Any other bad places to check in to in the Caribbean?

[fliti]

Having read the string from this April on checking in and out, I can certainly add my personal thumbs down on English Harbour. The fat Sergeant King and the even fatter weird sisters are still there looking forward to ruining your day and lightening your wallet. The thread also made it clear that you can expect trouble in Puerto Rico. I have experienced rude behaviour from immigration and customs in Hillsborough, Carriacou,Grenada (though everywhere else in Grenada was fine, as was Jolly Harbour, by the way). What, if any, other customs and immigration land mines are out there in the Leeward and Windward Islands? Forewarned is forearmed...

 

[phantomlady]

Didn't like the attitude in Tobago much...but it was some years ago so may have improved. Agree about English Harbour...would never check in there - Jolly Harbour or Barbuda are best. St. Kitts weren't good either

 

[sailorgirl]

Have to mention the lovely St David's, Grenada guys who manged to fleece us of a beer each whilst checking in and the gorgeous, smiling ladies of Bequia immigration who extended our visas for 2 months (when we asked for 6 weeks) for the price on 1 month. Smile and be friendly, ask about their kids or their football team and they'll love you.

 

[AndrewB]

I've only had real discourtesy in two places in the Caribbean: English Harbour, Antigua, and Charlotte Amelie, USVI. In the latter, the two customs guys were playing Ping-Pong. I was given an enormous form to fill out: most of it was meaningless for a yacht but every time I had a query I had to wait five minutes while they played another game. Then one would say "Just fill in the form". Eventually I got the message it didn't matter what nonsense I put as long as every box was filled. I haven't been back to Antigua but no problems in USVI on return visits.

I wouldn't go into Walilabou Bay (St Vincent) again, because last time the customs guy there wouldn't open up until 5pm, whereupon he demanded overtime payment.

Barbados back in the mid 90's (Deepwater Harbour), the immigration guy took one look at my home-made courtesy ensign and told me it was the wrong shade of yellow - an insult to his country. "However", he added, "my cousin will sell you one for $30". A little riskily I declined, and bought a small Barbados flag in the local gift shop for $2.

No discourtesy in Puerto Rico, but they wouldn't sign me out when I gave Cuba as my destination. "You can't put 'Cuba' on an official USA document", one said, "you have to put some place else". "So, you'd like me to LIE on an official USA document?" I replied. Err ... yes.

Cuba, that's another story. They check you in at every port and are very tough there, though perfectly courteous. The customs guys are strictly forbidden to accept gifts. So they manoeuvre to be the last one to leave your yacht, whereupon whoever succeeds asks for money out of sight of his boss. On being declined he then asks for batteries. "No, but you can have a six-pack of beer", I said. But he couldn't accept that, it would be far too obvious. A neat way (I thought) of remaining courteous without risking the severe penalties for attempting to bribe a customs officer.

 

[sailaboutvic]

No matter where we seen to cruise be it the Med or Caribbean they all seen to have there problems , one Man good heaven is another man hell .
What we all need to remember is cruising isn't what it use to be 20 years ago , for a start too many boats .
At then end of the day , as a wife said to her husband , the grass may be green on the other side , but you still got to cut the bloody thing . .

 

[KellysEye]

Bonaire. If you check in with immigration you will be accused of drug smuggling if you have been in the Venezuelan out islands and the abuse will continue for ages, he is a very nasty piece of work. Wait until it closes at 18.30 then go to the police station who will clear you in and the cops are charming.

Curacao customs is fine but over the river (bridge and a long walk ) immigration can be a nightmare. Make sure you have a permit to be on the site where their building is, you can get one at the entrance kiosk, we didn't know that and had to go back and get one. Don't go at lunchtime 12.00 to 14.00 and check that the stamps are correct, one of ours wasn't. You have to get an anchoring permit if you want to anchor anywhere other than Spanish Water.

 

[aldeburgh]

The Big guy at Jolly harbour was great with me as it was my first time clearing ,sounds like it was a good move going past English harbour.

 

[BobnLesley]

...Walilabou Bay (St Vincent) again, because last time the customs guy there wouldn't open up until 5pm, whereupon he demanded overtime payment...

This (Jan 2104) is still the case; I understand tha one of the Officers calls by on his way home from the main office in Georgetown.

