While one of Chris's sources of info is away painting, the hypothetical story moves on.
Chris has identified that the Quarantine Act and
Navigation Act applies to the voyage and while Chris hasn't read the
current Border Force stuff, Chris assumes as inward clearance is necessary for Quarantine purposes, an outward clearance is probably required even though the voyage is from Oz to Oz.
Chris has also rolled over on getting the boat on the Aussie
Shipping register even though the boat is
not departing Oz for a place outside of Oz. It may be transiting a place outside Oz (and one outside any other national waters) but isn't going to a place outside Oz. However this a mute point once Chris rolled on the
registration papers.
However Chris is holding firm about not getting a passport as Chris can't believe that one is needed to travel from Oz to Oz without any intervening stops.
So what happened with Chris departed. First there was a hullabaloo with
Customs when there wasn't a passport. They simply weren't going to issue a departure clearance. Chris argued the toss and kept asking them to substantiate their claim that one was needed. The poor
Customs guy wasn't sure if Chris was right or wrong but couldn't remember exactly what the
rule was or where it was to be found. He threatened to lock her up it Chris departed without a clearance and Chris threatened to sue him if he was wrong.
In the end, the Customs guy thought it was all too much bother and issued the clearance with a stern warning that should the voyage succeed, there would be trouble on re-entry. There main reason he capitulated was simple, Chris was clearing out on Friday afternoon of a long weekend and the Customs guy wanted to get to his own boat for a long weekend of
fishing. Secondary, he thought there was a fair chance Chris wouldn't make it back either alive or without having to enter another country's port and the problem would be theirs, not his.
Now most of thought that Chris was male but of course, Chris is female. This shouldn't make a difference but in this case it has.
You see, Chris is pregnant although she didn't know it at the time. By the time she knew she was over half away
round the world somewhere in the Southern
Indian Ocean getting pushed along quite nicely in the gales south of 45S. There wasn't many options especially since she had limited radio
equipment. She didn't believe popping the
EPIRB was appropriate in the situation.
Chris is nothing if not tough
.
Chris delivers her bouncing baby girl without too much bother and promptly names her Indian 'Rounder after the location of her birthplace and enters the information into the ship's log. We note that the baby was bouncing in many respects.
What happens at re-entry into Oz? There are now two persons on board, no paperwork for the second one (baby Indian), no passport for Chris although she can prove her identify and nationality.
Will the Customs guy accept the entry in the Once 'Rounders log as proof and reason for the additional person?
By the way, as luck (?) would have it, it was the same Customs guy doing the re-entry and again it was a Friday afternoon of a long weekend!
and Chris will only have a outward clearance if it is required under some law. As far as this thread goes, we haven't found a the law that requires such. It probably does exist but finding it hasn't been easy!
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