Bahamas Visa Run and a 'run-in'

23 November 2003

At the end of November our six month visa was due to expire and after much discussion and advice from other yachts, we sailed off to the Bahamas for a nice little nine day break, starting with a calm overnighter to the nearest check-in point, the island of Bimini. There was nowhere decent to anchor so after a quick check-in - and $150 for a sailing permit, double what we’d had to pay the first time – we moved straight on to Gun Cay, arriving after dark. Spent two pleasant nights and did some good snorkelling, and then set off eastwards towards Chubb Cay, via what is called ‘The Banks’ – a large very shallow area of sand banks. Beautiful coloured water. At nightfall we anchored in a few metres on the banks – amazing to be anchored on what feels like the middle of the ocean, with no land visible. Mike had caught a huge barracuda that afternoon so we had it braaied for supper, and it fed us handsomely for another two days.

Later that evening the wind sprang up and our anchor dagged slowly all night, but with nothing to bump into we weren’t worried.  Early next morning we sailed east to Chubb Cay and spent two sociable days in the good anchorage there with Pete and Sharon on Carefree.  

On the first of December, in excellent sailing conditions we hurtled the 140 miles across the ocean and over the Florida Strait at 7 to 8 knots (assisted by the current of course, but still an incredible speed for Forever) back to Fort Lauderdale, arriving in our berth at 8 o’clock the following night, exhausted but pleased with ourselves.
Two days later our good friend, Bob Jobe, drove us down to Immigration in the port (to save us the long hot walk) and waited outside for us whilst we went in to check back in again and get our permit extended for another six months. Imagine our surprise when we were treated offensively by a large, overfed, young ‘John Wayne wannabe’ with a gun strapped to his fat arse. He informed us that it wasn’t permitted to simply go over to the Bahamas and then come back again, which is what we’d been told everyone did – all the time. We tried to explain that our daughter was arriving to spend Christmas with us in two days time but he remained unmoved. He stamped our passports for that day and told us to ‘get out of the country within 24 hours’. Considering the so-called friendly relations between the UK and the US at the time, we were totally shocked. His personality was such that there seemed no point in arguing, so we left. Bob drove us back to the marina in subdued silence whilst I contemplated the prospect of remaining as an ‘illegal immigrant’. The thought didn’t appeal.

Back at the marina that evening we discussed the problem with our other friend, Bob Harrison, and he gave excellent advice: when you don’t get the answer you want from someone, go to their superior officer, and continue going up the chain until you do get it. So, next morning Bob drove us back to Immigration. The offensive young man wasn’t there and this time we insisted on speaking to the Senior Immigration Officer. After some time this harrassed looking but very polite gentleman came to see us. We explained our problem, he said ‘why don’t you just go over to the Bahamas for a week or so and then come back?’, ‘aha’, we said, ‘we already did that, here’s the stamps’, ‘ oh, for goodness sake’, he said ‘here you are’, and he stamped our passports giving us another six months as we’d asked!  What a relief. Melanie’s flight was the next day!
 By this stage, we had sailed a further 2212 nautical miles bringing our total to 9355, and added another 13 countries (Trinidad and Tobago, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Antigua, St Barthelemy, St Maarten, USVI, BVI, Puerto Rico, Turks & Caicos, Bahamas and the United States) making a total of 19 countries. Here’s a map of our journey from Trinidad.