Heavy fines for not clearning BVI C&I

I think I saw a posting a while back about a captain not wanting to clear C&I in Soppers and go straight to Virgin Gorda to check in. This article outlines the risks you take by not clearing BVI C&I immediately.

http://bvinews.com/new/unruly-boaters-pay-over-40k-in-fines/

Looks like these captains were even worse than that suggestion. I wonder if these same captains would ever dare to not check into US C&I?

Lots of people will tell you... "Eh, don't worry about going between BVI and USVI for a day trip. No one cares, and no one ever gets caught."

Until someone does. Looks like the authorities have gotten tired of people ignoring the laws.

They still don't care if you skip West End and clear in at Spanish Town. 12+ day boats out of St John and St Thomas do this daily.

The problem they have is when boats take guests to resorts, and return to customs later.

Does anyone know if the requirement is that you have to go to the closest C&I? I always thought as long as you do not stop (anchor/more/dock) along the way that it's ok to go to the C&I office that is your preference? Say you go from Red Hook to JVD, isn't WE a little closer? I didn't see in the article where they mentioned this only that some don't clear in/out at all or that they stop somewhere else first before clearing in. I think in an old post this was debated and I wasn't sure what the rules were.

You can go directly to the port of entry that you want to use as long as you don't stop along the way. It sounds like they cracked down on New Years as customs is a zoo. There are a lot of day boats that basically become water taxi's on New Years from St Thomas to Jost.

You need to have the boat in the anchorage in sight of customs in case they decide to inspect the boat and passengers. You should have your crew stand by at the vessel or directly out side the customs office. You can not drop them off or have them go shopping prior to clearance. Don't send them to Foxy's to shop. They have cracked down on this before. It looks like they wanted to make some examples.

You must be right about being able to check in at Spanish town from USVI. Now that you mention it, I remember we did a day tour a couple of years ago on Bad Kitty from Red hook to Virgin Gorda. We checked into Spanish town and then went to the baths.

I still thought that I read if you are traveling through BVI waters and hadn't checked in, you could still get into a lot of trouble. One post I remember, a captain saying the BVI police boat threatened to confiscate their boat when they were on their way to Spanish Town up the SFD channel and had not checked into the closet point of entry.

Yeah, I recall someone saying something about the closest point of entry but I'll go with CaptainJay's info. I think a lot of people get in trouble when they stop somewhere first or drop off people to do some shopping while the captain runs the dingy over to C&I (Sopers). I always get caught if I bend rules so I don't but I hate it when I get yelled at and I think I'm following the rules!

Perhaps it was my post relating this incident:

Have I ever been questioned by authorities about clearance?? Let me tell you a true story .
I was driving a private power vessel not on charter with friends aboard to Virgin Gorda from STT on a very rough, bad weather day - I went up the S.side of St. John and in the lee of Norman Is. slowed down to idle - in forward not neutral- to rearrange things and let the passengers move around a bit, dry off some and get a beverage - and was boarded by BVI Customs almost immediately - the vessel was not stopped, moored or anchored and I was at the helm and underway at all times until they hailed me.
They went all over the vessel, checked everyones documents and boat papers and assessed us over $500 in 'fines' or said they would seize the vessel and take my passengers to jail and arrest me as Captain for failing to clear in.
I tried to explain that we were en-route to VG to clear in as our destination and had only slowed down, not stopped, to rearrange things in preparation for the passage after some rough water and wet weather on the 1st part of the trip.
They said that since I slowed down just outside the Bight I was planning to enter there and had not cleared in - that was not my intent but could not convince them of my plan to go straight to VG and clear in there.
Lets just say they were less than polite and my passengers actually felt somewhat threatened - I am a long time resident of the USVI and a licensed Captain for decades here but felt my fighting them in Tortola for the rest of the day if they seized the boat would be futile and expensive even if I was somehow declared innocent so we all pooled what cash we had and they settled for about $550 and -- gave me a receipt and clearance papers and a stern warning about how wrong I was and just lucky this time not to be arrested.
The day was ruined for my passengers for a VG trip and they just wanted to go back to the USVI - after going into the old Bones on Norman for a few drinks - paid with a credit card as we had only small change left in cash we returned to the USVI.

That's a hard story to read but thanks for posting it. I think you handled an absurd situation in a commendable way.