Currently level 18 - my character has never left Skal. I have never had access to the Skal Citizen the entire time.
The only odd possible triggers I could think of to cause this are:
1) Going below the Deep Imaskari tower to the UD area where the ferryboat is
2) Talking with the ferryboat captain - but not opting to leave
3) Going to the little surface area unused dock spot
4) Talking to the dock captain - but not opting to leave
Besides that, I've really just been doing the normal exploring around and writ work on skal.