Sailor Savvy - Streetwise Ashore

There's some getting used to being in a city, especially a new city when you first arrive. We've been in Durban for some time now, but our return to the USA had us a bit relaxed in the security department ... a little less aware of our immediate surroundings. Heading out to do some grocery shopping, we had to readjust to being back in the city. Unlike Las Vegas where we drove everywhere we wanted to go, being on foot makes you a bit more vulnerable to petty theft and potentially more violent crimes. South Africa is considered a high-risk country for crime. It's the rape capital of the world. The murder rate is high. Car jackings are commonplace. Durban, in particular, is notorious for street crime. We really need to be on alert when we're out and watch each other's back. That said, any city presents a good opportunity for thieves to work. David was pickpocketed on a bus in Guayaquil, Ecuador. I had a camera stolen (but I recovered it) in Peru. In general, though, we've been very lucky. We're personally aware of at least four cruisers who have been mugged here in Durban. Though it's impossible to stop crime, we can do our best to be streetwise and avoid being a target. Here are our suggestions for being streetwise.

Don't dress to the nines. You can be neat and clean without being showy.

Wear no jewelry nor expensive watches … plastic watches do the trick.

Don't flash cash. Be discrete if you need to buy something. Have small bills available without having to dig through your wallet.

Choose your ATM carefully and don't make a show of putting away your cash. Be suspicious of "helpful" people near an ATM. Be suspicious of anything that doesn't look right about an ATM. We once visited an ATM that had a second card reader attached just above the usual one. If we had swiped our card through it, it would have stored our debit card info, and the little camera mounted above would have recorded our pin number.

Distribute cash in different pockets and between each other.

Don't carry extra credit cards, just carry what you need. The same goes for anything else that isn't necessary and would be expensive or difficult to replace– driver's license, insurance cards, etc.

Keep your wallet in a front, preferably buttoned-pocket. David sometimes carries an extra "dummy" wallet in his back pocket.

Don't carry your passport with you unless absolutely necessary. We carry copies of ours when we go out. The copies are almost always acceptable in lieu of the originals.

Wear your backpack or your purse on your front. Don't hang it over your shoulder.

Be sensible where you wander. All cities have bad areas. Some worse than others. Don't tempt fate. Stay in the central business and tourist areas. If you see something or someone that looks suspicious, cross the street. Don't put yourself in harm's way.

Be wary after dark. Splurge … take a cab.

Watch each other's back. Rather than walking side by side, we take turns trailing each other, watching for people who bump into or brush against us.

You are especially vulnerable when stopping to take a photo. Pay attention to who is nearby or approaching.

11 Adjustments to Living Ashore

No matter how many times we've made the transition from life aboard to life ashore, it's always a major change, if only for a few days. I wonder if other cruisers have similar transition issues? Here's our top 11 list of the major adjustments to shore life. Motion. Houses and hotel rooms do not rock or roll nor does water gently (or otherwise) lap the walls outside our window.

Space. Though Cups is a relatively large boat and well laid-out, even small rooms ashore have so much more space (and moveable furniture) than Nine of Cups.

Speed. We think we're really tooling along when we're doing 8 knots (9.2 mph/15kph) on the boat. Compare that to 500+ mph on a plane or, more noticeably, 70 mph on a highway, and it takes some getting used to.

Weather. Though we watch the weatherman every evening, we're definitely less attuned to weather and wind issues than when we are aboard. Unless there's some major storm heading our way or we might need to take an umbrella, we're kind of oblivious to the weather in our everyday lives ashore. Quite honestly, it's a relief.

Transport. Getting somewhere is so easy and fast when you have a vehicle at your disposal. You don't need to launch the car from the foredeck before using it. Need to pick something up at the store? There's a well-stocked supermarket on every corner and specialty shops are just a few miles away. Just jump in the car and go. No need to call a taxi, take a bus or walk several miles lugging your purchases. Need a boat part? Oh, I forgot … we're on land. We don't need boat parts (except to bring back with us, of course), but if we did? Everything's pretty close by.

Permanent address. Cruising around the world, we've had lots of temporary addresses. This limits our ability to have things mailed and shipped to us. Our address changes constantly. If we want to wait for a shipment, it may or may not arrive on time, depending on several variables (ship time, Customs, delivery scheds). Shippers are always a bit leery of shipping overseas to non-billing addresses. On land, we have an address that's been in the system for years (even though it's my sister's address). Easy, peasy for all those Amazon Prime shipments.

