It should have taken 4 days, be an easy sailing across blue Caribbean Sea with small waves and 15 knots winds. Life is not always what you expect.
We were 5 friends on board Solitude crossing the sea with destination British Virgin Islands. The wind was always coming from north east even though the weather forecast said eastern winds and north east was where we were heading. 6 days after departing Curacao, 5 storms, a broken sheet to the genoa, Suzy getting hit by a flying fish, dolphins, a humpback whale jumping out of the water and a Perkins engine overheating plus a dinghy doing flips, we arrived at Beef Island right by the airport in BVI’s.
Because of the wind direction we ended on the eastern coast of Puerto Rico where I phoned the immigrations office in British Virgin Islands. Beef Island is not a port of entry when you arrive on a sailboat as we did and Mark and Suzy had to catch a plane back to Curacao the next morning. The fifth immigration officer who finally could answer my question told me that I just had to go direct to the airport on arrival and talk to the immigration there.
The anchor was put down, dinghy inflated and the outboard was put on. It was really weird to have solid ground under our feet again and Suzy had a hard time walking in a straight line. She said it wasn’t funny at all, when Mark and I laughed with her.
The immigration office was closed off cause but since I been here before, I found no problem in a bit of explaining and everything would be all right.
Andy and Sadie, who are working in the British Virgin Islands as dive instructors, were sitting on Solitude with Karl and Christian when we got back from the airport. Lots of beers, Painkillers (national drink of the BVI’s) and stories flew around the little cockpit table before we headed into The Last Resort, a little island with a bar/restaurant in the middle of Trellis Bay. More beers were poured down and I talked to a guy called Spike I meet last year. He looked exactly the same as last year with the same cleanest dirty shirt on. Time was standing still in the islands I thought, but then again, I was wearing the same t-shirt and shorts as last year. Spike was properly thinking that I was exactly the same and hadn’t changed at all.
The bar staff was closing as we got our final round of beers and we dinghyed back to Solitude to catch up on some sleep.
It was 5 in the morning and I was still full of beers when Suzy woke me up. They had to go to the airport and get a flight back to Curacao. After the airport ride I felt a sleep on Solitude completely exhausted. 6 days of one hour of sleep here and there was catching up.
Andy and Sadie meet the remains of the original Solitude crew at the pier and we headed into Road Town and the immigration office to check Karl, Christian and me in.
At first there was no problem but when I told the story about Mark and Suzy things went straight down hill. I had to go upstairs to talk to customs but the guy wasn’t there yet and we had to wait outside for 45 minutes before he appeared, the devil him self or as everyone around called him, Mr. Foyt.
Mr. Foyt was an angry local guy, 2 meters tall with a crew cut and very hard to understand. Every sentence was like a struggle to get from the throat and over the lips. Karl and Christian waited outside while I was placed in the hot seat. Mr. Foyt’s Swiftnick was sitting in another chair next to me and he was also around 2 meters between the eyes.
I told my story, that we tried to call immigration from Puerto Rico and therefore sailed into Beef Island and the airport but the devil himself and Swiftnick didn’t care. I was charged for smuggling people and failing to go direct to a port of entry, the devil pointed to a paragraph in a law book, I was NOT in a good position. The fine was 5000 dollars for each person I had smuggled into The British Virgin Islands, the people being Mark and Suzy.
I tried to explain again but there was nothing to do and the not so happy couple, Mr. Foyt and Swiftnick was starting to care less.
10.000 dollars is a lot of money and there were no way I could pay that. With out a blink of an eye Mr. Foyt said that he was going to impound Solitude until I had paid the fine.
In slow motion with the big “R” blinking in the top right corner of my view, I heard the stamp hit the paper, the only thing I own in the world, Solitude was now taken by customs. I was shaking at this stage, thinking about punching Swiftnick and make a run for it. Mr. Foyt asked how much money I could come up with when I couldn’t pay the 10.000 dollars and after telling him that I was close to being completely broke, he sent me down stairs to ask my friends what we could come up with. After two cigarettes and my nails getting shorter, we could come up with 540 dollars. Sadie tried to call a friend who’s a lawyer but the only thing we got out of that was, be friendly, kiss their asses and try to get the fine down.
I always thought that hell would be hot and entered down a flight of stairs, but now I know hell has air-condition and you walk up the stairs to the first floor right next to the ferry terminal in Road Town. Mr. Foyt was shaking his head, indicating that 540 dollars was far from ok.
I felt like a midget hobbit when I asked how much he then demanded. 1000 dollars was not enough either and the same faith happened to 2000 dollars. Finally he settled on 2500 dollars and Karl who was really nervous not catching his flight in a couple of hours, was allowed to go to the airport.
I had over the weekend to get the money so Monday I had to come back….
We went back to Solitude after a pit stop in a bar and saying goodbye to Karl. The situation was not good but Christian could come up with the money on Monday, luckily.
The weekend went fast but it was like carrying a rock from the Stone Henge on our shoulders, we just wanted to pay the fine and get it over with.
The Monday came and we took a taxi from Trellis Bay to hell on the first floor in Road Town but the devil hadn’t come yet. Another 45 minutes was passed away out side hell when he finally came, this time with out Swiftnick.
I was put in the hot chair again and Christian was standing next to me. Mr. Foyt asked if I had the money, I pointed to Christian and said he had it on a credit card. I don’t know if these people don’t know their own office or they just installed a credit card machine that same morning or they are just plane stupid but all he could get struggled over his lips was, no credit card, only cash and we had to come back tomorrow. I protested, last time I was in hell they accepted credit card. A lady kind of woke up and mumbled something about credit card. Christian and me looked at each other not knowing what was going on, when the lady asked for a credit card.
The American Express was handed over and 5 minutes later she came back and very lazy fell into a chair with her hands supporting her apparently very heavy head. For some reason, maybe that was common in hell, but she also struggled to get the words out and what I made of it were, that the credit card didn’t work. She was not even trying to help by running it through again or asking for another one. Mr. Foyt sighed you could almost see some smoke come out of his nostrils. Christian gave the lady with the heavy head a Visa card instead. At this point my nails were almost none existing. The devil starting to pack his papers saying we had to come back tomorrow with cash but when he got out of his chair, the heavy headed lady came back, the credit card went though and I got my boat papers back but not the passports… this was customs not immigration and immigration was closed today….!!!! We had to come back tomorrow…
Later that day Christian tried the American Express card with no problems, hell only accepts Master and Visa Card.
The following day we got our passports back with no further problems, the guy was even being friendly to us.
A couple of days ago we, Andy, Sadie and me were diving The Rhone, a world famous wreck here in the BVI’s. We moored Solitude up right above it and jumped in the blue sea. I had my camera with me on the dive but I quickly discovered that water was entering the housing and destroying my camera. I put it back on Solitude and hoped for the best. The wreck was really interesting and there was no current what so ever.
Back on Solitude the camera, as I expected, was totally destroyed….
Do I like The British Virgin Islands?
Come back in a couple of years and ask me the same question, right now I would say things that I might regret later in my life and insult a nation, I mean I’m still here and so is Mr. Foyt….
