109. Red Tape

I’m on my way to Langkawi from Pangkor. Before leaving Pangkor I had to get my papers photocopied, stamped and filed for the Nth time. At the Immigration, Customs and the Harbour Master offices. It’s in that order when leaving, back to front when arriving. I know this by now as Malaysia has you checking in and out of every port you visit within the country.

This level of red tape is unusual though. In most countries you are only expected to check in when you first arrive and out when you depart for another country. You usually have to present your passport, any required visa and some sort of declaration of what you are bringing with you. Just like as if you arrived at an airport. But when you arrive at an airport it’s fairly easy to check where you arrived from and who and what you are bringing with you. This is less obvious when you arrive on your own keel.

First of all, customs and immigration are not necessarily located in the port where you arrive. They could have their offices in the city centre or at the local airport. Often a cab ride away. But before you jump in to that cab, you need to know if you are expected to go there or if they are coming to you. In countries where they want to inspect your boat they generally come to you first and you can get into a lot of trouble if you go ashore before you have cleared in. The first thing you will be asked is who owns the boat and where you are arriving from. And they expect you to be able ‘prove’ both with a boat registration and a port clearance from the previously visited country (also called a Zarpe or a Despacho). You will also be asked to present a crew list that was stamped when you left that port and you had better show up with the same crew otherwise you will have a lot to explain. In countries that want to see the boat they will primarily be interested in your medicinal and alcohol storage but also ask you if you have anything valuable that you plan to divest in the country. For this reason I’ve found that they often want to record the serial number of the engine. Most of the time though you get away with just stating that what you are bringing is ‘ship storage’. A term that is vague enough for you to get away with a lot more than you can buy in any airport duty free store. When my buddy Mike and and I arrived in Indonesia from Australia we brought enough wine for a cruise ship and got away with it as Saoirse’s ship store.

A number of countries also have special requirements. They could be restrictions on what food products that you can bring, making sure that the bottom of your boat is not home to a bunch of invasive oceanic species or that you are not bringing some insect or bug that they are not particularly keen on. All in all though I find checking into a new country to be quite an interesting experience and one that gets less daunting with time. Saoirse and I have visited 38 countries by now and I often feel that it is less of a novelty for me than it is for an immigration or customs officer that gets to leave a regular airport check-in desk and travel to the seaside to look at a boat on anchor. This usually ends up in a lengthy discussion on what it’s like to cross an ocean and a bunch of selfies being taken behind Saoirse’s steering wheels.

Now, unfortunately I can’t really write about the subject of red tape without mentioning the potential for corruption. Many of the countries that I’ve sailed to are very poor and I realise that the cruising world must be a tempting target. With that in mind, corruption has been less of a problem than I first expected. But nowhere has it been more blatant than in Indonesia. A country where you often find yourself having to employ an ‘agent’ when dealing with the authorities. An agent that often appears to be in bed with the officials that they are supposed to help you with. I probably spent around $700 on agents during my three months in Indonesia. Locally a small fortune. At times I could identify what it went towards, but most of the time it was pretty clear that it was a racket. The use of an agent is clever as you never really feel that you are bribing someone as you are not a part of that transaction. You can tell yourself anything you want to hear though, but ultimately you are helping them erode their own system. Which is a great shame as I would consider Indonesia to be the best cruising country that I have been to.