What are the worst port authorities people have had to deal with before?
The worst two I’ve seen are probably the Dakar (Senegal) and Douala (Cameroon) authorities, where they come on board and fine the vessel for the smallest possible “mistakes” in arrival documents, plundering the ship’s cash, cigarettes, alcohol, food and sometimes taking the expensive tins of paint.
An example of one of the reasons we got fine was because the arrival crew list crew members middle names were down as an initial and not the full name. Another was because we had not made an inventory of all the ships refrigerators. But not cooperating with these “fines” could lead to the vessel getting detained, which would be even more costly.
While not a Port Authority, or at least a maritime one, I had a run in leaving the Ivory Coast some years ago. After clearing departure immigration and security, I picked my bags off of the scanner belt and started my way through the plywood maze (they were rebuilding the Abidjan Airport at the time). There were some locals sitting in folding chairs in casual civilian clothes with credentials on lanyards watching us make our way to the departure lounge. One rather large man (think Forrest Whittaker) stood up as I neared him and pulled me aside. He asked me if I was from the US and then led me to a little booth in the plywood and pulled a curtain closed, isolating us. He asked me to put my bags on the counter, and then asked me what was in them. I told him they were briefcase with lap top and paperwork and my (mostly dirty) laundry. The then asked me what I had for him. Well, I wanted to get the hell out of that room, and I also had about 30 bucks worth of West African francs that are useless anywhere else in the world (even for exchanging), so I handed it over to him. He thanked me and let me proceed. I just put it down as Airport Tax on my expenses. Lovely. Oddly enough, I expected as much in Nigeria, however have never had that problem there. Go figure.
[QUOTE=cmakin;89265]While not a Port Authority, or at least a maritime one, I had a run in leaving the Ivory Coast some years ago. After clearing departure immigration and security, I picked my bags off of the scanner belt and started my way through the plywood maze (they were rebuilding the Abidjan Airport at the time). There were some locals sitting in folding chairs in casual civilian clothes with credentials on lanyards watching us make our way to the departure lounge. One rather large man (think Forrest Whittaker) stood up as I neared him and pulled me aside. He asked me if I was from the US and then led me to a little booth in the plywood and pulled a curtain closed, isolating us. He asked me to put my bags on the counter, and then asked me what was in them. I told him they were briefcase with lap top and paperwork and my (mostly dirty) laundry. The then asked me what I had for him. Well, I wanted to get the hell out of that room, and I also had about 30 bucks worth of West African francs that are useless anywhere else in the world (even for exchanging), so I handed it over to him. He thanked me and let me proceed. I just put it down as Airport Tax on my expenses. Lovely. Oddly enough, I expected as much in Nigeria, however have never had that problem there. Go figure.[/QUOTE]
That was SOP in Lagos for years. Put a $20 bill in your passport or “your papers are not in order” for you to leave. One time leaving, one of my crew was a black American. They took his $20 and his papers were still not in order. They still wern’t satisfied with his last few dollar bills. I stuffed a wad of CFAs(about $15 worth) so big that the official couldn’t close the flap on his breast pocket. They finally let him leave. Strange though…when the crew went back to Africa, this guy asked to be excluded!
[QUOTE=cmakin;89265]While not a Port Authority, or at least a maritime one, I had a run in leaving the Ivory Coast some years ago. After clearing departure immigration and security, I picked my bags off of the scanner belt and started my way through the plywood maze (they were rebuilding the Abidjan Airport at the time). There were some locals sitting in folding chairs in casual civilian clothes with credentials on lanyards watching us make our way to the departure lounge. One rather large man (think Forrest Whittaker) stood up as I neared him and pulled me aside. He asked me if I was from the US and then led me to a little booth in the plywood and pulled a curtain closed, isolating us. He asked me to put my bags on the counter, and then asked me what was in them. I told him they were briefcase with lap top and paperwork and my (mostly dirty) laundry. The then asked me what I had for him. Well, I wanted to get the hell out of that room, and I also had about 30 bucks worth of West African francs that are useless anywhere else in the world (even for exchanging), so I handed it over to him. He thanked me and let me proceed. I just put it down as Airport Tax on my expenses. Lovely. Oddly enough, I expected as much in Nigeria, however have never had that problem there. Go figure.[/QUOTE]
You did a wise thing there! Better to avoid the trouble whilst your ahead and keep them happy.