November 2018
St George’s

Head tax is 35USD
We docked at the cruise terminal — same rate as the town dock. Use a batter board! Seems like this is kosher as long as there is no cruise ship in port. Cruise ships are relatively rare in St George. (Meanwhile the ferry terminal is quite busy).

There is a duty-free fuel option which is supposedly available if you get a group of boats together to achieve the minimum amount required. You can also try to flag down the duty-free fuel truck if you see them.

We were told that Dowling’s sold water at 0.25USD/gal…which is only valid if you buy fuel, too. If you buy water (and NO fuel), the rate is increased to 0.35USD/gal.

It is easy to get around the island on the bus. You can buy a book of bus tickets at the post office. You can also buy bus tokens at the tourism office (? unsure).

Normally most countries require an outgoing clearance document from last port of call. If you leave the Bahamas bound for Bermuda Customs and immigration in i.e. Nassau charged us 75 USD for an outgoing clearance. When we arrived in St Georges harbour on Bermuda for clearance the officers said the Cruising Permit from the Bahamas had been good enough as an outgoing document from the Bahamas. So lesson learned is to skip a special outgoing document from Customs and immigration in Nassau and save 75 USD.

The cost of clearing into Bermuda is now $140 for a sailing yacht with 4 people on board.
(Last year it was $35!)