[PUP] Foreign Clearance Issues

[John Harris]

Regards customs visits:

I have had 2 boarding in the last 18 months.

The first, about 5 miles off the coast of France (near Breast) was by a
large Customs cutter that was traveling in the opposite direction to my
northerly travel. He called on the radio and inquired if I was fishing ?  I
have paravanes (that were deployed) so some people think that makes a
fishing boat. I told him what they were and then he asked why I wasn't
displaying a USA flag. I told him that I had lowered it after leaving port.

He asked permission to board, which I gave him, but that I preferred to
continue to move slowly along my coarse since the area is full of islands
and shallows.


Five men came over in a dinghy, four came aboard and the other stood off
with the dinghy. They were very polite, inspected all the ships papers,
asked a few questions, checked all the passports via VHF radio, spent 1
minutes looking through the boat and departed - with a smile and thank you.

I had given the crew VERY specific instructions that the visitors were to be
welcomed aboard but NO questions responded to, and they were to bring them
straight to the pilot house to have their questions answered.  I suspect
that this was partly a training exercise and the main thing of interest
seemed to be my 18 month VAT status.

The 2nd boarding was on the Thames River in London. I had arrived at the
marina after high tide so needed to wait in the river for the next high tide
and had picked up a mooring ball. This boarding was from a 30' London
Metropolitan Police boat. Two men came aboard, asked a few questions,
examined a few papers, spent 2 or 3 minutes looking around, said thank you
and departed.  The next day I had another Metro Police visitor in the
marina, when I told her that I had been visited the day before she said
thank you and she did not need to visit again.  I believe the objective of
this visit was terrorist control issues.

My approach to boardings is always as illustrated above, be courteous,
answer any questions, always have a book of all the relevant documents in
perfect order, and have them on their way ASAP.

My customs experiences suggest that the simple ones take 20 minutes, the 
tough ones take 3 or 4 hours including lots of travel and waiting, the same 
papers are required, keep your patience and courtesy in tack and you will 
receive the same in return.

John Harris


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