Bahamas Customs Lowers Boat Entry Fees

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]All right, guys. Welcome to the Crooked Pilot House. Today, I got some great news for some about the Bahamas re-entry fees. I'm bringing you guys this news, and most of you, it's not a news because you already saw it. The Bahamas changed their fees. And I'm late to the announcement because because I was in the beautiful dry Tortugas in the Florida Keys. Uh I had an awesome time up there. Beautiful waters. There's an abundance of fish at Dry Tortugas.

[00:00:37]Beautiful place to visit. That's why I'm late to the party. The news is already out there that the Bahamas have changed the fees. But I want to give you my take on the news. A lot of my viewers ask me, are you going to make a video telling us what you think about the fees? And also I want to bring the fees to my viewers that don't know about it. First I want to start with the price of customs back in the day. Uh I think was it a year and a half, two years it was $150.

[00:01:06]$1 150 and they gave you two entries. Two entries for that within 90 days. So that was an equivalent of $75. So every time I paid 150 within 90 days I come back and it's an equivalent of $75.

[00:01:26]So every entry I went to the Bahamas $75. That's what I used to pay because I split it in two. So if I sneeze and I wanted to go to the Bahamas, I went to the Bahamas. That's how cheap it was. It came out to me as a $75 fee to hit the Bahamas. No anchorage fees, no fishing fees, none of that. So, $75. I see the weather is good. I hop on the boat and I head to the Bahamas. Then they came out with $800. Look at that.

[00:01:58]$800, zero re-entry fees and uh it's $800 per entry, right? So, after a year, most of the people did not win back. 60 to 70% of the people. That's what I said in my video. They were not going to go back.

[00:02:18]And that's exactly what happened. Or more than that, because the marinas were completely empty. I got pictures and video from a lot of my viewers showing me that the marinas were empty. So that $800 fee brought them down 60 to 70%. So that was not a good move. Now, they came to their senses. They knew that most of us were not rich people. We're just coming folks. coming folks. We don't have a lot of money and even if we do have a lot of money, we rather spend it somewhere else because it's too expensive. So $800 than not make it for us. As a matter of fact, when I went to the Florida Keys, I spent $900 and some dollars on everything, right? On a 5day trip, I spent $100. Everything was included. So if I'm going to spend $800 just on fees to go to the Bahamas, that was not going to do it. I was not going to spend that money. Plus, I cannot tell my viewers to enjoy a beautiful place like the Bahamas when most of them can't pay that fee, right? That ridiculous fee. Now, they dropped it to $300.

[00:03:30]And that wo, take it with a grain of salt. A lot of people don't find it wo.

[00:03:34]Of course, I find it like wow. I find it because from $800 8 to 300 that's pretty good, you know. It's it's it's pretty good. I I say um but most people they have told me that this is not a good price for them. So the Bahamas still going to have some people that would not go back to the Bahamas because for them this is a little high.

[00:03:59]$300.

[00:04:00]They made it 150. Yeah. If you go to the website it says 150 but you want to anchor out there, right?

[00:04:06]You got to add $50.

[00:04:09]You want to fish, right? 90% of the people fish. You got to add $100. That's where I come up with $300. So, if you go to the website, it's going to say 150.

[00:04:21]So, you're going to say, "Whoa, they dropped the prices back to 150.

[00:04:25]That's excellent." No, no, no. If you're going to fish and if you're going to anchor, which everybody anchors in the Bahamas, you're going to have to pay $300. Now, look at this.

[00:04:38]Zero re-entry fees. Zero.

[00:04:42]Okay? So, you can't go back. It's only one time you pay 300 and that is it.

[00:04:47]Back in the day, it was 150. Two re-entries came out to 75 per entry. Now it's coming up to 300, which is way better. Way better than 800. I agree. I agree. 800 for me was not I was not going to make it back to the Bahamas. I I can tell you that I was not going back. It was zero zero possibility of going back to the Bahamas. But now they made it a little bit flexible. 300 a little flexible. Now something that I want to show you guys is is that now I used to go for a for two day trip fishing day trip. I just hop on the boat just go the next month if I wanted to go again I hop on the boat just go comes out to 75 bucks now since it comes out to $300. Now I have to go for at least four to five days to the Bahamas so I can get my money's worth of the trip. There's no way that I'm going to go two to three days to the Bahamas for $300. There's no way. So, I have to go to the Bahamas for at least four to five days so I can get a good money's worth on my trip. Now, you may say out on the reef, what is wrong with that?

[00:06:03]Well, I'm going to show you cuz you're not you're not thinking about the weather, right? Let's think about the weather. And let me show you this. I came up with this this research I did.

[00:06:17]Let me show you here. See, no, not that that paper.

[00:06:22]That's the loan of the boat. No, that not that paper. Okay, that's a loan of the boat. Okay, here it is. I did this little calculation here due to available to travel due to weather for small craft. Okay, this is the days that we're allowed to go for boats under 23 feet to the Bahamas. 23, 24 maybe.

