Off to Nose Be, Wednesday 12:00, 10.25.2006

Just about exactly at noon on 25 October, the Schooner Maggie B cast off her lines from the Durban Marina Fuel Dock, underway for Nose Be, Madagascar. We have a light SE’erly and the prospect of rain. We are headed about NE, going up the coast, trying to take advantage of any favorable back current.

Our current goal is Nose Be on the NW tip of Madagascar. We hope also to stop by Bassas d’India on the way. The NE’erlies are just coming in, so we may have to wait them out from time to time at anchor somewhere along the coast, though once we get past Inhambane in Mozambique, the coast is North/South so a NE’er that had only a bit extra East in it would be fine.

South Africa has managed to edge out Brazil in a tough race to have the most difficult and stupid port clearance system. To be fair, it did only take three hours, but it was stuff that could have been done in 15 minutes without sacrificing anything except for a few excess, useless bureaucrats. Here are the steps:

1. Pay your marina bill
2. Get letter from marina, having them ask that you might leave
3. Get receipt for money paid
4. Go to Port Control (two miles) and fill out “flight plan” — three pages which include questions like “What frequencies can you receive on your Single Side Band Radio?”
5. Get Clearance Certificate from Port Control
6. Go to Immigration (15 miles — all crew must come) Submit Crew List
7. Passports reviewed and stamped
8. Fill out Request to Leave
9. Fill out Departure Report
10. Get Immigration Clearance Certificate
11. Go to Customs (12 miles). Fill out another Departure Report. Questions include “State name of Approved Container handler.”
12. Fill out “Report Outbound”
13. Get asked for Safety Certificate and Skipper’s Competency Certificate, but point out that it does not apply to foreign vessels (yet!).
14. Get Customs Certificate of Clearance.
15. Return to Port Control (two miles). Everything is stamped and get permission to leave.
16. Return to Marina. You have 36 hours to leave or you get to do it again.

We have a new addition to our equipment, a lovely little single surf kayak. It is made by a Durban company named Stealth (www.stealthpp.co.za). It is about 22 feet long and 1 1/2 wide. It should be quite fun. Reepicheep sniffed a bit when it came on board, but hopefully they will be friends.

We filled up with diesel for the first time since Salvador. We took about 250 gallons while covering 4800 miles, for both main engine and genset. We carry a total of 325 gallons. Seamarine Services, the fuel dock at the Durban Marina, proved that there are still pirates active in South Africa. They managed to put 216 gallons in a tank that only holds 200, they added 5% to the already high price when I used a credit card and they refused to sell gas without VAT (14%), even though I had all my clearance papers, claiming that it couldn’t be done, though it is routinely done in Cape Town, Simonstown, Knysna and Richards Bay. Grrrr.

All is well.