Family arriving St Lucia by air

iangrant

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I'll be sailing the Atlantic in November and Mrs G and the daughters will be arriving in St Lucia by air to cruise off for three months.
I've heard of a few probs with "crews" arriving with no return ticket. I've drafted a letter from the "Yacht" addressed to St Lucia Imigration but I'd like to be sure the content is satisfactory.
Has anyone had any problems with the authorities please or had had a letter accepted?

Ian
 

tcm

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I'd issue "tickets" from the boat, rather than pleading little letter. You need a stamp for the boat, a date stamp, perhaps another stamp from wh smith saying "official"

for each passenger it should give

date of departure
destination
vessel number
massive disclaimers aginst various things, in legalese
date of issue
place of issue
blarney about not transferable
sailing reference number (made up)
lots of stamps on the bottom

the result should be much better than an airline ticket - which is a much worse guarantee of them leaving cos i mean even if they get lashed and are abusive to the skipper - they get on the boat, i bet :)
 

Jeannius

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It is often cheaper to buy a return instead of a single ticket and just throw away the return leg. I did that for the family after ARC2002. Do that and the problem is solved.
 

jerryat

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Yep, agree with ex-Bam. Done the same myself and had no probs at all. In fact, those flying in weren't even questioned about returning to the UK or anywhere else.

Hop on and off the criuse liners, go on to different islands and leave on yachts etc so, as Bam says, the immigration fellas are used to it now.

Cheers Jerry
 

TQA

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Re: Family arriving St Lucia by air Watch out for the French!

Be more carefull in the French islands. They can decide that the yacht is an unregistered, hence illegal, charter yacht and cause all sorts of problems. I am not current on this but know of incidents 10 years ago where the skipper was arrested and the yacht impounded. { Martinique }
 

tcm

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Boat Stamp

I wonder if this is another area where an "official stamp" issued by the boat would be a good idea? I like issuing pieces of paper that tally with other pieces of paper so the nice officials can aha! find that the pasport number on this piece of paper, see, matches with their passports and look, the SAME name of the boat is on this er "Sailing Instruction" piece of paper so it seems that they all match up, and very satisfactory...
 

iangrant

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Re: Boat Stamp

I've heard from the ARC organisers and they have confirmed what works for the St Lucia imigration officials.
I've now a copy of the standard crew joining instructions type letter and I've had an official stamp made up with red ink. ha. much as TCM suggests
I'm also going to offer passport details, a copy of the registration and insurance, and a copy of the ITU page just to drown them a little more at the desk.

Ian
 
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