Thursday, March-12-15.

Crew of Maiatla threatened with arrest and boat seizure by Customs in Costa Rica.

Well it’s been a crazy couple of weeks down here in Play Del Coco, Costa Rica. Our trouble started when we decided to leave Costa Rica and head back to El Salvador.

We checked out with Customs, immigration then the Port Captain. All went well and we were given permission to leave. We then sailed a few miles up the coast to tuck into a nice little bay to wait for the Papagaoyo gale to blow its self out before heading back to sea.

I had previously injured my left arm two weeks earlier in a bad blow near Puntarenas that had us running for shelter at a nearby island. We wanted calm weather now as not to strain my arm any further so we waited.

Well a few small weather windows opened up but each time we pulled anchor, (twice in the early morning and twice at sunset) and headed to sea we found that the weather reports lied and we got slammed with 30 to 50 knots of wind and big seas, the gales weren’t finished.

It was during this time that we developed a serious steering problem as the hydraulic pump would intermittently fail. Not a good situation during a gale. With no break in the weather in sight, with the steering acting up and my arm worse off for the ware, we decided to check back into Costa Rica. See a doctor and a boat mechanic.

We anchored without incident back in Playa Del Coco and went to see the Port Captain and immigration and we had no problems until we went to see the Customs agent up in Liberia. This guy said that we couldn’t come back with the boat and despite a physical injury, and a partially disabled boat and a fierce gale blowing offshore, we were ordered to leave and NOW!

I protested but he was adamant, there was no provision in the law for us to return unless we had been gone with the boat for at least 90 days. We weren’t the only boat here in trouble with this guy.

Jim and his Canadian boat Meandher, from Kimberly BC was anchored near us and he also was under threat of being arrested by the same guy. The customs agent didn’t like Jim’s Vessel registration and demanded a new original copy issued by the Canadian government and that if he didn’t produce it in the next few days he would be arrested. Jim was also forbidden to leave as well.

As Jan and I left this guy’s office, he then said that if we stayed he would have us arrested and the boat seized. And I was to tell Jim that unless he had the document he wanted by tomorrow, he would send the police to arrest him and seize his boat.

We took a taxi back to Playa Del Coco then Jan and I had a rather heated and emotional discussion as to what to do.

I know legally they can’t force an un-seaworthy vessel with injured crew back to sea. But this is a third world country and as is typical, the officials often change the rules to suit themselves and there is little room for appeal.

We finally decided to go back to immigration and the Port Captain, get our international departure papers back, leave  the harbour and hide out in a nearby bay and see if I could get the steering fixed and wait for the weather to settle down. A reasonable plan but a new problem arose.

When we I went to see the Port Captain he told me that he and immigration need new documents from the customs agent before he could give us permission to leave. If we attempted to leave without permission we could be arrested and have the boat seized. I told him what the customs agent said and his reply was, “get a Lawyer!”

Ok new problem.

I have one government agency telling me to leave now or be arrested and two more tell me that I can’t leave, if I try I would be arrested. And if I did sneak out under the cover of darkness, arriving in the next country without proper exit papers they that could  get us fined, arrested, or boat impounded or all of the above.

Jim, I and Jan sat in Maiatla’s cockpit to try and figure this out. Jim was all for running for El Salvador. He had already talked to customs and immigration there and explained our problem.

They remembered both boats as we cleared into Bahia Del Sol couple of months before and they said we could come back without our international Zarpe. Finally officials with some common sense.

I couldn’t believe that here we were, making plans to sneak out of the harbour in the dead of night during a gale that was predicted to last at least another week and run 250 miles to El Salvador.  We had 20 to 30 knots whipping the harbour into a frenzy, I could well imaging what it was like offshore (been there before a few times).

But that’s what we were planning. I decided that despite my hurt arm, Jan wasn’t going. I called a friend who lived a couple of hours away and booked a cab to take Jan there. Jan could fly to El Salvador when I get there in a few days.

It was 1 pm and the best time to leave would be around 2 am so Jan packed her bag. I was mad as hell and couldn’t believe this was happening and all so fast. Jan and I stopped and took a deep breath to try and think this through. Jim and his wife, who was still in Canada both tried to call the Canadian Consulate here in Costa Rica but couldn’t get through but I thought I would try.

I called the consulate and somehow managed to get through. I was first told by the receptionist that this was not a consulate issue.

I lost it on her, “what do you mean? You have two Canadians on a Canadian registered vessel under threat of arrest for just being here and you say it’s not a consulate ‘issue! If this is not what the hell is?”

I finally got past the operator and talked to a now sympathetic consulate, she put me in touch with a lawyer with the Costa Rican Tourist Bureau and the nice lady said that she would check into it and get back to me.

I also called the Marina that I wanted to go into to get the boat fixed and they had their lawyer call the customs office as well.

Customs here has a lot of power and I was hoping that we weren’t just pissing him off even more.

I said to Jim that we need to give these people some time to do what they do and see what happens. Jim didn’t want to wait as the customs agent had already said that he would send the police for him tomorrow.

So we waited but still got ready to run like hell. Anyway, I was surprised that at 4 pm I got a phone call from the Tourist Lawyer who told me that it was all just a “mistake” on the customs part. I can go back to the customs office and get an extension for us and the boat.

So here we are two days later getting ready to go ashore to get our new papers and hopefully get into the marina for repairs. As for Jim, the lawyer said there was nothing they or the consulate could do for him. Jim is hiding out nearby waiting for his papers from Canada to arrive and he hopes that when he presents them to customs they will be accepted and he won’t be arrested.  But if the weather breaks I think he my just run as planned.

So we are off to see customs this morning, wish us luck. I will keep you posted if I can.

Andy and Janet of Maiatla II in Costa Rica