A Saipan Stopover on the way back to Australia

Saipan is the largest island and capital of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a U.S. territory located in the western Pacific Ocean, about 120 miles (190 km) north of the island of Guam.

After providing shore-based support to the yachts taking part in the Melbourne to Osaka Yacht¹ race, as an ORCV Volunteer, Bruce Reidy was called on to help with entrance formalities for a friend that wanted to call into the Northern Marianas Island of Saipan on their voyage back to Australia.

With the assistance of the skipper and crew of SV Escapade, Bruce provided Noonsite with this update on Saipan where locals on the island welcome visitors, but officials ask vessels not to arrive unannounced.

Advance Notice and Visas

Several boats from the race stopped through Saipan on the way back, but with no advance notice to authorities. Thankfully they were allowed to do that, due to the good grace of officials on the island, but when SV Escapade got there, having gone through the proper channels, officials asked us to advise not only the race officials and entrants, but also the wider sailing community to please follow the proper procedures and not arrive unannounced.

In helping Escapade, it took a little bit of time to figure out the entry requirements.  The one main issue was the Visa requirements.  We had a new crew flying into Saipan to join the boat and they had applied for and obtained visas using the US ESTA system. But then we found out when the boat was nearing Saipan, that the all Australian yacht crew needed to come in with full American visas.

By then, we didn’t have time to go through the full, formal visa application process because the boat was less than a week out and by the time we’d submitted to the authorities and gone through the process it would have been too late. With the support of the local immigration officers that we dealt with, they suggested that we appeal to the Director of Ports and rely on his good grace to grant the crew an exemption to enter. Which is what we did and thankfully he granted our request, but asked us to “please advise the (Melbourne to Osaka) race authorities and any others in the sailing community that all visitors who want to arrive by vessel should please go through the correct process and not arrive unannounced.”

They also waived the Visa fee which was US$700.00 per visas per crew member so with four crew on board, that was a significant saving – nearly US$3000

We dealt with many officials regarding entry to Saipan. I have to say that they were all polite and professional. The fact that we got to put our case for arrival to the Director of the Port was due to frontline officials listening to what we needed and explaining how to proceed.

As visitors we were warmly welcomed every where and local folk asked us to promote the island as a place to visit.

Formalities and Protocols

Entry protocols are pretty much the same as anywhere else – Providing advance notice at 14 days out is very helpful for officials. Contact the Commonwealth Ports Authority on + 670 237 6500 or email to saipan.cnmi@cbp.dhs.gov or saipan@cbp.dhs.gov.

Anchor off at the outer edge of the Bay on arrival.   However, having arranged a berth, at the Smiling Cove Marina, the crew of Escapade sailed directly there. Biosecurity and Customs checks were conducted at the dock but for Immigration clearance, you have to go to the airport.

All officials are US personnel who come from the US on two year secondment.

Immigration

When you arrive, a local driver will pick you up in a little minibus and take you to the airport for immigration clearance formalities. The guy running the minibus is very friendly and will give you a bit of a tour and a chat on the way.

Officially, crew members arriving via private yacht/vessel into the United States must obtain a valid U.S. visa for entry purposes. The ESTA/Visa Waiver program does not apply to them.  However, crew members arriving via commercial airlines will be allowed entry under the ESTA/Visa Waiver program.

Examine the ESTA website and see how difficult it is to determine that this is the requirement.

• ESTA application and traveling to Saipan – ESTA Application Provide Site

Knowing that this is a problem, here is the answer if you know where to look.

• Do I need an ESTA if sailing on a private yacht? – ESTA America

There were no biosecurity issues – everything was relaxed and the same with the outbound clearance.

In fact, when departing, the skipper was so concerned about getting the authorities to recognise that he was departing, that the boat was delayed eight hours. The skipper started in the afternoon preparing his departure and was trying to contact officials to say that he was going. He couldn’t get hold of anyone and in desperation he rang me in Melbourne to say that he couldn’t find anybody to accept that he was leaving Saipan.

So, I called the officials from my office in Melbourne to say that Escapade wanted to depart and they “that’s fine just tell him to go”. I contacted the skipper and told him the officials said you can just go. So, from one extreme of making sure you advise that you are coming and have the right visa to “just go” when you want to leave, is pretty laid back.

In general officials seem to be pretty relaxed with visiting yachts, I think they were just a bit peeved by the audacity of the first couple of yachts taking advantage of the hospitality of the island and arriving unannounced.

US Territory

Just a reminder that Saipan is a US territory and it operates under US regulations with US visas, US currency and US Date format as well as Imperial measurements – not metric.   The date format and imperial measurement can cause a few issues as I found out.

Be aware about using the US date format when filling out forms and paperwork. 
When trying to book a berth at the Marina I sent all my information in their application form but got no response. So I resent all the emails and still didn’t get a response so finally rang the marina and the woman who I spoke to said she had received the application but “it’s just a pile of rubbish”.   I apologised and asked her to explain the problem.

