TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Clearing Customs in St John

7 days to Wheels up! Two of our crew will be leaving early. Our plan is to drop them off in Cruz Bay (to minimize the ferry drama) without clearing in the full boat and crew. The boat and crew will return to BVI waters without disembarking.
Will this present any issues to them clearing in? We have only done it clearing in the boat and crew. Will they need any info regarding the boat to clear customs?

As always thanks for your help!
Shauneen

You will have to clear out of the BVI and into the USVI then back into the BVI. I would just put them on the ferry at West End. Much easier and usually not a big hassle.
G

As George said, you can't do what you want to do. It presents a problem for all of you. If you were already willing to make the trip over, clear out of BVI, clear in at St John and enjoy some time there.

General question, but do you have to checkout of the USVI too? For a short (2-3 days), I understand you can checkout and checkin from the BVI at the same time, sail to Cruz, and then checkin on the US side. Once you're ready to go back to the BVI side, do you have to checkout from the US side? I think the answer is no. Can anyone confirm?

Here's what I'd like to do. I am doing the loop CCW. I'd like to checkout/checkin at Jost, sail to Cruz, checkin, spend a night at Maho, sail to Coral, spend the night at Coral Bay, then go straight to Norman from there. If I had to go all the way back to Cruz to checkout, I'd just skip Coral because of the hastle.

no, you do not need to clear out of USVI, my only suggestion is skip Coral Bay and stay in Salt Pond or Lamshure, much nicer and you can swim and snorkel.

I will look those up. One of the people on the trip is very artsy. That is what put Coral on the radar. We'll already be spending a fair amount of time at Trellis, so that may be enough for her. Is Coral a pretty interesting place to visit? My friend that sails hasn't been on the US side since 911 changed how you go between the two sides and so doesn't have any current info. He described it from back in the mid 80's as a place where people went when they found Key West too restrictive. It doesn't seem like it's that way anymore, but wasn't sure about the whole experience. We will have kids on the trips.

We did it last year went from Sopers Hole to St. John for an overnight stay. We had to check out of BVI and into USVI than check in again to BVI but didn't have to check out of USVI. If I remember correctly there was a small fee to get into BVI again but I can't remember that for sure.

I'm not sure you can check out and back in at the same time. When visiting the BVI from the USVI for a short visit, you can check in and out at the same time, but I've never heard of out/in altogether.

I'd agree Coral Bay is not a great spot to snorkel/swim. It is an ok overnight though - we stayed last November - did dinner at Skinny Legs and watch some of the Patriots game. It is a decent spot to walk around - a prior trip we made a day stop there and walked from the dinghy dock all the way around to the other side of the bay.

I had previously (maybe a month ago) asked about fees etc, and was told you could checkout and in the BVI all at the same time. I believe I independently verified that as well, but the trip details are all running together. I'll check on that again.

That would be interesting to know as I've never heard of that as an option. Certainly the other way is possible and we did that once on a day trip from ST. John.

For artsy fun, check out Sloop Jones in Hansen Bay on the northeast side of Coral Bay. You can dinghy to the beach below Sloop's studio. He does workshops too if you want to paint up some art to wear.

http://www.sloopjones.com/

Hansen Bay has great swimming and snorkeling. We anchor off of the Hansen Bay Campground. Angels Rest floating bar usually stops there during the day and heads back to Coral Bay around sunset.

http://stjohn-beachguide.com/pelican-rock-east-end/

We stopped here in March, provisioned at the grocery in Coral Bay and then met cruising friends from s/v Mowzer and St. John friends. The St. John folks parked at the campground and I picked them up in the dinghy.

Cheers, RickG

I would love the option to check in and out of the BVI at the same time. If something has changed let us know. In the past all I got was very ugly stares from the customs guys when asking to do that.
G

Now I'm not seeing where I got the info about checkout and in at the same time. I'll do some searches and report back.

In most cases, You can check IN and Out for a short stay but you can't check OUT and back IN for a short departure.

THanks. If that's the case, that rules out Coral, because I'm not going to want to go all the way back to Soper's.

I think I previously misread this link. It says the same thing Glenn does, you can check in and out at the same time, but not out and in. http://bvibound.com/sailing-from-the-usvi-to-the-bvi/

Glenn is right. We just did this at the end of March. We checked out at BVI customs in Great Harbour, JVD, for a $1 charge. Cleared in and out at Cruz Bay, St. John, free of charge and then a few days later cleared back in to the BVI at Soper's Hole, for a $10 charge. You cannot check out and in of the BVI's at the same time.

Yes, you can check in and out, in that order, in the BVI.
As long as you pay for the days you will be there, all is good.
They probably don't mind if you leave early, but I would not stay for unpaid days.

We generally check in and out of the BVI for about a week, and for a group of 8 on a 40-foot cat this costs around $400.

Those prices are per person and not for the boat, correct?

tHOSE

That should be for the boat but after 20 years I still don't have a clue how they figure the fees. Besides the C&I personel being confused about the basic rules from time to time either the Ports Authority or Immegrations throw in things like the recent enforcement of the "harbor fee" then suspend it without telling the people who collect it.

I have never paid the same amount twice. The fees have always been reasonable however with the exception of the time I brought a Sunsail boat up from St Martin for Sunsail. It was a French flagged boat and they charged us almost 500.00 dollars to clear in.
G