S. Pacific Islands - Fees?

[GordMay]

cantxsailor:
I apologise for the smug self-righteous tone of my earlier remarks. What I intended to be informative & pithy observations, obviously came out as pompous & tiresome moralising.

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

[cantxsailor]

Apology humbly accepted and stuffing suggestions recanted.

We may both have been having a less that perfect day. I KNOW I need to go sailing soon.

Rice and beans are cheap, I actually like SPAM and cornbeef hash and there are still a few fish in the sea. I may get "there" where ever "there" might be someday.

For now I will return to my self imposed(self employed) servitude..............m

[emagin]

My sense about all this is that you are better off focusing on a boat and sea trials on such boat. By the time you are even half way to the various destinations mentioned, things will have changed.
Get your real-time info from cruisers, the nets, etc. and make your zig-zag route adjust based on what you hear and how much $ you have.

It is, after all, all about the journey, not the destination.

[stillbuilding]

Well I understand and appreciate most of the above. My take is from a slightly different view - most of us are too damned busy working to make any money. Just pull up your roots and start sailing off modestly and my guess is that fifty interesting things will happen to you, many good ideas will sail past and you will probably find a much more worthwhile thing to do which even includes sailing. Try to keep a broad view of the world despite the trying times and just start your adventure modestly.

[Rhosyn Mor]

Originally Posted by stillbuilding

Well I understand and appreciate most of the above. My take is from a slightly different view - most of us are too damned busy working to make any money. Just pull up your roots and start sailing off modestly and my guess is that fifty interesting things will happen to you, many good ideas will sail past and you will probably find a much more worthwhile thing to do which even includes sailing. Try to keep a broad view of the world despite the trying times and just start your adventure modestly.

Well said. We started off with a one week sail to the Hook of Holland, and seven years later have covered some 12k miles. seen some beautiful places, worked at the most interesting jobs, met the most amazing people, crossed 2 seas, been too cold ( Annapolis this winter!) been too hot (Tel aviv in the summer), and still having a wonderful time!

[Livia]

Just in case someone finds this while searching for user fee decals...

They ask for your annual ($27.50 each year) decal number on every check in with US Customs. If you don't have one already, you pay on the spot. This is excluding any visa fees which my husband (Canadian) and I (US Citizen, Canadian resident) obviously don't have for the US.

[KatKokomo]

Sorry Sailor, but the US will charge travellers $20 that enter the country from the sea.

[osirissail]

To double up on "Anders" - it is definitely expensive for a foreign boat and crew to enter the USA. You must have a "long form B1/B2 visa for everybody who is not a USA citizen/resident (very few exceptions). Getting that can make the Galapagos fees seem cheap. My Swedish (rich) friend wanted to sail with me from Florida to Bahamas and back. Cost her US$800 total fees and expenses to get the visa. Then there are the "cruising permit" fees - (from entry procedures for private vessels - Non-US)"Navigation fees will be charged for the formal entry, the permit to proceed, and for the clearance of foreign-flag pleasure boats. "
- - Back to reality - - the days of sailing around the world "free" are done and gone. Virtually every "foreign" island country and So & Central American country requires entry fees if you are not a citizen/resident there or an associated citizen (E.U., UK Commonwealth sort of thing). And they are not getting any cheaper (with the possible exception of the Dominican Republic). The Pacific - forget it! Paradise is full! And closed unless you can demonstrate significant financial resources. As listed by others the "fees" add up to significant money.
- - I strongly suggest - do not try to wiggle your way in without paying or having the necessary resources. At best they will turn you away or put you in "quarantine" which means you cannot go ashore or at worst put you in jail and "Deport" you back to your home country. They may keep your vessel to pay for the Deportation (which is popular here in Grenada). It will probably not be a real loss to you as once you have "Deported" stamped in your passport, you will almost always be denied entry to any other country in the world. So your sailing days will be over anyway except for local - in your own country - sailing. So what to do?
- - Build up your "cruising kitty" to a sufficient level to afford the fees, boat repairs, food and everything else - then go cruising. Thousands are doing it just that way very successfully and enjoying everything "Paradise" has to offer.
- - Another alternative is to sign on as "crew" on somebody's boat going the way you want to go. See Find a Crewâ„¢ Worldwide - The World's largest Online Marine Crew Network to possible opportunities. There are also dozens of "non-paid" crew positions listed on all the sailing forums - but usually there you will have to come up with your own expenses including bonds and personal entry fees.

