Cleone arrived in Tobago today at 1200 Greenwich Mean Time.
And immediately was faced with Caribbean bureacracy redoubled in Spades. (Whoops!). As well as fantastic infrastructure, much of which, despite instutionalised neglect, is still intact today all over the world, an excellent education system, cars with steering wheels on the right (the left, of course) side, a sound legal and fair political system, the British Empire, for all its faults, also left behind it a marvellous legacy of a painstaking, paper-ridden bureacracy. And many Commonwealth countries have taken this to new levels, never dreamt of by our grandfathers and their ilk. This is so much so, that simply clearing in a small yacht with a crew of only three people can be spun out so that it takes up the whole morning to complete the immigration formalities, and the rest of the working day to deal with the Customs and Excise authorities. Well we've done it, but the Skipper, bless him, faces the same procudure in reverse when he returns on Saturday to clear us out. And he's got to pay Overtime of US$40 or so, and not in £ Sterling, for the privilge.
Well, at least we are not a cruise liner with 800 crew and 1800 passengers. Having said that, the Celebrity Summit arrived in Scarborough this morning and left just now. She did not seem to have all that trouble, and I bet her Captain did not get involved in the process at all. Some Skippers are more equal than others.
Meanwhile, all is well with us, and very best wishes to you all.
James, Paul and Volker