It turned out that due to the US date format being month/day/year, she had interpreted my application for a berth as arriving on the 5th of October and departing on the 6th of May or the 10th of May. She wanted an American date format and I had put the dates in Australian date format, which is day/month/year – so from an Australian point of view 10/5/2025 (May 10, 2025) is seen as the 5th of October in US date format – hence the confusion.

I also had to recalculate all the boat measurements because she said they didn’t make sense either. I had provided details in metric, but they had to be converted into imperial measurements. After that was all done we had no problems.


Fees

The only fees paid were for the Marina which was very modest. It was something like US$7 for four days and something minimal for every two days after that. All charges including visas are in USD.  We ended up not having a fee levied.

Marina Rates

Fees for Visiting Vessels (taken from the Marina’s website:)

• First three days in one month: free; Every day, or a fraction of a day, thereafter:
• Vessels 29.0 feet or less in length: $4.00 per day
• Vessels 29.1 feet to 44.0 feet in length: $8.00 per day
• Vessels 44.1 feet or greater in length: $12.00 per day.
• Maximum Stay Permitted A visiting vessel may stay only as long as permitted by the Marina Manager
• And in no event longer than 14 days per month.

Smiling Cove Marina

The Marina staff were good to deal with, they told us who we were going to have to deal with and where to tie up. The only thing to worry about is the tide so you’ve got to be careful navigating in. Escapade had a draft of two metres, so she had to come in on the high tide. But with careful navigation and planning she got through without any problems.

The marina waters are not the clearest, but there is a resident turtle.  The shower and toilet facilities on the marina were nonoperational when the Escapade crew were there and they were unsure if these facilities had ever worked. There is a no holding tank no stay policy.

The access point to the marina is on the route to the main industrial harbour in Tanapag Bay. The harbour appears only to be used to receive supplies from the delivery vessels.

The maximum marina depth is around seven feet or two metres.  Entry to the marina can be a challenge.  Yachts with a draft greater than two meters should plan their entry and navigation with caution.

Smiling Cove marina contacts:

• Website – Boating Access | Department of Lands and Natural Resources
• Smiling Cove Marina – Bing Maps location
• Email address for marina:  dfwscm@gmail.com

Fuel

Fuel is available but you must bring all your fuel containers down to your vessel on a cart. You can load the containers onto your vessel, but before you do the transfer from your fuel containers into your tanks, you’ve got to take your vessel out of the marina, do that transfer out in the harbour and then come back in and tie up once you’ve sealed everything back up.

On Saipan

Everybody the crew and I dealt with were very keen to promote Saipan to the sailing community – whether racing or cruising. Saipan is not a large place and everyone was very welcoming.

There’s quite a range of support facilities. We’d had trouble in Osaka re- provisioning Escapade to bring her back to Australia including getting appropriate gas fittings that fit the Australian gas tanks.

Even though the race organisers were there (in Osaka) and even though they had an interpreter, we found it quite difficult to get the provisions and parts and pieces that we wanted.

We were relying getting a few things on Saipan because I’d done some research and found they had a couple of engineering/marine businesses where the people knew what they were doing and it seemed that we could get what we needed.

Re-provisioning was also better on Saipan because there was a large Costco type supermarket with lots of variety in groceries. However, if you get there at the end of the period before the resupply vessel comes in, then some things might be in short supply.

However, it seems a little unclear on exactly how the supply system works. It seems that there are three supply vessels run by different companies, each coming from a different location and each carrying a different range of supplies.

Confronting History

According to the Escapade crew the island has a cosmopolitan atmosphere. There are some good vistas to be had and a good overview of the island can be completed in two half day trips using a vehicle.

The Japanese war history in the Island including the Banzai and Suicide Cliffs makes for a particularly confronting experience. There are no visible US military personnel or equipment on the island but there is a local Police Force.

Note on Guam

As an example of how officials deal with an emergency arrival.  During the (Melbourne – Osaka) race, we had to get a boat into Guam for emergency maintenance. The Coast Guard there came out and assisted the vessel into the harbour, onto a mooring and allowed the two-person crew to go ashore the next day to complete the relevant paperwork. At that time the vessel was still in the race as a double handed entry.

The officials acknowledged that the entry into Guam was an emergency – a force majeure safety of life at sea issue. There was no formal visa issued and there were no fees charged. As soon as the crew rectified their issues, they cleared out, rejoined the race and left Guam. It was a very simple process and the officials were very helpful and understanding.

Bruce Reidy

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About the Author

Bruce Reidy is an experienced Australian sailor and co-founder of yacht delivery business sailor.com.au, based in Melbourne, Australia.

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The Melbourne – Osaka Cup Yacht Race

1. The Melbourne – Osaka Cup double handed yacht race is held every four years on average, organised through the collaborative effort of three yacht clubs: the Sandringham Yacht Club (SYC) in Melbourne, Australia, the Hokko Yacht Club (OHYC) in Osaka, Japan and The Ocean Racing Club of Victoria (ORCV) in Melbourne, Australia

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