Cress here.
Well we have cleared Darwin harbour under zero wind conditions.
Why would we leave if there is no wind?
Good Question.
Its mostly because once the Australian wheels of process began to turn two days ago on our exiting out procedure, there really was no turning back unless we were prepared to re-engage the customs tar baby and start all over again.
You know they say Australian's make great wines but I say its nothing compared to my whine. Listen. Here goes. We made five man trips to the customs office downtown to enter into the country, and 8 man trips to leave. Three days before we even reached shore, we were buzzed twice - on two consecutive days - by the Australian Coast Watch aircraft, and immediately interrogated both times on the radio as to who we were, where we were going, and what we intended to do there. Not only that, they read out
a passage on the radio about what the law says about not being able touch down anywhere but at an official port of entry - after we had just told them that is where we were headed, to Darwin. On top of this, when we docked, five officials came on board, they took all our meat provisions, all of our vegetables and spices and made us fill out about 15 forms. They sent down two divers to decontaminate the boat and then we had to leave the boat for 14 hours because we could not use our plumbing. And
oh yes, because it was Sunday, they charged us $417 in overtime wages for the pleasure of their company. Gosh, when was the last time customs charged you at the airport when you flew in somewhere on a Sunday?
Am I done? Well no, not quite.
All the men and woman who conducted this process were unfailing polite and friendly, I guess because they we glad to have such a great job. They seemed to really like hanging around all day dreaming up more things for us to do. What fun it must be to come along in a nice crisp uniform, lay out the law and process for us and then to watch us do all the work, coming and going, filling out forms - mostly with the same information on each. One four page form I filled out twice. I even got to carry our
20 kilograms of meat and vegetables to their impound car, and to keep the taxi and car rental business happy as we made all the trips to their office.
So that's my great Australian Whine! Not bad ehh? I feel much better now for it, especially as I don't have to pay any taxes on it, and I don't have to fill out any more damn Australian Customs forms. I had the last laugh because they didn't notice I failed to make an extra trip downtown to get a mooring permit to tie up in a marina. Hah! Ha! HA!
Maybe I would be in better humor if there was some wind.
Hey, what's this? Looks like a nice Australian Merlot........
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