We recently bought a
boat in
Florida and sailed it through the
Bahamas to our home in the
Turks and Caicos Islands. We cleared into the
Bahamas at West End, and I was surprised that they only gave us permission to stay for two months. I had heard that the cruising
permit was good for a year.
In any case, we paid our $300 and worked our way down to the TCI. We left Calabash Bay on
Long Island and intended to stop in Clarence Town. But when we radioed the marina there they were full. So we kept going. We pulled into Abrahams Bay on Mayaguana for about three hours, and then decided to keep going. It was already dark, and we didn't think to try to contact
Customs there. This was our first such trip.
We had no probs getting our cruising
permit for the TCI, even though we are residents here. They didn't ask for any paperwork from our last stop in the Bahamas.
My question is whether or not we should have done anything with these two immigration cards when we left the Bahamas. I still don't understand the cruisng permit thing there. A year for the
boat but only two months for the people on it? WHats up with that?