Unlimited utilities. Leave the water running while brushing our teeth? Keep the computers plugged in and on all the time? Leave extra lights on? We still try not to waste water and power, but we aren't quite as diligent about it as when we have to carry or generate our own.

Fast internet. We send large files and photos in a flash versus spotty internet connections which sometimes require a long and tedious process to send even simple text e-mails.

Television. We haven't owned a TV for the past 15 years and we're so out of touch with the technology (Cable, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu). Flat screens are huge comparative to watching DVDs on our little laptop screen. In most households, watching TV is a relaxing evening ritual that we're just not used to. On the other hand, how can you have 500+ options and not find anything of interest to watch?

Appliances. Refrigerators, freezers, toasters, coffee makers, irons, grills, griddles, hairdryers, can openers, blenders, microwave ovens … all at our fingertips and we don't even have to be in a marina with access to shore power. And we have ICE!

Convenience. This is a biggie. Living ashore is so much more convenient than living on the boat. Just a few examples? Cups is currently in the marina in Durban where we usually take showers and do most of our bathroom activities ashore at the yacht club. This requires getting dressed and toting all our shower gear down a very long dock and getting through a security gate before actually arriving at the showers. How convenient it is to just jump in the shower with shampoo and soap handy and no need to bring it with you. Need a gas or diesel fill-up? Just stop at one of the hundred gas stations around and fill 'er up. There's no necessity to tote jerry jugs. Dirty laundry? No need to tote it two miles to the nearest laundromat and then hang it out on the lines. Instead, just throw it into the washer, then the dryer and voila … clean laundry in an hour.

All this said … we'd rather live aboard and be sailing. Convenience is highly overrated.

Checking Out is Hard to Do

If you think breaking up is hard to do, you've never tried checking out of a South African port. We're not leaving the country, just moving to the next port, but it's still a major undertaking. For those of you who are considering the cruising life, this is a lesson in patience, beyond waiting for weather windows or tradesmen.

We inquired  at the Durban Marina office what the procedure for check-out was. She smiled knowingly and began compiling a sheaf of papers to be completed. “Fill these out and bring them back.”

No problem, I thought, until I got back to Nine of Cups and gave them a good look. Port Authority required a float plan which included the usual boat info, crew list and last ports of call, but they also required a sketch of the boat along with many other of the boat's vital statistics (four pages worth), all radio frequencies monitored and much, much more. Mind you, we'd provided most of this information when we arrived.

The Customs form centered upon our cargo. How much were we carrying? What cargo had we dropped off and how much were we hauling out? Really? As in many countries, visiting sailboats are treated like large commercial vessels and the paperwork reflects this.

We completed all the forms and returned to the office. Adri had prepared our final marina bill, as well as a calculation of port fees … a R25.80/day charge for being in the marina beyond 30 days. We paid the marina bill and got a receipt. The port fees, however, could not be paid in cash or with a credit card at Port Authority. It needed to be deposited to the proper account at the Standard Bank in downtown Durban, which of course required us to walk downtown, wait in line and make the deposit (in cash) at the bank and obtain the receipt.

From the bank, we walked to the Port Authority. The fellow wasn't there, but we were invited to sit and wait for him. About 15 minutes later, he arrived, reviewed the receipt, stamped a couple of forms and told us to proceed to Immigration with our passports, and then to Customs and then return to his office … and we'd better hurry because all the offices close at 4pm.

Immigration asked when we had arrived … end of November. They lugged out a file box full of completed forms and sorted through them until they came across Nine of Cups' original entry paperwork. They reviewed our float plan, made a copy and then reviewed our passports … no stamps, just initials and a date on one of the pieces of paper we were hauling around. They instructed us to go to Customs.

The Customs fellow was friendly, but new. We gave him our completed form which he reviewed with another co-worker. He made several copies, then signed off on another form. We were then instructed to return to Port Authority.

We trudged back over to Port Authority who assembled all this paperwork, stapled it together and added it to the the piles on his desk. He stamped our clearance form and bid us a good afternoon. Done! The bad news? This is the procedure at every South African port we sail to … probably a few more forms and stamps will be required when we actually leave the country.