FRENCH POLYNESIA
Bahía de Caraquéz, Ecuador, Monday, 09 July 2007
Our plan to head toward The Marquesas in French Polynesia (FP) as from mid-August or early September this year is very much up in the air. Weather-wise we would be relatively safe in The Marquesas during the cyclone season because, like Ecuador, the archipelago is close to the equator and hurricane-free. The SE Trade Winds, on the other hand, start to die out by mid- to late-September and, without them, we would be faced with beating to windward or, worse, motoring. It is 3,000 Nm to Fatu Hiva and a month-long sail. With bunker capacity of about 60 US gallons, we simply couldn’t carry enough diesel fuel to motor it. We have to sail it using the SE Trades. This is certainly feasible as long as we leave here by mid August or so and make no stop at The Galapagos.
We can stay in Ecuador until mid-November. The core problem now has more to do with French-Polynesian visas. If you are a non-EC citizen you can get a 30-day visa just by showing up in FP. You can also get a 90-day visa for FP from the French Consul-General in Quito, but with no extensions after reaching the islands. Do you suppose the Gendarmes would just jettison us out of the islands into the approaching cyclones when the three months expires. The French! Finally, for longer periods, you can apply for a Carte de Sejour for any length of time and it might be granted. That’s nice of them.
The hitch, however, is that you must apply through a French consulate in your "place of domicile", which in our case would be Frankfurt, Germany. The consul there has told us by email that we must present ourselves personally to make an application that will in any case be forwarded to the High Commissioner or other poohbah in French Polynesia.
Going to Frankfurt seems a bit much just to make application. And sending the originals of our passports by post to Germany and back seems a little risky, not to mention that we are legally required to be able to identify ourselves with a sedula here in Ecuador at all times. And why, for heaven’s sake, make us go to Germany when the decision is going to be made in Papeete, the French consul in Frankfurt acting simply as a messenger boy?
Oh, well. Maybe we shall just have to wait till the spring and sail to FP from Panama under the 30 or 90-day plan. In this Plan B, we would sail to Panama while the winds are still favourable, i.e., still from the south. They remain so until about late October or November and then go around to the northeast, i.e., ·"noserlies" for us. I don’t fancy motoring or motor-sailing to windward for 600 Nm. So we would have to be out of here before our Ecuadorian visa expires.
Plan C is to leave Vilisar here in Bahía again and take on another house-sitting gig somewhere interesting. We have been eyeing Italy and possibly Argentina, the former just because we like Italy and the latter because it is very inexpensive and we have never been there before and everyone says it's nice. While house-sitting we could concentrate on writing and internet work, order new sails for the boat and fatten up our cruising kitty.
Stay tuned.
Bahía de Caraquéz, Ecuador, Monday, 09 July 2007
Our plan to head toward The Marquesas in French Polynesia (FP) as from mid-August or early September this year is very much up in the air. Weather-wise we would be relatively safe in The Marquesas during the cyclone season because, like Ecuador, the archipelago is close to the equator and hurricane-free. The SE Trade Winds, on the other hand, start to die out by mid- to late-September and, without them, we would be faced with beating to windward or, worse, motoring. It is 3,000 Nm to Fatu Hiva and a month-long sail. With bunker capacity of about 60 US gallons, we simply couldn’t carry enough diesel fuel to motor it. We have to sail it using the SE Trades. This is certainly feasible as long as we leave here by mid August or so and make no stop at The Galapagos.
We can stay in Ecuador until mid-November. The core problem now has more to do with French-Polynesian visas. If you are a non-EC citizen you can get a 30-day visa just by showing up in FP. You can also get a 90-day visa for FP from the French Consul-General in Quito, but with no extensions after reaching the islands. Do you suppose the Gendarmes would just jettison us out of the islands into the approaching cyclones when the three months expires. The French! Finally, for longer periods, you can apply for a Carte de Sejour for any length of time and it might be granted. That’s nice of them.
The hitch, however, is that you must apply through a French consulate in your "place of domicile", which in our case would be Frankfurt, Germany. The consul there has told us by email that we must present ourselves personally to make an application that will in any case be forwarded to the High Commissioner or other poohbah in French Polynesia.
Going to Frankfurt seems a bit much just to make application. And sending the originals of our passports by post to Germany and back seems a little risky, not to mention that we are legally required to be able to identify ourselves with a sedula here in Ecuador at all times. And why, for heaven’s sake, make us go to Germany when the decision is going to be made in Papeete, the French consul in Frankfurt acting simply as a messenger boy?
Oh, well. Maybe we shall just have to wait till the spring and sail to FP from Panama under the 30 or 90-day plan. In this Plan B, we would sail to Panama while the winds are still favourable, i.e., still from the south. They remain so until about late October or November and then go around to the northeast, i.e., ·"noserlies" for us. I don’t fancy motoring or motor-sailing to windward for 600 Nm. So we would have to be out of here before our Ecuadorian visa expires.
Plan C is to leave Vilisar here in Bahía again and take on another house-sitting gig somewhere interesting. We have been eyeing Italy and possibly Argentina, the former just because we like Italy and the latter because it is very inexpensive and we have never been there before and everyone says it's nice. While house-sitting we could concentrate on writing and internet work, order new sails for the boat and fatten up our cruising kitty.
Stay tuned.
posted by rjb @ Tuesday, July 10, 2007
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