St. Lucia’s ancient motto was “Statio Haud Malefida Carinis”, a safe anchorage for ships in plain English! A colourful history is dominated by major naval battles between British & French forces, with the island changing hands no less than fourteen times. A French creole is widely spoken in addition to English, the official language.  

The island is located at 14 deg. North and 61 deg West, and has five seaports: Ports Castries and Vieux Fort cater mainly for commercial shipping; Rodney Bay Marina, Marigot Bay and Soufriere cater mainly to pleasure craft. All seaports are located on the west coast. Two airports, one regional, George F.L. Charles (formerly Vigie), and one international (Hewanorra) with flights to Europe & the US, are located in Castries & Vieux Fort respectively. 

Visitors can request up to 6 months stay in the first instance.  Applications for extension of stay, up to an additional 6 months, must be made in person at the Immigration Office in downtown Castries. There is an EC$100.00 fee per 21-day extension period. Periods of stay in excess of 1 year require approval by Cabinet, for which a different fee structure applies. The embarkation tax of US$20.00 (at airports) applies when a passenger leaves by air having arrived by sea; the seaport embarkation tax (EC$15.00) applies if arrivals by sea join a departing commercial yacht as a passenger. 

There are three entities involved in processing the formalities for entry into SLU: Immigration, Customs, and the St.Lucia Air & Seaports Authority (SLASPA). Additionally, the Soufriere Marine Management Authority (SMMA) manages a protected Marine park along part of the West Coast, from offices along the Soufriere waterfront. The SMMA is responsible for collecting mooring, snorkel and dive fees for the zone under its control. The Soufriere Development Foundation (SDF) also collects a head tax for disembarkation on docks in the Soufriere Bay.

There are 2 classes of yacht for the purpose of determining the applicable fee paid to SLASPA. These are:- private and commercial.

A private yacht is one which does not engage in plying passengers on hire. A bare-boat charter is classified as private. Commercial yachts arethose which embark/disembark passengers who have paid as individuals or groups for the pleasure of travel on these vessels.

 A Commercial yacht requires an occasional license, determined by overall length, to cruise. Private yachts do not pay the Occasional License.

 All yachts pay for pratique, clearance, navigational aids, and passenger dues,   determined by vessel weight or length. Passenger dues do not apply to master and crew on private yachts, but do on commercial. Yachts in transit may clear in/out with the validity of the clearance being 72 hours; the validity of a regular clearance is 24 hours. Yachts wishing to moor at a location within St.Lucian waters other than their port of entry after obtaining a clearance must obtain a ‘Permit to Moor’ from Customs at a cost of EC$25.00. This permits the yacht to remain in local waters for an additional 72 hrs.

Yachtsmen wishing to snorkel, dive, or spearfish require permits from the Department of Fisheries for areas outside of SMMA control. A local dive guide must also accompany any dive. Sports fishing requires a craft license from the Fisheries Department costing EC$270.00/US$100.00; recreational casting also requires an EC$50.00/US$20.00 license.

Duty free fuel may not be available for sale at all marinas. The main docks at  Port Castries are serviced by road tanker for vessels requiring in excess of 500 gallons of fuel (this must be scheduled in advance). The public power supply is 240Volts, 50Hz, but step-down transformers are widely available for 120Volt supplies.

USEFUL CONTACTS

Weather Hotline:                         +1 (758) 454-7386

Emergency                                      911 (local access)

St.Lucia Tourist Board                +1 (758) 452-4094

Police HQ Switchboard               +1 (758) 456-3000

Tapion Hospital (Private)          +1(758) 459-2000

Victoria Hospital (Public)           +1(758) 452-2421

Soufriere Hospital (Public)        +1(758) 459-7258

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