Well our plan did not work. We arrived at the airport for our flight to Madrid by way of Dallas only to be told by American Airlines that we would not be allowed on the plane. Our best efforts were made to plead force mejuer but no matter what we said they told us we could not fly to Spain. Of course, they also will not refund the money that we spent for tickets not once but twice - but that is another story. Ultimately, we were told that in order to be allowed on the plane we had to present a letter from the Spanish Government specifically giving us permission to enter the country. So, we started to work on obtaining permission from the Spanish Consulate in Chicago. We started with the Honorary Consulate for Spain in St. Louis, he then pleaded our case to the Consulate General for Spain in Chicago. But... the answer was still NO.
Babies
So... now we have a problem. Folks from non-European countries are allowed to "temporarily import" their boat for personal use into the EU without paying the VAT (value added tax) tax that Europeans pay on their boats. But there is a time limit of 18 months on the temporary import (TI). In light of the pandemic, the EU commission has put forth that non-European boats would be allowed an extension of the TI but they must apply to the local customs office (where their boat is berthed) before their time is up. Well here is the Catch-22: you must apply for the "solicitude" or appeal for the extension online however in order to do that you must have a "digital certificate" AND you can only get a digital certificate if you are Spanish!! So you must apply online but you cannot apply online! Round Two.
Another spectacular Rend Lake Sunset
So here we go again with appeals for assistance to the Spanish Consulate. To anyone finding themselves in a position where they have to deal with the Spanish Authorities my advice would be - don't bother. Just give up or don't even start because you will get nowhere - they will not help you in any way. Not just difficult - beyond difficult! In the end all we came away with was much frustration and a dandy headache. I think we are now up to Plan G!!
Rend Lake
We have no way to appeal to the local customs officials for an extension on the TI. This is actually a very big deal as the tax is 20 to 30% of whatever they arbitrarily determine the value of your boat to be. We are talking 30 to 40 thousand. Not a small sum of money. So we must move Talaria out of the EU however we are not allowed to go there and move her ourselves. We have hired an Italian captain that our Canadian friends found on a facebook page called "Women who Sail". We are not on facebook so I have never seen that page but many women sailors I know rely on it often. After checking his references we decided to let him take her on a 1600 nm journey to Kas, Turkey. It will be Andrea, his friend who is also a professional sailor and Andrea's 16 year old daughter who is trying to build up sea miles for her licensing. We told him we are in no hurry - mind the weather and do a slow, safe passage. I will have him turn our tracker on when he arrives so we can watch her progress. We anticipate about a three week passage depending on the weather. Upon arrival in Kas she will be lifted and put on the hard until we arrive in January. I plan to go ahead and work the rest of the year. In January, we will fly to Turkey and enjoy a nice warm winter. Then hopefully when the sailing season starts we will be able to sail again. If everything is okay pandemic wise, we will head to Greece in the Spring. Again, I appeal to everyone to send good thoughts our way as the number of cases are not just going up in the US but in the EU as well. Andrea says he is hearing rumors that they may shut the border between France (where Andrea is living) and Spain yet again. He is unable to leave France before the 29th of July so we are hoping that he makes it to Spain before more restrictions are put in place. Then he just needs to get out of there are quickly as possible. Fingers crossed!
