Bring a few Ocean Navigator magazines with you when you travel, they might save you some money. That’s what happened recently to Geert Van Der Kolk. Dutch sailor Van Der Kolk is leading the Haiti Sailing Project, an effort to build a boat in Haiti and sail it to the U.S. with a mixed Haitian/American crew to draw attention to Haiti and its plight as one of the Caribbean’s poorest countries. The boat, called Sipriz, is built and Van Der Kolk is readying for the voyage to Florida. While getting the boat ready, he had a run-in with a customs official.
“The Haitian customs director at Port au Prince airport wanted to impose import duty on our life raft, even though I wasn’t importing the thing. I explained our project and gave the guy a copy of Ocean Navigator, and we parted good friends.”
Turns out having the ON story on his sailing project to show to the customs official saved him $200 in customs fees.
