Posted 10th June 2010

Cruising yachts coming into Australia should be made aware, and not be overly concerned, that you may be ordered off your yacht on arrival. Customs have been given (by law) the right to order the captain, crew, and guests off a yacht while they do a search of the vessel, it is against the law to photograph, video or record them in any way.

My Australian friends had this done to them on arriving back into Brisbane from New Caledonia. Customs tried their best to put things back where they had come from and the only damage was one paper chart was accidentally torn whilst being knelt on while crawling over the front cabin bed and the lockers and draws had their contents rearranged somewhat.

Peter Salmon