[hellosailor]

"Cost her US$800 total fees and expenses to get the visa."
How much of that was rush fees, Fedex charges, and the like? I'd have thought the US would issue the visa to her--before she left Sweden--at nominal costs. Or is this why there are so few stunning Swedish Blondes in the US these days? :-)

[osirissail]

Actually she is a blonde which might have accounted for half of the cost. But most of the cost is for documentation, courier services and transportation to and from the "interview". As with anything it is all the little necessary surrounding costs that add up to serious money.

Cantx - the last half of your post #23 is a lot truer than you think. When we get older, we are cursed with a memory of what it was like in the "old days." And looking at what is necessary these days really riles and makes for a lot of head shaking.
- - For instance, I needed an ITIN for my new foreign wife. (That is a taxpayers identification number which in in lieu of a Social Security Number). She cannot do any financial transaction or be tied to any of mine without either a SS# or a ITIN. That alone is a big reason to get riled up. But, in the "old days" you could just apply for an ITIN and they would simply issue you one, after all, it is only a "reference number" and not an identification or anything else. So now we find out that we have to have certified identification documents, and six other silly procedures and 6 months to a year of waiting to get what years ago was simply issued on the spot.
- - Bottom line, the world has dramatically changed for us "old timers" - the young kids do not have a "memory" of what it was like before. So they will think that the sad state of things today will be their "good old days" when they reach our ages. Now that is depressing . . .

[hellosailor]

"So now we find out that we have to have certified identification documents, and six other silly procedures "
That's the price we pay for having lost the 9/11 war to Al-Queda.

Which brings up an interesting book that every cruiser should tuck in their bag of "well, one day I'll need a lot of pages to read". "At Dawn We Slept", the short (800 pages?) version of a scholar's epic investigation and treatise on what really happened at Pearl Harbor. At the many mistakes made by both sides, and the way the Japanese "Victory" really wasn't a victory, but how easily it could have been. Even though it was a success far beyond their expectations.

Very much like the 9/11 attack, where nothing happened as expected or intended, and both sides attained both victory and defeat pretty much by accident. If you read the one (it's been in print for decades, any library should be able to turn one up or you can buy it cheaply used) and start to conpare and contrast to the other--it should remind every sailor that proper planning, and reaction, aren't easy. And being prepared to take the correct actions, essential when "**** happens" at sea.

[osirissail]

Saying are fun such as good news/bad news - - The bad news is that governments are incompetent at most everything; the good news is that governments are incompetent at most everything. Their incompetence is what keeps our remaining few "liberties" from being removed.

[barnakiel]

Sailed the stretch 2004/2006 (Swedish flag) - no charges in the French islands, very little in the Cooks, some in Tonga (only because I needed a visa - the boat's charges were very low). I remember Americans and Australians saying something about the bond still requested from them in French Polynesia back then, but it did not affect any other nationality.

b.

[hellosailor]

osiris-
Apparently the US and Sweden have changed rules since your friend was here.
Travel Without a Visa - U.S. Embassy Stockholm, Sweden
"You DO NOT NEED a visa if

• You are a citizen of Sweden and you have a Swedish passport
  and
• Your passport is machine-readable. and
• You have never been charged with or convicted of a crime in any country.
  and
• You have never been denied a U.S. visa.
  and
• You have never been deported from or denied entry into the U.S.
  and
• You are going for 90 days or less for business or pleasure.

Swedes don't even need a visa for a normal short visit to the US anymore. Although, I suspect they'd still be turned back at the border if they tried to enter while carrying lutefisk. (VBG)

[Zanshin]

Hellosailor - a visa is mandatory for all who enter the US on a pleasure craft. The Visa waiver program does not apply. This is why the person referred to by osiris had to go through hoops and great expense.