn't make it to the anchorage.
Bob was insistent in taking us to Immigration and Customs to check in. We are already checked into South Africa(plus the Durban Police), but since we filed a "flight plan" of our trip along the coast, we have to check in with all the different government agencies and let them know we are here. Now here's what happened in Immigration. There were five people in the office. The "manager" of the office sat in his chair with a phone to his ear. The entire time we were there, he never said a word on the phone. One woman played on her Ipad, another got up and left the room. The third came over and pulled out some papers so we could get checked in. The fourth came over to "help". We discussed when we got in and why we hadn't come down. No problem. Then came "Where are you". Our answer was "We are at anchor off the marina". Next question "Where are you in the marina?" Our answer: "We are not in the marina, we are anchored just off it". Her response: "Oh, so you are not in the harbor." Our response: "No, we are in the harbor at anchor just off the marina". Her response: So where are you in the marina?" Each of us just kept repeating exactly what I typed above, over and over. She just couldn't grasp the concept that we were not in the marina, yet we were in the harbor. It just wasn't happening. Here's what came next: "Well, if we come down there, how will we find you? We need to know where you are in the marina". Bob, from the yacht club was getting a bit upset with her by now and he just told her to put "at anchor" on the form. Now according to the "rules",(not sure who's rules) Immigration is supposed to come to the marina and check us in. We are not supposed to go to them. One boat said he called them three times and each time they promised to come down but never showed up. In the end, the young woman that was filling in the forms wrote "at anchor" on them and the other woman that just could not grasp where we were, stomped off and plunked herself down in a chair across the room and kept her mouth shut. We spoke later in the morning with two men from Norway that are anchored next to us(just off the marina) and they had no problem getting checked in at all. BUT, their paperwork was done by a group of men. Don't know if they understood the situation more or the women that "helped" us just had no clue. In the end, we got it taken care of and the three of us headed for Customs. It was a quick in and out getting help from a nice young lady in Customs. She got the papers taken care of, used our boat stamp, I signed them and off we went. She even gave us some of the papers we will need to get checked out. Back to the yacht club we came and Bob got us each a beer to welcome us formally. We got our temporary membership cards and a nice tour of the facilities. Very nice people and extremely helpful. The marina office called us a cab and we were off for the local shopping center for some provisions and a nice lunch. We were back at the marina by 1500 and Puff was pulled back on deck for night time storage. We ran the generate for about 90 minutes and the batteries were nice and sort of refilled.
We plan on heading in tomorrow(Wednesday)and checking out with another "flight plan". The office will be closing for the holidays on Thursday at 1030(closed Friday) and we don't want to miss it should they decide to close early. We might be a day early but I'd rather be a day early in checking out that have to wait till Saturday to do it and miss part of this weather window. I'll let you know how that goes.