Having sailed UK to the Med and now through pretty well every island in the Antilles, we've not had a problem anywhere; certainly some Officials have been friendlier than others, similarly some have been more professional than others, but the most serious/only difficulty I can remember was when we tried to leave Charlotteville Tobago and nobody could find the Customs Officer; having given it half an hour, the Immigration Officer phoned Customs in Trinidad and they 'cleared us' over the phone. Hey, that's Tobago Mon; a great place, but we got us an efficiency deficiency.

I will accept that we have over the years seen a few people being given a hard time in various places, though without exception these incidents have appeared to start with a poor attitude on the part of the yottie. Most recently was in Jolly Harbour, Antigua about six weeks ago when a British Yottie (I wonder if/hope that he's reading this) trying to clear out, who had forgotten his Eseaclear password and felt this was the fault of Antigua Customs & Immigration for insisting that said password be too complicated/secure. Despite (with a few minutes delay) the Officers resolving the issue for this chap, he continued to be unpleasant to everyone, most especially to the two ladies in the Harbourmasters Office. Having listened to him whine for long enough, I pointed out that the issue, whilst his own fault/problem in the first place was certainly nothing to do with the Harbourmaster's Staff and that he should both moderate his language and apologise; this at least deflected his abuse toward myself rather than the young ladies (I've been married to Lesley for 30 years, I'm well used to/can absorb abuse!) and also earned me the threat of 'a punch on the nose'. I, indeed everyone in the office looked at each other and simply burst out laughing as the chap stormed out and on his way to St Kitts. When I turned to leave a couple of minutes later, I noticed that the two Customs Officers were loitering in the doorway, one of whom commented "I was so disappointed that he didn't punch you." My expression no doubt showed surprise at this remark, until he explained that had the chap hit me, whilst it was unlikely that a prosecution would've been made, they could certainly have 'detained him for 48-hours and that would have really screwed-up his holiday.'

Just arrive tidily dressed, be polite and show respect - exactly as you'd expect of someone who was visiting you in your place of work - and as someone mentioned earlier (for Caribbean) get the conversation around to cricket.

 

[SimonJ]

St Martin - choose your check in place wisely! On Dutch side you will pay exhorbitantly for entry and anchoring and then be subject to checks on dinghy equipment, boats papers, )especially at night). On French side cheapest check in is at Capitainerie in Marina inside lagoon - go by dinghy or on foot. Otherwise higher rates and anchoring charge if you check in with customs at ferry dock - go figure!
Anguilla - expensive and exhorbitant to cruise other than Road Bay, you have to use moorings and in February were reportedly non existent!
Dominica - you can check in and out for less than 2 weeks on entry at Portsmouth but customs are a long way out of town! Going on to Roseau needs another permit and checking in/out there may take time if a ferry is around. Best avoided! Also they want to know if you have stowaways ....!
Culebra - can be rude there US style! Also have experienced extreme politeness!
Nevis - known to be awkward
Bequia- bureaucratic but pleasant. Pity they so not put their effort into overseeing anchorage rather than stating that moorings there are not licensed or sanctioned!
All French island places - nearly all in cafés or marinas (some free or nominal charge) easy with own input to dedicated computer.
Union Island - at airport, can be rude and overtime at week ends etc
Trinidad - can be a real pain. Try the cricket ploy! They have tried to charge overtime when it is known you have entered Trinidad waters before opening or after. Losing time. Have been tricky about stopping in Scotland Bay prior to exiting their waters.
The real downside is rarely cost although Antigua, Anguilla and St Martin are raising the stakes. It is the inconvenience, frequent rudeness and frequent need to decide well in advance of departing when you actually are going to go by which time things may have changed. Dominica at least has a system that deals with this and French islands allow you certain flexibility.
Still despite all this it is of course warm in the Caribbean although mostly windy and quite often wet- but a good place to be in the winter despite the tribulations!

 

[chuckr]

i don't know but seems to me some yachties seem to think that we are there for the islands amusment -- we have sailed almost the entire caribbean and now in the med and have seen some pretty silly stuff from folks checking in thinking that the customs and immigration folks should be overwhelmed that someone showed up -- actually they could care less --
as above we go in dressed appropriately and use yes sir and fill out the forms and never complain and just assume that it will take a lot of time -- we try to joke with some and sometimes it works and others it does not -
but over all if you treat people the way you would want to be treated they will usually respond in kind -- the only place we had a problem was in puerto rico and we are an american boat and got our head handed to us 3 times in 2 hours -- we won't check into the usa anymore as we do not want to be treated as criminals again -- our foreign friends got a lot better treatment than we did as americans --

but over all we just take our time and try to smile and be nice and it has always worked - well at least so far