September 19, 2003

Mail Forwarding

Despite the benefits of e-mail, some things still have to come by snail mail. When we started cruising 9 years ago, we had a significantly larger snail mail requirement than we do now as we have e-mail access on board, and banks have become computer literate.

A number of professional mail forwarding services are available, though friends report they seem to have a patchy record for reliability. Many advertise either in Yachting Magazines or expat publications; if you need to use a professional service, try to get a recommendation from someone using the service first. With the huge increase in the volume of junk mail, unless the service is efficient in extracting the real stuff from the junk, forwarding of mail can get very expensive.

If you can persuade a friend or relative to act for you at least they can read the mail first and decide if it needs to be sent (99 percent of it really doesn't). And if you use e-mail, the essential parts of important communications can be extracted and sent that way, or your forwarder can contact the sender and give them your e-mail address. Brian's mother is our forwarder, and has successfully managed our mail while we have been away.

You might also want to consider setting up a power of attorney with a friend/family member. Then if documents need to be signed it is faster and cheaper than having to have them sent by courier or faxed (usually expensive and not all signed documents are acceptable by fax) especially as you may be at sea or in a remote area at the time.

Financial Correspondence

Try to use a bank/credit card company where you can look at your statements on line. By the time you get your credit card statement mailed/faxed it may be too late (usually 30 days) to query any discrepancies in order to get an immediate refund (it is still possible to get refunded but it may take months while they investigate). Also, we have had our card 'hi-jacked' and our account was being quickly emptied. Luckily we noticed the transactions on-line and could cancel the card promptly. We regularly look at our transactions on-line mainly to check this hasn't happened again.

We use our bank to pay our credit card bill automatically, that way we can be sure the credit card won't be stopped, leaving us without cash. Then we check the statement online whenever we get to an Internet cafe.

Postal Services

In nine years of cruising we have lost only two parcels, and we have had things sent to some very remote places. Rather than source mail addresses a long way ahead, wait until you are near to where you want your mail sent, then check with other cruisers (via the SSB) for current reliable addresses. Marinas, yacht clubs, charter boat (Sunsail/Moorings etc.) bases are all good choices, as are Amex offices if you are a card holder.

Most third world countries have surprisingly good postal services, and are usually very cheap for outgoing mail. Likewise incoming mail is reliable. We sent a number of packages from Bali in Indonesia, and the counter clerk dumped them all on the floor by his desk without any sign of a stamp being attached after we had paid and handed them over. We thought they would never get through but they all arrived a few days later.

Bear in mind that if you are sending mail to (or from) islands that are overseas territories of European countries the mail will most likely go via the parent country so will take longer than via a direct route (e.g. St. Maarten is part of the Netherlands Antilles and mail is routed via Holland).

A few tips for mail being sent to you:

Ask the mailer to use an ordinary looking brown envelope or wrapping. Brightly coloured paper or obvious gift wrapping is more likely to go astray (ditto when sending mail in third world countries).

Mark everything "Yacht in Transit"; in many countries Customs will pass it straight through if marked in this way. We have had to pay duty on birthday/Christmas gifts and even family videos in some countries so its worth marking everything this way. In some countries, for example Thailand, incoming items attract punitive rates of duty, so it is worth checking first what the costs are likely to be. Cruisers in Thailand get everything sent to Malaysia.

If it is of any value whatsoever (e.g. credit cards), invest in a courier service unless posting to countries with a very safe record for mail (e.g. Australia, New Zealand).

Always try to get an address rather than mail to a post office; for some reason they seem the least able to store and retrieve mail safely. If you are using a marina as an address, bear in mind the mail is often left lying on a table/in a box/in a pigeon hole. If you need something kept securely until you arrive, contact the marina and ask them to keep it safe for you.

Always get the sender to write their address on the back; some "lost" parcels get returned up to a year later.

Courier Services

Clearly these are the most reliable, but also the most costly. Different companies have more or less of a presence in different regions but the "big" names operate everywhere. We have never had any problems with DHL or FedEx, but we have not had much success with UPS (or for that matter the USPS).