Saturday 9 Jun: Arrived into USA! St.Augustine, Florida – customs clearance
Needless to say we indulged to a longer sleep this morning, so our day started at 10am. Well, one needs a good rest after 11 nights of only frugal naps.
Our mission for today is to complete all the formalities for entry in USA. We spend the morning over the phone, trying to get hold of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office in Miami, to report our arrival and obtain the arrival number which will allow us to proceed with next steps. But after more than an hour on hold, we still couldn’t get through. This is the official way to check-in, but as it didn’t work, we called CBP St.Augustine, where a very helpful gentleman, Terry, provided us with another local phone member where within 15 minutes we have obtained the long desired number.
Next step, go ashore to the CBP St.Augustine for personal inspection, visas and cruising permit. Terry made it very clear what documents we need to bring, plus we must also bring all fruits and vegetables that we have onboard, and US$19 exact for the entrance fee.
Hm, our precious fruits will get destroyed… no way we will let that happen. We still have 3 of our precious apples which we bought in Martinique (we couldn’t buy apples in the windward islands, they were rare goods), so we quickly devour them. That’s it, no more apples to destroy! As for vegetables, we have very few left: 1 tomato, 1 onion, 3 garlic, 9 potatoes. No problem parting with them.
Dinghy in the water, outboard on, and we are ready to go ashore to the St.Augustine Municipal Marina. Just as we enter the marina, Oana says ‘Glen, there is a police boat, look smart!’. But it’s too late, we are called over to them. Oh no, we are not even in the country yet and we are in trouble with the police. Apparently, we were speeding in a no wake zone. And they also notice we have no life jackets, so we are sent back to Cloudy Bay to get some. Phew, they kept their guns in their holsters.
Take 2: back at the marina, this time with life jackets and whistle. In theory, we need to register our dinghy with the marina if we leave it on their dock, but there was nobody in the marina office and nobody on the pontoons who could look like a marina official. Interestingly enough, there are signs with marina assistance 24h, but last night when we called on phone or VHF there was no answer, and today nobody in. So registering will have to wait.
We call a taxi and proceed to CBP office with a very chatty taxi driver who used to date a Romanian girlfriend. We are greeted by Terry, the CBP officer, who’s first question is: did you bring the US$19? ‘No problem, we have a US$20 bill, you can keep the change’ Glen replies. Suddenly, his friendliness disappear, ‘no no no, I told you specifically 19 dollars exactly, I can’t give you change. You have to go back and get 19 dollars.’ So off we walk till we find somebody who had some change.
Back at CBP, after one hour we are cleared in, relieved of our vegetables and issued a cruising permit until the end of the year. YES! We’re in the land of hope and opportunities. Let’s go celebrate.
After chatty taxi driver take 2, we are back in town and we start to explore. St.Augustine is the oldest recorded city in USA, with a surprisingly pretty old town. Glen says he feels he could be in Maine already. Lots of the original wooden buildings are very authentically presented. We are so excited and impressed, that we don’t know where to start and where to look first.
So we start with a break, ice-cream! Yummy! It’s so nice to see all these shops with all the goodies, and not a wreck building in sight. All very neat and tidy, perfectly preserved.
We walk for an hour or so through the streets, than stop in a very nice restaurant, Michael’s Tasting Room, for an early dinner, where Oana has her long awaited American steak, absolutely delicious. The portions are’t huge, but we can hardly walk out of the restaurant. We are not used to big meals in the evening.
After a short siesta back at Cloudy Bay, we go ashore again at 10pm to check out the Saturday night scene. And what a scene it is! The town is very lively, live music in most bars, lots of people out and about… and we realize just just how much we missed civilization! After walking around we stop at Prohibition Kitchen where they have a very animated band and lively audience. Great place, and a nice end to our first day in US.