Dreaming about the big thing, I have just finished reading a book by an Ukrainian sailor Valery Petushchak "A Voyage through Three Oceans" (not sure if it has been ever published in English). In the book, he describes the first
circumnavigation under the Ukrainian flag; he did this with his wife on a self-built 30ft yacht in 1994-1998.
I think, much has changed since then, as one thing that struck me was the very informal way they were checking in into
destination countries. Most of the time, they were arriving unanounced (they were hardly using their VHF) and they were getting their visas from the harbour authorities.
In one case, they finished their stay in
Australia and checked out in the Thursday Island. Then they sailed to the Cockonut Islands to replenish their supplies. The authorities there wanted to charge them for extending their Australian visas, but Valery claimed that he was not stayng, just replenishing his supplies and that they were to allow him a stop up to 3 days for this. He was granted this 3 days stop without visa!
This 3 days stop for replenishing - is this a kind of habit? Or a
rule? Is it still valid? My question is fully theoretical, since it will last long till I face these questions personally...