There is a surprising amount of paperwork that comes with the cruising life. Each time we enter or leave a country, we must clear in or out with Customs and Immigration. It’s similar to what one does at airports when flying internationally. The process is straight forward and streamlined at airports. It’s not as streamlined for boats.
When arriving at a new country, we must ensure that we arrive at an official Arrival Port. This means a port that has Immigration and Customs offices. Once arrived, we have to find the offices. It’s not always easy. They are rarely together.
Sometimes when arriving at a new country, one must stay on one’s boat, contact the officials via the VHF radio and then wait for them to come to the boat. When at the boat, the officials will sometimes search the boat for items that are not allowed into the country—popcorn and honey seem to be banned products in much of the South Pacific.
One thing that is for certain, is that there are many forms to complete. Often, they are forms that I have already completed and emailed prior to our arrival. It doesn’t matter. I usually have to fill them in again.
More and more we’re finding that countries want an Advance Notice of Arrival. This involves completing a multipage form with information about the boat and people on board. Most countries require that the document is submitted at least 48 hours before arrival. We usually send the form a few days before we depart on a passage in hopes that we will hear back confirming that our paperwork has been received and is in order. It’s hit and miss that we will hear back. Many times, we leave for a new place without hearing anything. We just assume that if there is a problem, we’ll sort it out when we get there.
This is what happened before leaving Fiji. We didn’t hear back from Vanuatu. To add to the confusion, we weren’t planning to arrive at an official Port of Entry. We wanted to make landfall at Port Resolution on Tanna Island but Port Resolution is not an official Port of Entry. The official Port of Entry on Tanna is Lenakel which is on the west side of the island—about 25 nm from Port Resolution. It’s downwind from Port Resolution. To clear in at Lenakel one would have to sail past Port Resolution for an additional four or five hours. In order to see Port Resolution and its volcano, one would then have to sail back upwind to Port Resolution. As sailors, we avoid sailing upwind as much as possible. Most sailors do.
Vanuatu understands this difficulty, so they make allowances for boats to arrive at Port Resolution. Several times a week Customs and Immigration officials drive across the island from Lenakel to clear boats. There is an additional fee for this but many boats feel this is worth the money. We did.
One needs written permission to clear in at Port Resolution. We submitted the required paperwork several days before we departed Fiji but as I mentioned previously, we didn’t receive a response back from Vanuatu Customs.
We weren’t the only ones that didn’t hear from Customs. The lack of response was a common thread on various WhatsApp and Facebook groups. On the passage, I used the Iridium Go to email several times seeking clarification and permission but heard nothing. The problem was compounded by the fact that our Starlink didn’t work on this passage so I couldn’t check the email account I had used originally to file the documents.
When we were just a few miles away the Starlink began to work. I checked my email account but still there was no response. Approaching the entrance to Port Resolution I called on the VHF radio for anyone in the harbour to see if someone could give us some advice. A fellow cruiser answered my call and said they had had the same problem when they arrived a week before. They said they just anchored and later that day Customs called them on the radio and asked them to come ashore and clear into the country. It wasn’t a problem that they did not have permission to arrive to Port Resolution.
Based on their experience, we entered the harbour and dropped anchor. An hour or two after we’d dropped the hook, we received an email from Customs giving us permission to make landfall at Port Resolution. Later, when we met with the Customs officials, they were apologetic. The requests to clear in at Port Resolution are handled by officers in the capital, Port Villa, not by the officials on the ground on Tanna Island. I mentioned to the Customs Officer that we knew of two other boats on their way to Vanuatu who, like us, had not received permission to arrive at Port Resolution. The officer said they should just come. It won’t be a problem he said.
Bureaucracy, and the challenges it brings, seem to be universal.
Cormacks On Cambria 