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“Fanning Radio, Fanning

Radio. This is Dirona on 16.”

For several hours we’d been trying to contact Fanning Island, a remote
atoll about 1,000 miles south of Honolulu and our rst foreign port

since leaving Hawaii. The atoll is part of Kiribati (pronounced ‘Kiribas’),
an archipelago strung across the Paci c Ocean near the equator.

Before leaving Hawaii, we’d corresponded with a customs of cial in
the capitol city, Tarawa. They had advised us on entry procedures

and requirements, copying their counterpart at Fanning Island. Our
instructions were to contact Fanning Radio on VHF channel 16 when

entering Kiribati waters, but so far we’d had no response.
Not wanting to miss slack water in the entry channel, we proceeded

through without radio contact and anchored off the main village

with our Q ag ying. A small skiff soon arrived with four people on
board: customs, immigration, biosecurity, and the boat’s operator. After

inspecting our boat and paperwork, everything was in order, but the
immigration of cial levied a $500 ne for not having exit stamps on our
Ducks In A Row
passports. The of cial in Tarawa had stated that we only needed a Zarpe,
or clearance paperwork, for the vessel. (The U.S. doesn’t require any

formal clearance processing for departing U.S. pleasure craft and their
crew, but we did speci cally obtain the required Zarpe in Honolulu.)

We asked if one of the of cials was Jonathan (not his real name)
and the customs of cial looked very surprised and said yes. We showed

him the email thread with Tarawa and this persuaded the immigration
of cer to drop the ne and process our entry. When we later went

ashore, we learned that the island’s generator had broken down long
ago and the entire island had been without power since. That is why
The importance of logistics for world travel.Story
we couldn’t reach them by radio, and all those emails from Tarawa

copying Jonathan were never seen.and
Traveling around the world in a small boat is romantic and exciting.
Photos
But any sort of marine travel between countries brings the challenges
of clearing in and out, obtaining spares and provisions, refueling, and in by

our case, travelling with our cat, Spit re. In this second of three articles, Jennifer
we’ll discuss what we learned during our trip around the world to make
and
the logistic complexities fade into the background so we could enjoy
the trip. The rst article (56,000 Miles and Counting, PassageMaker James

April, 2017) covered planning and various aspects of being underway;
the nal installment will cover how we rigged Dirona for the trip.Hamilton

Clearing In and Out

Prior to departing Hawaii in early 2013, we had plenty of experience
traveling into and out of the U.S. by boat, but only to and from Canada.

Neither country requires clearance for departing pleasure craft, only

entry processing, and we’d always had CANPASS or NEXUS cards, so
were able to clear through over the phone in most cases. Even upon

returning to the U.S. from St. Lucia after nearly four years away, we
still were able to clear entirely over the phone through Florida’s Small

Vessel Reporting System
Every other country we visited around the world, however, required

departing pleasure craft to formally clear out of the country and arriving
pleasure craft to present exit paperwork from the previous port. Most

clearance processing was done in person, typically aboard the vessel. At
a minimum, we needed clearance from both customs and immigration.

We typically also needed biosecurity clearance for our cat, and possiblyDirona in spectacular Hall Arm in Fiordland, New Zealand

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