Inhaca - or not Inhaca

01 Apr. 12


The immigration official was a slightly chubby friendly faced black man. He smiled and made polite conversation as he brushed casually over our documents and stamped our passports. We ordered lunch at the yacht club while we waited for the customs official to arrive. He apparently got lost or went to the wrong place. I took an instant dislike to the customs official before he even arrived. Fiona from the yacht club office was probably partially to blame. She had made a call to him trying to find out if he remembered his appointment with us at the club. He flew off the handle and rudely explained to her that she had better not be wasting his time and he refuses to wait for longer than ten minutes. My feeling towards him was confirmed when he arrived. He walked into the clubhouse and sat down without greeting or acknowledging anyone on his route. He sat down at one of the tables and spread out some paper work. Then looking around at all of us waiting on him, but at nobody in particular he barked out a question in a terrible African English. We all looked at each other hoping that one of us understood what was required. He repeated his question using an abrupt tone and it sounded like he was asking how many of us are leaving. We all misunderstood and answered all of us at which point he handed us each a form to complete. Once we discovered that he meant how many ships are leaving he jumped up and snatched the forms back throwing them back onto the table only leaving one form per skipper. At that point his phone rang and he answered. “yes! What! Just come to the yacht club!” pause. “No, just come to the yacht club!” Longer pause. “The yacht club! The yacht club! Just come straight to the yacht club!

He seemed to calm slightly after that and filled out our forms without saying another word. So we are now officially in no mans land. On Monday morning we should get our SAMSA documents and ships plaque. If all goes according to plan we should leave Monday afternoon or early evening. The weather forecast has a 15 knot south westerly wind predicted that should allow for some good sailing up the coast towards Mozambique. It still feels a bit unreal so I’m not excited yet but rather have a feeling of indifference towards the whole trip.

02 Apr. 12

Today is my birthday and we would have sailed on up to Inhaca but once again Mike from SAMSA has decided my future. Yesterday Lola spoke to Runa from SAS and she told Lola that she can no longer send our ships plaque up on Monday. The reason, Mike from SAMSA refuses to allow another inspector to inspect the ships plaque. Inspect the ships plaque? What is there to inspect on a stupid little engraving that is so difficult and important? The people at SAMSA obviously have nothing better to do with their time than play little stupid childish waste of time games. I just can’t stand the fact that my life can be controlled so easily by one person. I wonder if this guy decided that he disliked me instantly and now on his little power trip it excites him to mess me about. Needless to say my spirit was broken and the trip to Inhaca will no longer happen. Leaving on Tuesday afternoon, if Mike shows up, and history has proven that he is as reliable as the weather service, would make our arrival after Wednesday evening’s pre-race briefing thus disqualifying us from the race.
04 Apr. 12

Yet again we sat on the boat waiting for Mike from SAMSA. He obviously works on a different time zone to us. I haven’t quite been able to establish which time zone he works on so land up working on my own one and then being confused when he doesn’t arrive. On Sunday Runa from SAS told Lola that her and Mike from SAMSA would be on our boat at ten o clock yesterday morning with our now famous ships plaque. Ten o clock came and went with Lola and I waiting on the boat for our visitors to arrive. At quarter past ten Lola phoned Runa and spoke to her voice mail. Eventually at quarter to eleven Runa called back asking Lola if she was looking for her. Lola was as sweet as pie as she kindly told Runa that she had been looking for her and we have been sitting on our boat waiting for them to arrive. Runa then informed Lola that they weren’t coming at ten anymore and that instead Mike would contact us at twelve when our ships plaque is due to arrive in Richards Bay. Well I found myself fighting with Lola afterwards telling her what she should and shouldn’t have told Runa over the phone. Typical, kill the messenger scenario. I know it’s not Lola’s fault that these people have absolutely no consideration for anybody but themselves. People with some consideration would at least have picked up the phone at ten and said “listen toolbox, you don’t have to sit on the boat like an idiot waiting for me, I am no longer coming”. Instead they will just make you wait and wait forever. The twelve o clock phone call also never came. Maybe they meant twelve o clock in December 2020 but it definitely couldn’t have been twelve o clock yesterday. I don’t even know what I am supposed to do at this moment. The problem that I have found in this boating industry seems to be that everybody acts as if they are doing you a favour. It doesn’t matter that you have paid them for a service, they don’t have to provide said service and instead they are doing you a huge favour. It pisses me off.

On a lighter note Amy, Keagan, Warren and my sister are coming to visit this Easter weekend.

After waiting in vain yesterday we went to immigration and then to customs in town to clear back into the country even though we never got to leave the dock side. Thus the whole Inhaca exercise turned out to be a complete waste of time and money. At this point I wish to thank all those involved for the “school fees” payments that I have made.