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slomotion · 25-10-2007, 17:06

This is a potential disaster for cruisers. It's easy to say 'well, just boycot those countries'. But if you sail from the East coast or the Gulf coast, the dream is to sail the Leeward/Windward chain. If you take "Antigua/Barbuda, St. Kitts/Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad/Tobago" out of the equation, well ... you can sail from USVI to St. Maarten and from there to Martinique, and from there to ........ uh, Venezuela? - Oops, forgot - you can sail to Mansarrat and watch the volcano erupt.

Hopefully, this will be resolved in one of two ways:

1. Local legislatures will come to their senses and make reasonable accommodations for liveaboard cruisers; or

2. It will become kind of like the Bahamas where no one really knows what the rules are and the local customs/immigration officer is laid back on island time - as long as you fill out the latest form and pay a reasonable fee, it's OK, mon.

#2 is certainly the way it was in the Caribbean just a few years ago.

In the meantime I nominate Hud3 to keep us up-to-date on developments (no good deed goes unpunished). This cruising ground is a far too important part of paradise to simply blow off and ignore.

Hmmm - there's always a third choice. Maybe CARICOM could use some big fines to finance a high powered SDS-wide free Internet access network - maybe this won't be disaster at all.

25-10-2007, 17:06	#35
slomotion Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Lakeland, FL Posts: 865	This is a potential disaster for cruisers. It's easy to say 'well, just boycot those countries'. But if you sail from the East coast or the Gulf coast, the dream is to sail the Leeward/Windward chain. If you take "Antigua/Barbuda, St. Kitts/Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad/Tobago" out of the equation, well ... you can sail from USVI to St. Maarten and from there to Martinique, and from there to ........ uh, Venezuela? - Oops, forgot - you can sail to Mansarrat and watch the volcano erupt. Hopefully, this will be resolved in one of two ways: 1. Local legislatures will come to their senses and make reasonable accommodations for liveaboard cruisers; or 2. It will become kind of like the Bahamas where no one really knows what the rules are and the local customs/immigration officer is laid back on island time - as long as you fill out the latest form and pay a reasonable fee, it's OK, mon. #2 is certainly the way it was in the Caribbean just a few years ago. In the meantime I nominate Hud3 to keep us up-to-date on developments (no good deed goes unpunished). This cruising ground is a far too important part of paradise to simply blow off and ignore. Hmmm - there's always a third choice. Maybe CARICOM could use some big fines to finance a high powered SDS-wide free Internet access network - maybe this won't be disaster at all. Last edited by slomotion; 25-10-2007 at 17:24.