Visiting small countries in the Caribbean

Rum_Pirate

Rum_Pirate

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 Aug 2004
Messages
27,982
Location
A tiny Island, Caribbean
Visit site
When visiting small countries in the Caribbean; eg the Windwards and the Leewards; it seems that a number of yachties deem that because they are small countries/island states that Immigration and Customs formalities can be ignored/dispensed with/treated lightly.

I would like to ask that all visitors should treat such formalities with the proper respect and requirements.

The consequences can be dire!

You will then only have yourself to blame.

In addition, ignoring or treating the Immigration and Customs formalities with distain gives yachtsmen a bad name and the authorities will 'tar' all yachts with the same brush.

The Caribbean is great for sailing, many authorities ease a bit, let us not destroy that relationship.
 
I have always found the customs and immigration officials throughout the Caribbean to be very curtious and friendly, especially in the ports frequented by cruisers. The fees have always been reasonable too.

Most of the immigration/customs procedures are also pretty quick requiring no more that 1 hour ...... except in Venezuela where one usually hires a intermediary because it can take all day!

Frankly, although I have come across many boats that don't clear in or out, I think they are fools. It does annoy the authorities and it increases the likelihood of spot checks. I remember the French authorities checking out the yachts in Les Saintes and the St Vincent Customs searching boats is the Petit St Vincent area. I guess the fines were significant ...... with the possibility of impounding too.

There was also a case of weapons not being declared but found on a yacht in Chagaramus Trinidad. The yacht was impounded and the crew deported if I remember correctly. But Trinidad and Tobago was the only place where I had to surrender my fire arms ...... and they kept them well oiled for the duration of my stay.
 
Rum_Pirate said:
Anybody had good/bad experiences?

Where and when?
Click to expand...

Only good experiences for me ...... because I go into the offices with a friendly attitute and dressed smartly in clean shorts and shirt.

On the other hand I seen yachties bitch about the fees, and generally be condescending towards the officials. This has inevitably led the officials to be dogmatic and obstructive .... but it's all part of the entertainment. The usual culprits are the Americans ...... they seem to expect to be able to bully the officials!
 
The only problem is trying to find a French offical in St Pierre, when you're bound for Dominica and the somewhat grumpy chaps in English Harbour, Antigua.

I love the paperwork that describes me as "Master of the vessel........ sailing in ballast, bound for........"

Another tip, if you wear a cossie, you don't get any respect. In your home country, would you go to a government office in your bathers?
 
To be honest we found it a little bit of a hassle in the Grenadines, but that was due to the short sail to get to the next country.

We always treat the officials with respect. It is their country, not ours and they can make life damn difficult for you if they want.

I loved the stack of entry forms in Grenada. I bet they went back decades and that nobody had ever looked at them. Nelson was probably in there!!!

Can't wait to get back!
 
Rum_Pirate said:
Anybody had good/bad experiences?

Where and when?
Click to expand...
.

Was always treated very fairly and nicely by the guys in Antigua. But first hand witnessed a boat getting all sorts of hassle because he had not cleared out of Guadeloupe properly. Havn't been back for a while; is sgt. John Pell (Penn ? ) still about ? Will never forget his wonderfully scripted signature.

Chris
 
I spent a few years down there in the 90s and a small % of boats were known not to bother clearing in and out. Often because they had overstayed there allotted time and could not easily get a clearance out which would be needed to clear in at the next Island.

I always felt I was treated politely and fairly by Customs and Immigration down there. I especially remember the set up at Elizabeth harbour Antigua, Nelson could inded have cleared in on that counter.

I am heading down that way from the Virgins and it will be interesting to see if they are integrating and computerising their records down Island. Up here in the Virgins it is a real PITA to clear in and out everytime you cross from St Johns to Jost Van Dyke but you gotta do it. Some one just got fined several thousand dollars for not doing it.

Another guy went to jail for not clearing AND FISHING without a licence.

See http://www.vinow.com/wwwtalk/read.php?4,83539,page=1
 
Last edited:
Not much of a pirate

hum. What is this? Hey Let's Get In Queue Week? From the inappropriately-named Rum "Pirate" indeed, pah! Some flippin pirate who likes queuing, filling in forms. Rum Formfiller more like.

