Clearing in with Customs

When you arrive in a new country, you need to clear in with the local customs office to get your cruising permit and visas for the time you are going to be there. The process is much simpler than if you were on an airplane and flying into a new city. There are no lines to wait in, or prodding questions about what you are carrying in your luggage. Just a simple form and conversation with the local customs agent set at a relaxed pace.

When you arrive in a new country, you will fly the Q flag (yellow flag) on your starboard spreader. This flag indicates that you have not cleared in yet and are in "Quarantine". You simply go to shore and head over to the customs office to fill out some forms and pay your entry visa fee.

Some important points about the process are: Only the captain can go to shore at this point, and he must take all pertinent information along with him or her. This includes the Documentation or Registration papers of the boat, and the passports of all those onboard the boat.

The captain will also need to know the address of each person on board, as well as their birth dates.

The Customs agent will ask questions about what sort of cargo are you carrying, and "Provisions" is all you need to say. If you are carrying any weapons or fire arms, this is the time to declare them. We do not carry fire arms, so I do not know how that proceeding would then go.

The customs agent will want you to state where your last port of call was, and where your next port of call will be. Basically, they want to know where you have been, and make sure that you are going to leave at some point in the future.

After you fill out all the papers, you then need to pay the entry visa for the boat and crew. Then you are free to go and explore their waters! Sometimes, a Customs agent will come inspect your vessel, but usually, they will not bother with such formalities.

When you have the option to check in at a large city or sleepy small town, choose the small town. The office will be less rushed, and the agents will be more relaxed. This means that you will have a more relaxed time of your entry process as they are more patient. 

Sailing the Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream is a current of water that is shrouded in mystery and confusion. This is all due to a lack of study of the water instead of actual lack of information available about the water.

The Gulf Stream has been studied for decades and is very well understood at this point in time. It flows from the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, up by Florida and the East Coast of the United States, and then over towards the UK. The Gulf Stream is composed of warmer and saltier water than the ocean water it contacts, and it has its own wave pattern to it.

Now, there are a few horror stories that will commonly come out of the Gulf Stream. First, has to do with navigation; the second has to do with weather.

When you enter the Gulf Stream, you enter a body of water with on average a 3.5 knot current. There are areas that can even exceed 4.5 knots! When you are sailing East or West, you will be pushed North at this rate. The problem with this is people won't realize they are being pushed north and then get pushed off course!

If your crossing takes 10 hours, you can expect to be pushed at least 30 miles north! If you are not expecting this, you may find yourself never reaching the landfall you planned.

The second issue has to do with weather. Since the Gulf Stream has such a powerful current, any wind out of the North will kick up the seas in a horrible and fierce manner. Any north wind will produce a stereotypical "square" waves with steep faces and float tops. These waves can make the journey less than enjoyable.

The trick to avoid these waves is to only cross when the wind is blowing out of the South, East, or West.

To cross the Gulf Stream in an uneventful fashion, all you need to do is prepare to be pushed north (so start out further south than your destination) and only cross when there is no northern component to the wind.

As you cross, you will know you have entered the Gulf Stream because the water gets warmer, a new swell can be seen in the water, and the bioluminescence at night is magical!

Proper Anchoring Technique

There seems to be a lot of buzz about anchoring with shorter scope. The only reason I can imagine this has become a popular practice is because people are lazy and the more rode you let out, the more rode you will need to pull back up. 

We met a couple while anchored by the Lake Worth Bridge in Florida who were anchored with merely 40 feet of chain in 8 feet of water. Their yacht has a freeboard of 4 feet, meaning that their effective depth was 12 feet. This would produce a scope of 3.3. 

Their anchor held fine and they enjoyed being anchored very close to the pier and walkway to town. 

Then we all moved on and anchored in Lake Worth just at the southern end of West Palm Beach, and they anchored once again with on 50 feet in 11 feet of water. When you add their freeboard into the equation, they have an effective depth of 15 feet and a scope of 3.3 again. The difference is that now they are anchored with no protection from the current and they soon began to drag anchor. 

I noticed their boat drifting through the anchorage and thought that they were moving to another place, but noticed that their chain was still led into the water and no one was at the helm. I called the owner and he rushed back to his boat to re-anchor. He decided to reanchor close to us, so I informed him how much rode we had out so that we don't swing into each other on the next tide. 

I sit here anchored securely with 120 feet of chain out. This gives us a scope of 7.5 at low tide and 6.3 at high tide. He seemed shocked at how much chain we had out, yet we remain securely anchored while he had his dragging adventure through the anchorage (narrowly hitting a boat in the process). 

I do fear that when the tide comes up 3 feet, he will once again drag, as his scope will be reduced to 2.7. Hopefully, he will get lucky and no one will have to fend off as he comes dragging into them because he has insufficient chain out. 

Airflow During Rainstorms

Hatches and portholes are wonderful for ventilating a yacht when it is nice outside, but these big holes will let rain into your yacht during a storm at anchor. 

When the rain comes, you will need to close your yacht up nice and tight to keep rain droplets from soaking your interior. When you do this, you then rely solely on the ventilation provided by your dorade vents. These cowls will draw air in and separate the rain out, giving you nice dry airflow when the boat is all closed up. 

The truth is, most yachts don't have enough dorade vents to supply the airflow needed for "comfort" when you are in the tropics. To remedy this issue, we have found a little trick. 

Flipping the dinghy over the hatch will serve as a way to keep rain out. The hatch opens up into the dinghy and air flows under the dinghy and into the open hatch. This is nowhere near the air flow of an unblocked hatch, but it is still much better than a hatch that is dogged down. 

A very important thing to do though is to make sure that your dinghy is tied down. An inflatable dinghy sitting on the deck is just asking for the wind to pick it up and send it flying! Be sure you tie it down well, and have the hull centered over the hatch so that the hatch can open into it.. 

If you have more than one hatch, and have more than one dinghy, then you are in business! We keep our hard dinghy over the salon hatch, and the inflatable dinghy over the forward hatch (when it's raining). This lets us keep the boat open and airy in a rain storm. 

Southern Blvd Bridge

The ICW in Florida is notorious for all of it's draw bridges. Some of them open on demand when hailed on CH9, others open on a schedule. This bridge does not open.

The Southern Blvd Bridge in West Palm Beach has been under construction for some time and has not been opening. 

The first opening after a long time was on April 17, 2018 at 7:30am. We anchored near it the day before the opening so that we wouldn't miss the opening and miss our chance to make it further North. 

We were not the only ones who had this idea, and we were among many other boats that had anchored right by the bridge.  

Early in the morning, we got the anchor up and joined the fleet in a holding pattern as we waited for the bridge to open for the first time in a long time! 

There were 4 southbound vessels and 15 northbound vessels at the bridge and it would appear that courtesy had been forgotten. 

Right of way in this situation pertains to the current. The yacht that is moving down current has right of way over the vessel moving up current. The reason is simple, the vessel moving downstream can not stop. Should they stop moving, they will drift into obstacles in the river. The vessel moving upcurrent can stop and avoid obstacles as the current will bring them backwards. 

As the bridge was opening, a very large yacht (over 100 feet in length) decided that he would go first, rules be damned. He positioned himself right in the middle of the bridge as the bascule was opening. On the other side of the bridge was an old motor sailor (a gorgeous wooden boat of similar size) that had been told by the bridge tender that he was to be the first to pass through. It took some stern words from the bridge tender to get the pushy powerboater to stand down and allow the boats to pass through in an orderly and safe manner.