New Found Land
Sula Sula III
Mark
Tue 4 Jul 2023 17:21
There are a couple of other boats waiting for a window to cross....and a possibility for tomorrow so will see. To be honest if I am still here in a week of so, I would be very tempted to find a haul out here and come back and explore next summer; this is clearly a very special part of the world, and the interior is true wilderness. The South Coast is a cross between the west coast of Scotland and the Norwegian fjords.
So arrival drama......I had decided that Junior and Sula were going to have to part company, an idea that he was not entirely supportive of. So when immigration turned up, (very promptly) they wanted to know what our intentions were....quite reasonably. I explained that I did not consider it safe to continue with Junior as crew, and would like to make arrangements for his return home to Grenada. We were both interviewed separately and I think that they were suitably pissed off by the paperwork we were generating that they called their homies from customs who came and searched the boat.
This is when it got a bit tricky.....they found my Scottish mushrooms..... And were not happy with my explanation that they were an integral part of my religion and used only for ceremonial purposes. Anyway, I was arrested, read my right, and asked if I would like a lawyer or to inform the consulate.
Luckily, it was Canada day on the morrow, quite a holiday weekend, so I think the police declined to get involved as they didn't want the paperwork either. I was then unarrested. Phew!
Alice meanwhile had managed to get Junior flights and booked them but they went via USA where Junior would be denied entry..,..so now Grenada via UK. The Immigration team explained that I could request some sort of tribunal hearing to see if I should be allowed entry.....or I could sign to say I would be leaving as soon as it was safe to do so and there would be no impact on any future application to visit. I signed.
The boat was upside down...... So Junior and I had our last few hours together and I think got some shared understanding of what had gone wrong. Saw him off at the airport, and slept.