TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Customs - checking in from Saint Matin

So we'll be coming from Saint Martin on our boat in a couple of weeks and wondering where the best spot to check in will be. Depending on our timing, we might like to make Leverick our first night, otherwise we'll end up at Scrub as we have crew to get to Trellis.

Is Spanish Town the only option that end of things?

I think Gun Creek C&I is manned regular hours.

Matt, some on this site regularly checki in and out at gun creek.

Zanshin is one of these

Search gun creek and you will find info.

Warren

Thanks, we'll look at that.

We did this in June. We left Marigot at 4AM and had a great sail, arriving North Sound by 4PM. Gun Creek closed early at 2PM for the summer. We checked in at Spanishtown the next morning. In theory, you can call ahead and arrange for after hours clearing in.

Cheers, RickG

Just beware that I brought a French flagged vessel up from St Martin and the total custom fees exceeded 500 dollars. Most of the time boats making the trip leave about an hour before sunset to arrive about 9 or 10 AM in the BVI. Great sail to have a chute!!
George

It is US flagged - not sure if that makes a difference in custom fees though. We're actually departing from St. Lucia, but our last leg will likely be from Saint Martin.

Our plan Rick is to sail overnight, so we'll be there in the morning when they are open for sure. No chute though George - we really haven't added anything that wasn't on the boat with moorings except for a dinghy motor lift - which actually may not arrive in time

Enjoy the trip Matt. Fair winds!

Wow GeorgeC1 - do you know why the fees were so high?

We've never paid anything close to that coming from St. Martin. Crazy!

Tahnks, I imagine we'll have a great trip report as well - Beerman will be with us!

When I moved my Jenneau 36i from St. Lucia to BVI last year, I was charged $10 in customs fee... No idea how that was calculated, but I wasn't going to argue it.

We'll be hoping for a nice low fee like $10 I'll tell them that's what we heard the fee was from St. Lucia LOL

I check in and out of Gun Creek all the time; it is staffed at regular hours, although I'd add 30 minutes to their official opening time and have never tried to do anything close to closing time. They still don't have a credit card machine, so everything needs to be paid for in cash. I usually anchor in Gun Creek temporarily in order to clear in/out, but they've never really looked for the boat so I guess that one could dinghy over from Leverick or from Prickly Pear. Note that you can't dock at Leverick and _then_ clear in; that would incur the wrath of the powers that be.
I find the two working there to be friendly and efficient and it certainly beats my experiences at the other BVI ports of entry.
I sent a picture of the building and anchorage to noonsite when they opened ... just a second... http://www.noonsite.com/Countries/BritishVirginIslands/GunCreek


After more than 20 trips I can say that the only time I ever paid more than $20 for clearing in was when I did my temporary import at the same time; even that is only around $200 for my 57 foot boat.

I have no idea why we were charged that much. I was moving the boat from St Martin for the old sunsail company. It was a FP 42.
G

As a side note the policy on the temporary import duty has changed. It is no longer collected when clearing in. All temporary import duty will have to be paid at the main Customs office at the Road Town ferry terminal.

Oh my GlennA, that is new.

We always buy our import permit at C/I at Spanish Town, Gun Creek or Great Harbour. Going to Road Town is a big inconvenience to say the least!

Last time I visited customs at Gun Creek, it was pretty windy and anchoring in a busy harbour with breaking waves and a prominent lee shore seemed inadvisable! We left someone on board to circle for about 15 mins and took the dink in and completed the whole business quite efficiently.

The new rules probably militate against that approach, since everyone needs to present themselves now. That makes for a pretty wet, slow, dinghy ride from Leverick or Prickly Pear if the wind is up. Still faster than going all the way to Spanishtown though.

Great info/photo Zanshin <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" /> We hope to have 2-3 days at the end of the passage to spend in the BVI's....a slip at Leverick to plug into A/C would be nice! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Glenn,

So bringing a boat from ST. Lucia, I imagine we pay an import duty? So we'll need to go to road town to do that? Any timeframe that has to be done by?

Thanks.

And Zanshin - that's great info. Still would love to meet up sometime and go diving with you! Just need to make it a trip we actually bring our gear down!

Not sure of the details. It was anounced about 3 days before I came home and goes into effect next Monday.

If the boat will remain in the territory for more than a month you pay the $200 temporary import duty which is good for a year. The advantage is that once you pay the import duty you don't pay the daily cruising fee. I guess you have to pay for the cruising permit when you check in for enough time to get to the Road Town customs office.

Last June we cleared in at Gun Creek from St. Martin without much event.

Pro tip: make sure you're using a good ballpoint and pressing hard on the forms.

I think it was at least a triplicate form, but possibly quadruplicate...the officers asked me to redo the last page or two...not a big deal, just took some time.

There was no great place to redo the pages either...I was enjoying the AC, so I chose to sit on the floor and used one of about four plastic chairs available as a desk...