[PUP] Ships Stores in the PNW

[John Marshall]

You are only allowed two bottles of wine per person on board when  
entering BC. I'm not aware of any rules on wine when returning to US.

You can indeed declare more, but they have a complicated pricing  
system depending on the vinter's location, and its a nightmare just to  
have them figure out the duty by your having to describe every  
bottle.  Then the duty... its often equal to the cost of the wine. You  
won't save money doing this, but you could wind up with a better  
selection. But the one person I talked to who tried it said he'd never  
do it again... way too much hassle even if you don't care about the  
money.

There are then two approaches to deal with this:

1) Don't declare it. Risk is that if you get caught, you'll be on the  
sh*t list for the rest of your life, and entry to BC will always be  
difficult, involving physical inspection as opposed to phone  
clearance. Not to mention paying the fines and duty. And if you have a  
Trusted Traveler document, CanPass or Nexus, its revoked for life. If  
you don't have a TT document, you'll never be able to get one.  Also,  
if you have a TT document, then you get hit with the absolute maximum  
fines, given you violated your end of the trust thing. (I just got my  
Nexus card last week, and vividly remember the briefings by the  
Canadian and US Immigration people on that subject.)

I'd never recommend resorting to smuggling just to have your favorite  
wines on board.

2) Buy your wine in BC. This is a different kettle of fish, but it  
still smells. If you are discriminating, its hard to find the vintages  
or brands you want in BC, and you pay a huge price compared to the US  
for what you do buy. I've been to a number of wine stores that are  
walkable from marinas in Victoria, Sidney, Nanaimo and Campbell River,  
and they've never impressed me. They put a huge focus (and reserve  
gobs of shelf-space) for local BC wines, which I frankly don't like.

We usually wind up drinking lesser wines at greater prices in BC than  
we do back in Washington state. Perhaps you could find a good  
selection somewhere in Vancouver, but I haven't explored that. Don't  
like big cities.

As far as bypassing Canada on the way to Alaska, the only way to avoid  
clearing customs is not dropping anchor, docking, fishing or coming  
close enough to another boat or its crew while in Canadian waters to  
be in "proximity" -- close enough to have exchanged goods. That's  
pretty extreme, given you have to run non-stop all the way to Alaska.  
Its far too dangerous to run at night in the inside due to logs. Plus,  
when you arrive in Alaska, they will ask for your Canadian clearance  
number. If you don't have one, you're going to have an interesting  
time convincing Homeland Security that you never dropped anchor or  
tied up all the way up from the lower 48. They work closely with  
Canada to keep things legal.

On the other hand, some commercial fisherman do run nonstop from  
Seattle to Alaska and don't clear Canadian customs. It just doesn't  
seem like much fun to me. Parts of BC are just as scenic as Alaska.

John Marshall
Serendipity - Nordhavn 55
Sequim Bay, WA








On Dec 18, 2008, at 10:14 PM, Douglas Cochrane wrote:

> Dear Ones,
>
> Since the conversation has lulled a bit, let me ask a question.
>
> At this time we are cross-border cruisers, moving back and forth  
> between
> British Columbia and Washington every month or two. We also like  
> good wine.
> So when we find a nice wine at a good price we tend to buy a case or  
> two. So
> if we are in the US and buy a case or two, then go to Canada, and  
> buy a case
> or two - is there no such thing as ships stores?
>
> How do the rules work? Do we really have to drink up almost every  
> bottle on
> board before we cross the border? This could turn us into serious  
> drunks!
>
> If we claim a couple of cases of wine as we enter a country, can we  
> pay duty
> on it then not claim it the next time we enter the same country? If  
> we are
> leaving the States for Alaska and want to stock up at Costco before we
> leave, do we have to stay offshore all the way past Canada? I'd  
> appreciate
> your advice.
>
> Douglas
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