What if You Can't Pay the Bond in French Polynesia ?

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by geckosenator

....I think air travel is wrong ......
.

Yeah.

And who's idea was vanilla while we're at it?

[meyermm]

Hi Mark, You were unlucky as it is a well known. Prior to crossing I purchased "The Pacific Crossing Guide" which set out these and many other traps to look out for. Well worth purchasing for future crossings.

[fishwife]

If you think French Polynesia is out of line, then I suggest you avoid Indonesia, where, in addition to paying for a Cruising and Security Permit (CAIT), you can be required to pay a temporary import bond of 10% of the value of your boat. The method for getting this back when you leave the country is not very clear. Without a CAIT obtained in advance of your arrival, you will not be allowed to stay for longer than 3 days, officially 48 hours.

P.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by geckosenator

I don't really think of it as "their" country any more than mine. We are all citizens of the earth and I have every right to be there or anywhere else. Whether or not I have money is irrelevant. I should get a world passport so they don't know I am a US citizen.

I look forward to hearing further of your adventures

[blu]

If he makes Vanuatu Port Villa, they have /had an open prison policy. You can walk in and out along with all the visitors, but be there for head count. As the local police said .. Where are they going to go!! Doubt the attitude will get him that far, and hopefully he'll have a life by then.

[Viking Sailor]

You know that French Polynesia is not a country. It is part of France and thus a EU member. The irony of this is that the bond and 90 day visa limit does not apply to the other EU members. So, even though there are tens of thousands of American solders buried in France, and still more in other EU states, when a German flagged vessel arrives in FP it can stay as long as it wishes -- while American vessels are sent packing after 90 days. Considering why all those American's died you've got to admit that is ironic.

Please don't get me wrong! I have spent a lot of time in many countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa where I've made many friends and had wonderful times. It is just when things like these bond and visa issues come up it would be really nice if the EU would treat American's more like friends.

[sailorboy1]

We may not like like it, but it doesn't seem all that unreasonable that FP wants you to visit but not to stay! All the bond/air ticket is doing is ensuring this.

Why do we take a view that traveling to other countries on our boats should be different that traveling there by another method?

[fishwife]

Originally Posted by Viking Sailor

Please don't get me wrong! I have spent a lot of time in many countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa where I've made many friends and had wonderful times. It is just when things like these bond and visa issues come up it would be really nice if the EU would treat American's more like friends.

And have you looked at the hoops we none US citizens need to jump through to get a visa for your not so exalted land?

P.

[sailorboy1]

If you think we they people really control the laws in our exalted land you haven't spoken to most of us lately. Currently we are being pretty controlled by the reaction to 9/11 etc. Almost as paraniod as sailors.

But I would be interested in knowing the "hoops" for a UK citizen to enter the US.

just for some good old thread drift

[fishwife]

OK Don, I'm 62 years old, I've contributed to world good, spent half of my working life being a medic in places most people would be far too afraid of even vistiting. When I was 17 years old, I got on the back of a motor bike my boyfriend was thinking of buying and took for a test drive. I didn't understand the legal need for insurance.
I was convicted of aiding and abetting the use of a motor vehicle without insurance.
The sole reason I wanted to visit the USA was to buy a specific boat that was actually situated in the Med though owned by a USA citizen. I intended to spend $2,300,000. It took me 17 months to get a visa. Fortunately, the bottom had dropped out of the market and the USA brought much less into its coffers by the time I was graciously granted a visa. Your embassy took the view that a 'convicted felon' must have come by their money by nefarious means, despite my company accounts showing entirely legitimate trade in 'rare earths' for 18 years.

If the company selling the boat hadn't had a relationship with a Senator, I'd still not be the proud owner of my boat. That's another thing that pisses me off, I needed a Senator to take me 'outside' of your laws.

P.

[fishwife]

Another stupid thing, a while ago I commented on the attempt of the seller to rip me off! I disguised the nationality of the seller because (erroneously) I saw this as a USA centric list. I've since seen much more extreme deprecation of your country from your own citizens.

P.

