Wir erreichen heute Mittag Boca Chica in der Dominikanischen Republik. Nachdem uns die US Coast Guard per Funk eine Stunde lang gebremst haben und Jo und ich uns über den Internationale Buchstabierungscode von Jean den Buckel voll gelacht haben I(und Jean meinen Nachnamen natürlich wiederholen musste. Ist nicht das erste Mal in englischsprachiger Umgebung), sind wir in Boca Chica vor Anker gegangen und haben die Zollformalitäten hinter uns gebracht. Darin inbegriffen waren 170 Dollar, welche wir zuerst nicht bezahlen wollten. Aber wenn der Zell einmal die Pässe in den Händen hält, wird es schwierig…
Und dazu noch beim Einfahren in den Hafen eine Sandbank angebimst. Das Boot leicht aus dem Wasser gehoben:”???!667ç%&§|@#”
So ungefähr hat uns die Dominikanische Republik in ihrer Heiligen Woche, wo alle frei haben, willkommen geheissen…
ENGLISH VERSION
We arrived today in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. After an hour radio session with the US Coast Guard, where Jean tried the international spelling language and Jo and myself were well-entertained (a lot of smoking from inside the boat. Skip? Everything all right?!), we went on anchor and did our clearance in Boca Chica. The first sight from out of the sea was rather alienating; oil refinement plants, sky scrapers ?!? (Bloody hell, where did we land. Is this really the Dom Rep? Thought it was, well… a bit more rustical)
On arriving in the port, all of a sudden, the boat was lifted slightly into the air. Ouch, shallow water! We hit a small sand bank, darn double bogie!
When the welcome crew of 7 officials (I only know them being officials because they told me so. They could be anybody, besides the guy in the army camo, who pretended being from the naval police. Or army?) all went aboard, I couldn’t stop grinning about the idea of the seven trying to find anything in our rather reduced spaces under deck.
Then, we got, what the noble French call “baisé”, translated into being proper fxxxed! They charged us with 170 Dollars Immigration fee for the persons. (yeah, try the division in your head. What is the price per person? Anybody? 56.67 Dollars. You think this a rather unusual price? Well, maybe the Swiss guy went for free…or we contributed to their week off! Of this no more!)
Welcome to the Banana Republic.