There seems to be a good number of people who love regulation in their boating life. They like rules, flag etiquette, courses, qualifications, waypoints, and lots more to make sailing a bit/lot more ordered, more safe-feeling, and less like it really is - not at all ordered and do-and-go-anywhere-you-like. I'm afriad the OP is a suspect.

I was in Mustique last week a couple of nights and the fees are are 75USD, anchored or on a buoy. Nobody came to collect the fees so no, i didn't go and chase down someone to pay. Likewise if you hoik up at Barbuda, checkin and customs seem to be in different places. Don't think it's that bad in UK if you just anchored off the scillies, is it?

I check in if I'm there a while, not overnight. Yeah, okay, there was that time when I dropped some crew at Antigua, didn't check in, left the next morning at 7am and they got deported back to the UK on the next flight, ahem, but then they DID pinch the freshly baked bread that another of the crew had made, so fair do's eh? ...
 
Last edited:
It is perhaps not surprising that the islands with the most paperwork and bureaucracy are invariably those who had the British as their former colonial masters before becoming independent..... whereas the French and Dutch islands generally have a much more simple systems in place for processing yachties.
I remember Marin in Martinique 25+ years ago, before the marinas invaded, and it was a sleepy little fishing village - we would go and look for the Customs & Immigration gentleman, and he would invariably be holed up in a froggy rum shop somewhere, and would stamp our forms with a minimum of fuss...... :)

It can be / is a proverbial pain in the posterior to have to fill out reams of forms (I wonder whatever happens to all these forms? Are they analysed for statistical purposes, or just stashed away in boxes somewhere?) but it is a fact of life, and the officials are simply trying to do their job, where higher authority than they have decreed that they will keep the paper suppliers and printers in gainful employment. So just grit your teeth, fill out the forms, and enjoy that rum punch afterwards (or ideally while filling out the forms! :) )
 
Foxy said:
Always good experiences although paperwork dull in antigua!
Click to expand...
I've just returned from a Grenada to Dominican Republic cruise and indeed Antigua was the heaviest. The immigration guy in English Harbour even overwrote nearly every entry on the form. When I tried to make small-talk by saying "Because you have a better pen?" (the ball-point I had used was faint), he replied "No, because I have better handwriting". He had.

Had I known, I would have seriously considered clearing from Antigua and illegally anchoring in Babuda, instead of correctly doing it there. What a pain to be anchored in Low Bay, hauling the dinghy over the dune into the lagoon, plugging all the way across to Codrington, the only port of entry, walking for hours in the heat looking for three quite separate offices with hardly any means of identification, then all the way back again.

But it was bad news trying to enter the US Virgin Islands at Cruz Bay, St John where we were refused entry on visa grounds. All on board were eligible for the US Visa Waiver Program - even registered for it on-line (ESTA) - but this was only valid if one entered on a commercial carrier, not a private yacht. Consequently, we had to sail back to Road Town, BVI, re-enter there, travel 80 km to where a ferry went to St John, enter as a passenger for our passports to be stamped with a 3 month visa, get the ferry back to Tortola, taxi back to boat and sail back to St John to enter the boat.

But the worst was clearing from San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's just too long a story and I've already gone on too long. Suffice to say that the Caribbean culture coupled with US Border and Homeland Security are strange bedfellows.
 
tcm said:
hum. What is this? Hey Let's Get In Queue Week? From the inappropriately-named Rum "Pirate" indeed, pah! Some flippin pirate who likes queuing, filling in forms. Rum Formfiller more like.

There seems to be a good number of people who love regulation in their boating life. They like rules, flag etiquette, courses, qualifications, waypoints, and lots more to make sailing a bit/lot more ordered, more safe-feeling, and less like it really is - not at all ordered and do-and-go-anywhere-you-like. I'm afriad the OP is a suspect.

I was in Mustique last week a couple of nights and the fees are are 75USD, anchored or on a buoy. Nobody came to collect the fees so no, i didn't go and chase down someone to pay. Likewise if you hoik up at Barbuda, checkin and customs seem to be in different places. Don't think it's that bad in UK if you just anchored off the scillies, is it?

