On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 22:25:28 +1100, "John Murfet"
wrote:


Evan Gatehouse wrote in message
...

"John Murfet" wrote in message
...
I'm planning on finding a used 38' boat in the USA east coast,
outfitting,
then sailing on to Europe. My questions are : how much visa time would I
be
allowed (I'm an Australian citizen),
snip

I'm still surprised at the number of people I encounter who are "out
of status" on their visas....two, three years on a 90 day visa.

Being Australian, and not needing a visa, except if you do not meeting
certain condition, such as having a secured passage back home, or at
least off the North American continent, you would have only 90 days...

Since you would be leaving on the freshly re-fitted boat, you would
need a visa because you've not proof of passage on a secured carrier.

While you could hide, quite successfully, I'd hate to think what would
happen with being out of status and trying to get your zarpe for the
next port.
..


I should have about 70K USD all up
snip

You can spend it all.

The trick seems to be to buy the boat, get it outfitted (maybe repaired) and
get underway before the visa expires.

Yes, that's always the trick


An American guy tried to do this last
year in Sydney. His boat was unfinished so he had to almost give it away so
he could get out of the country before being thrown out.

.....sounds like he was under capitalized as much as anything else that
a weekend trip to New Zealand, or Fiji wouldn't handle.