The Customs and Immigration Shuffle
27 February 2008 | Boqueron Puerto Rico
Capt Chris, sun sun sun, 80's
I snapped this picture just as I was heading to bed late yesterday afternoon. It is just lovely with all the palms swaying in the breeze and because it is an offshore breeze the waters near shore are tranqual. The cruising fleet as we speak are cooking up a plan for a big beach fire and cook out. Now the little town of Boqueron appears to be a little beach type community, certainly not affluent but not dirt poor either. I am still trying to get a handle on my surroundings. I have located the all important wi-fi connection and laundry mat. I think that the town observes the sacred siesta rules. Yesterday about 3pm the town was dead, ghost town like. I am very pleased however. Glen from Hearts Desire came by this morning for some coffee. We chatted for awhile and both of us agree we feel like five hundred pounds have been lifted from our shoulders with the Mona Passage being astern. I awoke this morning as if someone had been feeding me intravenous happy drugs. I took a swim while the coffee maker was brewing, I came back aboard and sat under my new awning in the early morning sun. Beautiful. Of course I turn on the news on my Sirius Sat Radio to hear about single digits and snow and I acknowledge how disconnected I am from such a situation. Not to rub it in, but today coming out of the Supermarket air conditioning I was hit by that blast furnace feeling that develops on a hot summer day in a black top parking lot. Beautiful.
Ok so onto the paperwork shuffle. Boqueron is not a port of entry so 11 of us chartered a van from Raul, the local guy. All ports have a local guy who caters to people like us with our unique problems. So we headed up the coast 15 miles or so to the commercial port of Mayaquez. I intially was going to call at Mayaquez but I had such good conditions and plenty of daylight I decided to keep going south to Boqueron. Anyway we arrived at the cruise ship terminal and took care of all the particulars. Then we headed to the Customs building downtown to finish up. The Canadian fleet had a ton of paperwork and they had to get their years cruising permit. Foreign yachts only can stay a year and then they must leave the US for at least two weeks and then reapply for another permit. Because I am so handsome and a US citizen I didn't have to go through all the hocus pocus. On our way back home we stopped at the Publico supermarket, which had everything you could ever want, except the only thing I wanted. I miss my Coffee Mate French Vanilla Creamer. I couldn't get any in the Bahamas, I found one jug in the Turks and Caicos and of course Dom Rep had nothing but "Free Range" creamer. Maybe my next port of call. So that's that.
It usually takes two to three days after a passage to get situated. I mean the boat still is very dirty, salt encrusted everywhere. I took on so much water over the bow the coveted v-bunks cushions are saturated with salt water and I could go on and on.