I check in if I'm there a while, not overnight. Yeah, okay, there was that time when I dropped some crew at Antigua, didn't check in, left the next morning at 7am and they got deported back to the UK on the next flight, ahem, but then they DID pinch the freshly baked bread that another of the crew had made, so fair do's eh? ...
Click to expand...
Strictly speaking if a fee is due and you do not pay it, you are guilty of non-payment.
EG If you pay income tax in the UK and the tax man does not personally come to you, do you not pay the tax? :rolleyes: The fact that nobody came to collect the fees is no excuse.

When people do not pay but use the facilities eg moorings, they often seem the first to bitch about how low grade the facilities are - often directly caused by individuals not paying!! :cool:

Deportment is a serious matter (in the case mentioned is 'illegally entering a country) and can affect your future travels.

Those that deliberately flaunt the laws of a country should not complain when their yacht is confiscated or other penalty (ie fiscal or imprisonment) is applied under that countries laws.:cool:
 
Officials

I thought that English Harbour had improved since the notorious Sergeant King had gone. Now he was a four letter man.
But to our surprise when a South Efriken who had bummed a lift with us, left the boat, he had got round the said 4-letter man so well that he had his baggage carried ashore for him.

You were talking about "small" countries. Come on then, call at Montserrat and jump up to the sound of Arrow.

OK the volcano is still grumbling, but report today says it's not that bad and very interesting.
 
binch said:
You were talking about "small" countries. Come on then, call at Montserrat and jump up to the sound of Arrow.

OK the volcano is still grumbling, but report today says it's not that bad and very interesting.
Click to expand...

Hot hot hot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-D9SPn1M0Y

I have had my car and house covered in fine grey volcanic ash over the last couple weeks. :(

At 2:49 pm on Friday 8th January 2010 a large pyroclastic flow forming event occurred at Soufriere Hills volcano and flowed down the Belham Valley. :eek:

http://www.montserratvolcanoobservatory.info/

great video

http://www.montserratvolcanoobserva...tent&view=category&layout=blog&id=130&lang=en
 
Last edited:
I was last in the Caribbean in 2007. At that time some islands countries were required by the USA Authorities to require 24 hr ? notice of intended entry. This of course was unrealistic when applied to cruising yachts, and the temperamental island weather. Is this still the case ..... or can we just turn up at an island and clear in like before? It seemed at the time that the island authorities in Caricom were set to ignore the USA.
 
TradewindSailor said:
I was last in the Caribbean in 2007. At that time some islands countries were required by the USA Authorities to require 24 hr ? notice of intended entry. This of course was unrealistic when applied to cruising yachts, and the temperamental island weather. Is this still the case ..... or can we just turn up at an island and clear in like before? It seemed at the time that the island authorities in Caricom were set to ignore the USA.
Click to expand...
Please contact Mr Wayne Beckles in Barbados 1 246 229 7931.
Make sure that you do not get his assistant NMs Diane Hazard(?) who from my phone call appears to know little or nothing about how it is applied to yachtsmen.
Lady didn't understand how a yacht could travel from one place to another without an engine. I tried to explain about sails and how the wind blows on them and propels the boat to another place, gave up after a couple sentences.

You could try looking at http://www.caricomeapis.org/

Welcome


Welcome to the CARICOM Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) Web Site.

The Caribbean Community wishes to remind all airlines that the CARICOM Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) came into effect from February 1, 2007 in respect of the 10 CARICOM Member States. Regional and international aircraft and vessels are required to submit Advance Passenger Information prior to arrival in and upon departure from any of the 10 Member States forming the Single Domestic Space.


. . . and may God help you struggle through that.

You could email your queries to apis-support@impacsjrcc.org

or

maritime@impacsjrcc.org and let us know how you get on.

Perhaps one of the yachting or cruising mags should do an article on small private yachts complying with this requirement.

See a new thread by me.
 
Last edited:
And make sure you have a large wad of crew lists. it is not unusual to get through half a dozen or more per island. Watch your ETA for Trinidad. If your enter Trinidad waters "out of office hours" they will ping you for overtime etc even if you arrive at the office during the day. And keep grovelling!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top