1/5/2019 Anchored one the east side of Lucea Harbour 500 meters inside the concrete pier. Excellent holding in 3 meters. Do not expect to see the two charted lighted markers at night. Nice calm anchorage in prevailing easterlies. No one bothered us.

Posted on behalf of SY Blue Flyer:

The arrival into the Montego Bay Yacht Club is simple and the channel is well marked (for the cruise ships). Check-in involves an awful lot of forms from Health, Customs, Immigration and the club. Maybe an hour filling out the same questions over and over. Crew have to be present as well. Good news is, there were no fees involved.

Marina is Med style using your anchor and a buoy in our case. Fuel and water on the dock and 110 and 220-volt power using American plugs. The club is a long way from town, so car rental is worthwhile. I used Apex car rentals, good, open to negotiation and friendly. They drove me back to the club.

There is a large shopping area about 30 mins walk away, including a supermarket, frozen yoghurt shop and a multiplex cinema. All in all a good and enjoyable stopover.
Hugh Pilsworth

SY Blue Flyer

Update for Montego Bay for Noonsite from Wapiti June 2015

The approach to Montego Bay is clearly marked and easy to enter by day or night. Anchorage for yachts is adjacent to the Yacht Club between moorings and the big ship turning circle marked by buoys and beacons. This is used frequently. The anchoring area is very limited with indifferent holding so extra scope is required to allow for fresh winds which blow the length of the harbour most days.

Wash from big ships and their bow and stern thrusters can create considerable turbulence. Anchorage is also available near Pier 1 but is not secure, and in Bogue lagoon but neither have any facilities. Customs, immigration and health come to the club and there are no charges in normal working hours. Overtime is $68 which can be shared with other yachts.

The Yacht club charges $11.50 per person per day including tax for yachts at anchor for the use of the limited facilities, which is one of the most expensive I have come across in many years of cruising. Marina berths are $1.15 per foot including tax but the only berths available are stern- to from a mooring ball to the pontoon exposed to the full force of winds coming down the harbour which can exceed 30 knots. Also, big charter cats use the pontoon and on one occasion one lost control and hit our mooring lines, bending a fairlead.

Other damage was also done to the boat. Electricity was charged at $11.50 per day for 115 Volts and $23 per day for 230Volts. In our case that would have amounted to about $6 per kwh, again the most expensive we have ever encountered, so we had to use our generator. The facilities of the club are rather run down, with broken showers and toilets. Visitors are not entitled to any of the member’s discounts at the restaurant and other places. We did not find the club at all friendly and got the impression their attitude was to see how much money they could make from visiting yachts.

I sent an email to all the committee members about this but only got one reply saying they were thinking of putting in electric meters. Customs came on several occasions and sent the club launch to demand our attendance ashore. This amounted to harassment and when we complained they said they could demand to see us every day if they wanted.

There are two good supermarkets – Megamart and Progressive – within a short taxi ride (for which they will try to overcharge), or easy cycling distance but a bit too far to walk comfortably In fairness they allowed us a discount as we were stuck for 4 weeks, initially waiting for repaired parts then by bad weather. However, it is not a place we recommend.