By William Kosar, JD, LLM
In October 2015, I purchased a Richard Woods Elf 26 catamaran in South Africa. But it wasn’t until 2017, after a major refit in Gordon’s Bay, South Africa that she was delivered to Watamu, on Kenya’s Indian Ocean North Coast. That voyage took some three or four months of sailing over a period of almost nine months.
By late November 2017, CassandravillE (named in honor of my wife Cassandra—as if I had a choice!) had arrived in Watamu, our home for over a decade. But before algae and barnacles had time to settle on CassandravillE in her mooring at Ocean Sports Resort we were already planning to take her on a return trip back down the coast for the Dar Tanga Yacht Race in what was to become an annual ritual.
You see, CassandravillE is registered in Canada and flies the Canadian flag. As such, she is only allowed a temporary, one-year entry into Kenya under what is called a Transire (a carnet in international trade terms). Accordingly, once a year we join other yacht owners and sail our boats out of Kenya down to Tanga, Tanzania, our nearest foreign port. Then, after several days, we make the return trip back to our home in Kenya. All in all, a very pleasant though not unadventurous voyage.
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