Sunday, March 15, 2015

Planning for 2016



Our next big trip will hopefully happen in 2016, when Albert plans to retire from his full-time job.  

PhotoVoyaging on the boat takes some planning.  Our initial plans have been a bit of a fantasy, but they are based on the real factors of wind, weather, schedules, boat and crew capabilities, etc.  Then as we started to look into the “social” realities and formalities of visiting various countries (with two dogs) things get tricky, and they will be more of a challenge that will greatly affect our plans.

So, the general idea has been this.  Get Magus all ready in May (2016) with new bottom paint, and a fresh survey so we can get insurance for anywhere.  Then we can leave Peaks in June and cruise along the coast of Maine, then to Nova Scotia for the summer.  A visit to St. Pierre and Miquelon (just a few miles south of Labrador, and which is a territory of France) would be interesting.   In September, we could sail to the Azores (about 1,200 miles from that area) and take it easy by spending the winter there.  The next spring, we could sail to Ireland (about 1,000 miles) and cruise around there, Scotland, England, and arrive in the Netherlands at the end of August.  Then, it would be possible to travel through the canals to Paris and across France to Marseilles on the Mediterranean-- leisurely in two or three months.  Then head south along the west coast of Italy, and spend the winter somewhere.  Because of VAT tax issues, we would need to stop in north Africa, like Tunisia for a few weeks or months within 18 months of first entering the EU, which would have been St. Pierre & Miquelon the previous year, so we’d have until January.  Then sail around the Med the next summer, visit Greece, get to Gibralter by October, then sail across the Atlantic to the Caribbean in November/ December for the winter.  We could then sail back to Maine the next summer, or even leave Magus somewhere and fly home for the summer, and go back to the Caribbean for more cruising.



From an article in Sail Magazine, Feb. 2013

But the above is not legally possible because of a thing called the Schengen Agreement relating to visas.  This rule says that a non-EU resident can only stay 90 days out of every 180 days in all of the Schengen countries, which is practically all of the EU not including the Brittish Isles.  This rule has been on the books since 1985 apparently, and has been routinely ignored.  There have only been rare cases of problems; but the problems are serious, like forfeiting the vessel and big fines to get out.  But now, there is more awareness of the rule, and we have two dogs that will add the the formalities, so we are not likely to ignore it.  There are all kinds of “work arounds” that we are researching, like one-year visas, but then you become a temporary resident and they get you for the VAT tax-- 20% of the value of the vessel as they determine.  There’s also the paperwork annoyance of getting an International Certificate of Competence for operating the vessel and a similar licence for the canals, but these can be resolved with time and money.  There is now supposedly a proposal to change the Schengen rules to allow US and some other nationals to stay for longer in those countries, but no one knows when this will happen.

Given all the above, we don’t really want the hassle, so we’re looking at options.  Not to mention that we don’t want to be so far away from our daughters and the grandchild(ren).  If we cruise to Nova Scotia and visit St. Pierre and Miquelon, it could still make sense to sail to the Azores and visit for a month or so in September/ October on the way to the Caribbean.  One could sail directly from there (about 2,500 miles,) or detour a little to the Canary Islands and Cape Verde Islands on the way (about 4,000 miles; the extra 1,500 miles is about two weeks of ocean sailing, not really that long). There’s still the Schengen rule for a maximum total stay of 90 days in the Azores (part of Portugal) and the Canaries (part of Spain), but that’s not hard, since its best to get to the Caribbean in January/ February. 


Or we could bail on the whole thing for the first year or two, and just head south along the East Coast.  There are plenty of places we haven’t seen in the Caribbean basin, and even Key West might be fun.  With the recent changes for visiting Cuba, it would be very interesting to visit there.  And Jamaica is basically on the way I’d want to go; from the north or east, not west around.  We’ll really need to get better with our Spanish; Puerto Rico didn’t help us much because everyone spoke English with us, right after we tried saying “Buenas Dias”.  


And we joined the Seven Seas Cruising Association (which is also on Facebook).  They seems like a great organization, with their Seven Traditions including Leave a Clean Wake.   They have “gams” of boat raft-up social parties in various places every year, and a regular one is in Isleboro Maine.  We plan to go to the one this summer from July 31 to August 1, 2015.  Members and friends invited. 


 

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