Basic Questions About Cruising

[Billie]

My wife and I are about 4 years away from going on an extended cruise (4-7 years or until we are out of money) and I am in the beginning stages of figuring out details like: what is the process of checking in with another country? What fees can we expect? We are not going to spend much time (or money) in marinas and we have a mid sized boat (alberg 35) that we are moving aboard this summer.

Thank you for any help you guys can give. I know we have a lot to learn so don't pull any punches if I need to be corrected about anything.

[Bash]

a great database for check-in requirements is noonsite.com

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Billie

- What is the process of checking in with another country?

- What fees can we expect?

Check in process:

This varies from nil to pretty intricate and time-consuming. Basically, you have to think about:

a) immigration check in (crew- passports and visas - sometimes required in advance),
b) customs check in (boat papers),

additionally, one of the below may apply:

c) harbour check in (harbour master or office have to be informed),
d) health check in (crew (includes pets) - health papers, boat - possible fumigation - rats, insects, etc.)

You will collect information on each specific country from the country authorities' websites. You will also learn things from other sailors as at times things are liquid and change from day to day (well, almost).

So, in a word, you will have to visit from 0 to say 4 different authorities in each new country. Be warned that some countries require pre-advice.

Please note that check-in is one thing, check-out is another, and in some countries you have to do it all in every visited port.

Fees:

Again, from nil to hundreds of dollars. In fact, we at times made our cruising choices based on too high check-in/out fees. Too bad, but in the retrospect we do not feel we lost anything. The places we visited 'for free', or nearly so, were fantastic enough!

Cheers,
b.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Bash

a great database for check-in requirements is noonsite.com

Correct. But they are very skimpy on fees info. We used (in the West Indies) the Reed(s?) almanac that gave most of the fees / structures and check in/out info pretty acuratelly.

b.

[zeehag]

fees vary, but noonsite has the most current advice for finding how much will be-- contact the country as per the noonsite address for each one you want to visit.

[doug86]

Originally Posted by Billie

My wife and I are about 4 years away from going on an extended cruise ... What fees can we expect?

4 years? And you want us to predict what the fees will be like????

In most 3rd world countries, the fees change by the month; or even by the week if the officials need a few extra bucks.

No one can tell you what the fees will be in 4 years.

[Billie]

At this point I am getting my head around what the on going expenses will be. I realize that fees would change day-to-day or maybe person to person. For example we where traveling through
South America we the fees for leaving the countries surprised us at first.

Do you guys make flags for the countries your visiting like some of the accounts I've read or do you trade with each other.

I know this may sound like a small item and we are doing things to make the boat and ourselves ready like increasing the fresh water storage and practicing reefing, heaving to, MOB, anchoring and stuff like that. We are going to outfit our boat to be as simple as possible.

[chuckr]

that was the least of our concerns when we came out here 4 years ago -- on the cost side we were more concerned with fuel cost which is easier to figure than checking in and out fees - in some countries they are pretty standard but in others they can vary a lot - we just experience where on the day before we checked in a boat paid 200.00 give or take a bit while the next day we paid 15.00 - big difference - checking out was the same - we paid 45 and others paid from 15 to well over 100

we watch all of our expense and checking in and out are pretty minor part compared to everything else -

just our thoughts
chuck patty and svsoulmates
rio dulce guatemala

[savoir]

Originally Posted by Billie

At this point I am getting my head around what the on going expenses will be. I realize that fees would change day-to-day or maybe person to person. For example we where traveling through
South America we the fees for leaving the countries surprised us at first.

Do you guys make flags for the countries your visiting like some of the accounts I've read or do you trade with each other.

I know this may sound like a small item and we are doing things to make the boat and ourselves ready like increasing the fresh water storage and practicing reefing, heaving to, MOB, anchoring and stuff like that. We are going to outfit our boat to be as simple as possible.

You can buy a large collection of courtesy flags online from Westmarine ( cleverly hidden under "Sports and Recreation" ) or just visit your local chandlery.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Billie.

[Billie]

Thank you for the info