[osirissail]

One way or another, most all countries of the world are broke, and with the politicians insatiable lust for money fees for this and that are multiplying like rabbits in a carrot patch. Well, more accurately it is the local populations that are multiplying like rabbits - but anyway, the more financial assets you have the easier life is especially traveling internationally. The FP bond is easily gotten around by either using techniques talked about in the Pacific Puddlejumpers group or by having a letter of credit or having credit cards upon which you can charge open ended tickets to your home country. It is the demonstration of financial substance that convinces the local officials that you are an "asset" to their country and not a "liability."
- - All the threads about cost of cruising for less than $XXX end up with this same theme - in today's world you need financial depth to travel outside your home country's waters. 50 years ago the world was a much different place and had a half of the population it has now. Just because your grandparents were able to do it then does not mean you can do it in today's world.
- - Better to skip FP and any other high population, high cost islands if you do not have the resources to "play their game." You may end up with 2 or 3 months at sea between "free or low cost" islands, so be sure to have a watermaker, and good fishing gear and lots of preserved foods on board. Heck, Columbus and others used to do multi-month crossings of the Atlantic while Capt Cook and others did multi-year crossings. Maybe a few live pigs and chickens on board will enable you to do longer passages?
- - You can cruise very cheap in the Caribbean if you avoid the "rich islands" like P.
R. USVI, St Barts and several others and only visit the "economical" islands like the D.R., Dominica, St Vincent, Central and South America. It takes more planning to cruise "cheap" but it is do-able. Just stay away from "tourist meccas" and high cost of living islands and that is true world-wide.
- - Demanding free entrance to "Disney World/etc." without being able to pay for the ticket is not going to work anymore than demanding free entry to F.P. and elsewhere. And there is no such thing as "world citizen." - That was and always will be a fantasy - you are a citizen of one country or another and your movements between countries is and always will be "hostage" to the politics of that country. Visa costs and complications are borne from "reciprocity" between any two governments. If one government gets petty the other government will reciprocate in kind - just like two spoiled brats playing in a sand box. Welcome to the real world.

[Viking Sailor]

P.

So what you are saying is that, even though you didn't qualify for a U.S. visa by virtue of being a convicted felon, you were nevertheless able to get a visa and hence your boat through the kind help of American citizens including a Senator. That seem like a fairly friendly and just resolution considering how complex and obscure the situation must have appeared to someone charged with enforcing the laws of the United States. In fact I find it hard to understand why you even needed to go to the U.S. considering the boat was in the med and the ease in which a bank can transfer funds these days. I just guess that there is some part of the story that was left out that would make this clear. Anyway, it's great that you have your boat and may you enjoy it for many years to come.

[Cormorant]

Perhaps French Polynesia could come up with an alternative to the bond to prevent idlers from landing and freeloading in paradise. I suggest the "Agreement to Death by Firing Squad." You agree to a maximum stay of, say, 30 days, after which if you're still hanging around, you'll be executed without a fuss. Easy.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Cormorant

Perhaps French Polynesia could come up with an alternative to the bond to prevent idlers from landing and freeloading in paradise. .

As far as I am aware its not anything to do with idlers, but the cost of an airfare out incase of sickness or injury prevents you sailing out.

Re the USA's stringent access, we have a multiple entry USA visa. I always get one as soon as I get a new passport. It does help. And not just for the USA... 2 weeks ago when we arrived in Turkey the Immigration guy was much more interested in our USA visas than the front page of our passports! It was like he would accept our names and photos on the US visa before the names and phots supplied by the Aussie government!

And before some crap on about 'felons', what may be a felon in some countries when folks were kids or university students that don't mean anything in the country of offence. In Australia just about any person who went to university in the 1970's was convicted of some offence for going to an anti-war demonstration, oh hell, there were millions of demonstrations... all we ever did was walk about shouting slogans whilst stealing highway lane markers, Jumbo Jet tyres, policemens caps and smoking nefarious weeds!


Even my MOTHER was arrested for stealing a tractor and driving down the main street of her town with her then boyfriend one New Years Eve. Damn glad she didn't tell the Americans that the last time she snuck into the Waldorf Astoria!


Mark