T&T: Insurance for International travel

[Truelove39 at aol.com]

Hey  Scott -
 
Interesting  story -
 
 In  most places here in de oilands there is no dock to come to. You are 
supposed to  anchor and come to Customs immediately, having raised the Q flag and 
the  courtesy flag. And nobody gets on or off the boat until you are cleared. 
Most  places here, Customs will be closed after 1600 and it's ok (Capt. only 
in  most countries) to wait and clear next morning if you arrive outside of  
hours. Best not to sleep in if you do. In other places, like Trinidad, you  must 
come to the customs dock and the entire crew must come to Immigration. But  
Immigration closes at 1800 so you must go to Customs instead and to Immigration 
 the next day. You cannot anchor out anymore. You must go directly to Customs 
 "immediately" upon entering their waters. 
But  Trinidad has the enforcement - Customs boats are active 24/7 and make 
sure you  comply. In Grenada and other islands there is no real enforcement -  
it is spotty or none and so a lot of folks in transit simply come into an  
anchorage at dusk and leave in the am before the cops are awake. Some raise the  Q 
and some do not. But raising the Q indicates you intend to clear so we  don't 
do it - we simply fly the courtesy flag and stay aboard.
 
However  - you had best know the drill - don't anchor at noon and then come 
in  to clear the next day. You could lose your boat and spend some time in the  
hoosegow. 
 
Regards,
 
John
"Seahorse"
 

> Actually, I specifically checked this with Customs when I made the  
reporting
call and they told me that I did not have to clear customs until I  landed.
When we anchored at Sidney Spit we did not go ashore. When I did land  in
Nanaimo I  was careful to tell them we had anchored at Sidney Spit and did not
have a  problem. I wondered about this myself but the tug captain I was with
told me  it was common practice to anchor out when arriving  late.




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