Visiting small countries in the Caribbean
- Thread starter Rum_Pirate
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Bosun Higgs
N/A
I suppose the point is - avoid the US territories. There are far more pleasant and better run places to visit without that degree of insular paranoia.
Kilter
Well-Known Member
Barbados and Nevis get joint award for best welcome from the authorities
dk
Well-Known Member
I didn't find it a problem the last time I checked into Marina del Ray, PR without a cruising permit, although I was fined for not having a holding tank! It was a charter boat by the way - licensed out of that port!
BrianH
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately the US territories lie slap on the logical route from south to north, being a large chunk between BVI and the Dominican Republic, our immediate goal. The owner wanted the boat on the US east coast prior to the Atlantic crossing back to Europe later this year.
It seemed a good idea at the time, to enter at the first of the US VI (St John) and exit from Puerto Rico (San Juan). Even then, it was a long haul to Puerto Plata (DR) and it was a rough trip - although we did clock up a 24 hour run of 180nm.
With hindsight I would have gone direct from Road Town to Puerto Plata, but Cruz Bay (St John) was useful for provisioning.
BrianH
Well-Known Member
There does seem a lot of confusion about who needs a US cruising permit. I think it may be for foreign-flagged vessels and if yours was licensed from there it may not have needed one. I was informed when in Toronto recently that Canadians crossing the great lakes to US destinations need one.
The goons who gave us the third degree in San Juan certainly zeroed in on the lack of one - maybe it kept their minds off asking about a holding tank - although we did have one, the boat having cruised Turkey.
Because we had entered and cleared within 24 hours the very efficient and knowledgeable lady in the Carrier Department at the Customs House said that we didn't need one.
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shamrock
Well-Known Member
Plan ahead?
We found reading the cruising guides a big help. All are pretty clear about the need for visas if you enter the US, USVI's, PR etc. We sorted that out in the UK before leaving but it can also be done at the US embassy in Barbados, I believe.
As for PR, we left St John for Culebra in the Spanish Virgins and were cleared in by your Officer Rey, who was helpful if a little slow and trying to finish processing two yachts in time to catch his flight back to 'mainland' PR. It took us a half hour and he was ready to sell us the cruising permit too (about $25, I think) but we still had a couple of weeks left on the one from the Boston the year before. When leaving PR from Ponce we were told we didn't need to clear out bound for the Turks and Caicos, and that worked out just fine.
So even with the Americans, I found the general rule of 'know what they want, go and see them, be polite and patient' worked everywhere in the Caribbean.
Antigua was always interesting and I firmly believe they deliberately find even the tiniest mistake on your form and use it to demonstrate that they have power over you if you don't do things right. I never argued, just stood there and said 'sorry sir', and after a few seconds pause would be told 'OK, but do it right next time'. Example - box says 'GPS' so I write '2'. Uh uh. What makes, sir?. The pause was slightly longer first time when they asked me for my clearance out from the Canaries. Don't have one. At least they didn't send me back.
Re the original post - we always cleared in and out as required (that Canaries departure the notable exception!). My wife's German heritage means she is genetically incapable of breaking the rules. I reckoned it was important in case something happened, like the kids got hurt or something, then it would be bad to be illegals looking for help in a foreign land. And going to customs was always a good adventure, usually met interesting people and picked up lots of local knowledge.
Ahh, good times. I miss only paying $9 for a bottle of Pussers rum.
No point really, other than to contribute to a thread that consists of personal reminisces of bureaucracy of entering and clearing Caribbean countries in general. Agreed it was too long a post but then I wasn't guilty of excessive quoting.
This particular post could assist someone who does wish to clear from San Juan to allow more time than usual - the marina personnel told me it can take more than a day before clearance is granted and one of the interlocutors I reached on the phone said the delay was because they were dealing with a large backlog - they probably were dealing with the commercial shipping too, although that was difficult to reconcile with the gang of three that visited and didn't seem in much of a hurry.
We found reading the cruising guides a big help. All are pretty clear about the need for visas if you enter the US, USVI's, PR etc. We sorted that out in the UK before leaving but it can also be done at the US embassy in Barbados, I believe.
As for PR, we left St John for Culebra in the Spanish Virgins and were cleared in by your Officer Rey, who was helpful if a little slow and trying to finish processing two yachts in time to catch his flight back to 'mainland' PR. It took us a half hour and he was ready to sell us the cruising permit too (about $25, I think) but we still had a couple of weeks left on the one from the Boston the year before. When leaving PR from Ponce we were told we didn't need to clear out bound for the Turks and Caicos, and that worked out just fine.
So even with the Americans, I found the general rule of 'know what they want, go and see them, be polite and patient' worked everywhere in the Caribbean.
Antigua was always interesting and I firmly believe they deliberately find even the tiniest mistake on your form and use it to demonstrate that they have power over you if you don't do things right. I never argued, just stood there and said 'sorry sir', and after a few seconds pause would be told 'OK, but do it right next time'. Example - box says 'GPS' so I write '2'. Uh uh. What makes, sir?. The pause was slightly longer first time when they asked me for my clearance out from the Canaries. Don't have one. At least they didn't send me back.
Re the original post - we always cleared in and out as required (that Canaries departure the notable exception!). My wife's German heritage means she is genetically incapable of breaking the rules. I reckoned it was important in case something happened, like the kids got hurt or something, then it would be bad to be illegals looking for help in a foreign land. And going to customs was always a good adventure, usually met interesting people and picked up lots of local knowledge.
Ahh, good times. I miss only paying $9 for a bottle of Pussers rum.
BrianH
Well-Known Member
I too read all the US visa requirements before attempting to enter - even to obtaining on-line acceptance of the Visa Waiver Program with the ESTA procedure, as had the German/Hungarian crew, all eligible for visa waiver. What I didn't know, because to my knowledge it wasn't mentioned in the documentation, that only someone arriving by a commercial carrier was covered by that programme. Arriving on a private yacht invalidated the visa waiver. So yes, we did need actual visas and should not have relied on the visa waiver program.
That was our problem in San Juan, we couldn't "go and see them", everything had to be conducted on the phone, with waiting interminably for them to call back with the next phase, until the Customs and Border Protection heavies were sent to sort everything out ...
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binch
Well-Known Member
Immigration for yachts arriving in Montserrat
Montserrat - Check what time Immigration shuts down on Saturday and what time it opens again Monday morning. Outside these hours ie arrival Saturday night/Sunday, immigration demands overtime to be on duty. Most yachtie visitors won't pay it and don't come ashore which means the island businesses are missing out, the visitors are missing out on a fantastic experience and the Tourist Board should get involved in pressing for more cover and a better welcome. The Green Monkey bar and dive shop on the beach is worth a visit and there is fantastic diving on island.
Montserrat - Check what time Immigration shuts down on Saturday and what time it opens again Monday morning. Outside these hours ie arrival Saturday night/Sunday, immigration demands overtime to be on duty. Most yachtie visitors won't pay it and don't come ashore which means the island businesses are missing out, the visitors are missing out on a fantastic experience and the Tourist Board should get involved in pressing for more cover and a better welcome. The Green Monkey bar and dive shop on the beach is worth a visit and there is fantastic diving on island.