$1200
Recently the Bahamas have substantial increased the fees they charge cruising boats.
Let’s focus on boats under 50 feet:
- 12 Month Cruising Permit $500
- Anchoring Fee $200
- Fishing permit $100/month.
- Some other trivial fees for in and outbound clearance.
So a 45-foot cruising boat cruises that Bahamas for a five month winter season will be on the hook for about US$1200 ($8/day), assuming they want to fish, and US$700 if not.
When we consider the incredible cruising the Bahamas delivers this is a bargain. Heck, that would not get us a week in a dump-resort. Or two to three days in a marina in Newport, Rhode Island, during the summer.
Even if we will just be there a month (with fishing) US$800 ($26/day) is still not unreasonable.
And really, most-all of us who cruise the Bahamas own a boat that almost certainly cost six figures and often a quarter million and up. We can afford this.
Yes, I know, we brought our own bed, yada, yada, yada. But we are also eating their fish, shitting in their water (or filling their sewers if we are good about a holding tank) asking them to dispose of our garbage, tearing up the bottom with our anchors—yes, I know about the unfortunate, and probably corrupt, recent mooring initiative, but that’s a separate issue—and generally taking up space.
And yet I gather there has been a huge explosion of resentment in the cruising community about these fees, with many cruisers boycotting the Bahamas.
Fellow cruisers, that’s not a good look and shows a complete lack of empathy for the inhabitants of a country that only has tourism as a revenue source (and some international business).
That’s a hard enough economic situation, but then every year or so they get trashed by a hurricane and have to rebuild with only those industries, and maybe some aid, to pay for it.
And let me tell you, as a citizen of another, and much more fortunate, island nation (Bermuda), the last 40 years have seen ever more tourists putting ever more pressure on everything coupled with ever less revenue per tourist.
Yes, cruise ships are the primary culprit, not cruisers, and Airbnb has hurt traditional resorts, but that’s not the point.
The point is that it’s not easy being the Bahamas.
Yeah, I have heard the “but we are spending a bunch of money” argument, but that’s crap too. Most cruisers (Phyllis and I included) really don’t spend that much in the islands, particularly compared to tourists who fly in.
So, if we want to enjoy their beautiful country, we should pay up cheerfully, behave respectfully, and stop whining.
That said, if you really can’t afford the new fees, I sympathize, but that’s a different issue (most likely crazy-wealth-inequality) that does not make the Bahamian fees unreasonable.
One more thing while I’m on my soapbox, let’s stop telling the Bahamians how to run their country. Governing an island nation well is a lot harder than it looks.