June 1-2 MON-TUES

JUNE 1: Back in the USA

SO this morning we got up at 6:00 am! Habit…anxiety…too much noise?

We went over to the dinghy dock as near to Customs and Immigration as we could get. Unfortunately, the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina has taken over the whole area and we paid $15.00 to leave the dinghy there so we could walk the 5 blocks to Customs.

When we got there, they were loading up the new casino /cruise ship so it was like being in the departure lounge of an airport, except everyone still had their luggage. Luckily there is a special section for cruise ships so we went upstairs to the regular tourist / immigration office.

We waited for awhile 'til someone came out to answer our “buzz’ and the first thing she asked was” What is your arrival number?” We were supposed to call the 800 number as soon as we arrived so we could e searched if they wanted to.  We thought we supposed to go in, in person to check in but she couldn’t check us in until we had a number, so she tells me to go downstairs to call Homeland Security.   NO phones allowed in the Immigration Office. As I am leaving I pick up the passports and she says, “You’ll need your visas, too.”  I stopped dead. “We don’t have visas.”

“Yes you d. YU had to have visas to e into the USA.”

“No, we didn’t. No-one told us or asked for visas, and we had no problem before.”I am very close to losing it [tears] because I am tired and hot and frustrated.  She says, “What nationality are you? Oh, you’re Canadian. Yeah, OK you don’t need visas.”

Her English is perfect, no accent. DO I HAVE AN ACCENT????

I stomped off downstairs and talked to a really nice man on the phone for 20 minutes, at HS to get our number. He sounded familiar. I’ve probably talked to him before. Anyway we discussed all the usual questions: where were you? How long? Where are you now?   He asked me, “Where is the boat now?”, so I described the anchorage. I think he might have been in California. Rick figures he was upstairs in the next room.

Then he said, “You are not on land are you?” I thought, Uh oh here it comes, but I said, “I’m actually standing in your office because we thought we were supposed to report in.” I cringed as I waited for him to start reading me the riot act, but then he said, “Why don’t you get a local boaters reporting from, so all you need t do is phone in every time.”

“Because I’m Canadian?” he said, “SO? You can still get one, just turn over the form, read the back and fill it out.”

Here’s the thing: a] it’s really hard to turn a form over on-line, and b] we already tried that and it didn’t work.  I just let that go.

When he asked if I had anything to declare…wait for it, Liz…I said, “My daughter says I should declare an AWESOME TAN!”  He started to laugh.  He gave me the usual spiel about fruits and vegetables and how to dispose of them… “Just put them in a garbage bag and put them in a special dumpster. All marinas should have a place for foreign garbage.” Now, that’s the first we EVER heard of that.

Then he said, “Are you carrying $10,000.00 in cash?” I tried to figure out what he was really asking me, and said, “What?”

He repeated the question, and I started to laugh and said, “NO!” I couldn’t stop laughing and said, “Sorry, but I have $3.00 and need to find an ATM!” He was laughing too and said the reaction he got from most people was, “I wish!”But he had to ask anyway.

So after more chitchat, and we got our information squared away, I asked him about the dreaded calling in procedure. I got the dreaded answer: “every time you go to a new port.” I think we’ll stay outside as much as possible, and anchor everywhere.

So back upstairs and she is happy, stamps the [passports and says, ‘Have a good day.”

I said, “OK, now, how long do we have here now?” She says, “Until November 31…6 months.”  WHAT???? NOT what the website says!!!!

We say, “Are you sure, because we came in here in February to confirm this and got another story from someone here in this office. And our cruising permit expires in October. How do we get a new one?”

She said, “Turn in the old one when you take the boat back. Mail it in and apply for the new one when you come back?”

We said, “But what if we don’t take the boat back?”
She said, “Then you don’t need a new one.”

Rick said, “We asked that last February before we left for Bahamas and were told, we didn’t need to worry about it. Why were we asking?”

“Oh, he shouldn’t have told you that. Not everyone knows all the rules.”

THIS IS CRAZY!!!!

So, we have no idea what is going to happen. But that’s another story…

We came back to the boat, Rick changed out all the oils; I searched for info on boat yards in the Chesapeake and then it was time to meet Joseph.

Today we are “vegging”  a bit and then we will get our act together and move out tomorrow morning. Waiting for a weather window. It looks like some of that nasty weather in the Gulf is starting to move east. Oh, goody!  Rain here is not like the warm rain in the Bahamas…you can still swim and snorkel in the rain there. I don’t think I’ll be getting in this water any time soon. It’s not the temperature; it’s the colour… yuck!

So … we went to town and Publix for some groceries. Joseph is coming for supper. It’s very gray right now…completely overcast L we are waiting for rain. It will cool us off except that we have to close the hatches.

Ttyl