[00:06:45]But under that, this is our critical days that we can travel to the Bahamas.

[00:06:50]Jet skis, 18 footers, 19 footers, uh 20, 21, 22, 23-footers, uh maybe even 24 around the range. Right after that, they can go whenever they want. they can pound those seeds and have no problems, right? So, if you back in the day you wanted to go one day to the Bahamas, good weather, you have availability of 192 days, you can divide it by the 365 days we have a year. Half of that almost is what you get a good one day weather. Now, when you want to go two days in a row, you get 108 days available. That means two days in a row in in the whole year. Say I want to go this weekend, next weekend, or anytime, right? So that means you only have 108 days to go two days. Now, let's say you want to go three days. Available days out of the year, you get 87.

[00:07:47]87. Right now, if you want to go four days, this is where I'm at right now.

[00:07:53]Since I'm paying $300, I fall into this category of days that I can go. So if I want to go for four days now I have available four days on a row out of the year. That's four days in a row. I only got 41 days. 41 days out of the year that will be continuous 4 days then 4 days. 4 days. You got only 41 days. Now my preferred trip now for $300 is 5 days. I want to go for five days so I can get my money's worth for the $300, right? I don't want to go for one day. I want to go five. For five days straight on a row on great weather to the Bahamas on a small craft, you get only 25 days out of the year. That's approximately.

[00:08:42]It could change. Depends on El Nino, El Primo, a cousin, whatever it is. It depends on that. So there's only five trips out of the year in the whole year.

[00:08:52]There's about five, maybe six. It could be less. Five weeks out of the year, you can get five days, go to the Bahamas, great weather. Five days, you get to the Bahamas, great weather. You get only five of those chances. Okay? That's where I'm going to fall. I'm going to fall on the 4day and the 5day.

[00:09:12]Now, keep in mind, this research was done by me on my previous trips, what I have available, right? So this is my prediction. This is what I got.

[00:09:27]That's the availability. So now I can scratch off one day of fishing, two days of fishing, three days of fishing. What do I have now? I have very little instances that I can go to the Bahamas.

[00:09:41]So I would not be getting the annual pass because you get the annual pass, you don't know. You don't know how the weather's going to be. If you want to go for longer times, the annual pass is not going to be uh a good choice for me.

[00:09:54]Maybe for you or anybody else that have a bigger boat, but small craft is not worth it because you don't know how the weather's going to be. You don't know when you're going to be able to get time off and coordinate all that stuff, right? We really appreciate it that they changed from 800 because that gives some of us at least once or twice a year to go to the Bahamas. At least once or twice. So, back in the day, I will go anytime I wanted. Like I say, if I sneeze and I didn't like the way I sneezed, I can go to the Bahamas. That's how easy it was. But now, since it's going to cost me every single time that I head to the Bahamas $300, now I'm going to I'm going to think about my options. So, now to go to the Bahamas, I need to look at the weather and I need to find 4 days straight of good weather.

[00:10:46]That's going to be hard because it's very hard to find four days straight. I know out of the year I travel and I've been traveling to the Bahamas for many, many years. For me to get four to five good straight days, it was it was rough.

[00:11:02]Most of the time it was after a hurricane that went right through or a cold front or some storm. it just went through and left the Bahamas and it took all that moisture out to the north.

[00:11:15]Sometimes you can get four days straight and um and I've got it. I got those days, but it's very rare to get those days. So, if they would have done one free re-entry, one free re-entry for the $300, I think the people in Miami, the people in West Palm, myself would have been happier. would have been happier because now we have more opportunities to go to the Bahamas. But giving us just one shot out of $300, one shot, we'll take it. I guess we'll take it. Uh we'll go, but not as often. So, my frequent trips to the Bahamas are not going to be that frequent, especially now that fuel prices are so high. The fuel now is going to cost us between 30 to 40% more. I use diesel for my towing. It's costing me almost $6 per gallon for just towing. And ethanol free or super light for your boat. How much is that? I I do find because of the fuel cost, this is going to be the worst year for boating, for traveling far, for motorboats, uh people on a budget like like myself, right? Common folks, it's going to be it's going to be on a budget to travel that far. So, my conclusion is that I will only be be able to go to the Bahamas once or twice. Now, did the Bahamas did the right choice?

[00:12:50]They can do whatever they want.

[00:12:53]But what I'm thinking is that most of the people are thinking similar to me. Most of the people that go very often to the Bahamas, especially people from Miami, West Palm, Floyd, the Keys, they used to go for the weekend. They used to hop on their boats and go Friday, Saturday, come back on Sunday. Two days. So back in the day, everybody, they used to travel constantly to the Bahamas. rented villas, rented Airbnbs, uh rented a hotel. Uh most of those people used to go, like I said, 75 bucks with a two second entry fee. And they used to go for the weekend. They grabbed their wife and their kids and say, "You know what?

[00:13:33]Let's rent a villa and let's just head to the Bahamas." And it was only 75 bucks because with $150, they used to come back again. Oh, you know what?

[00:13:42]Let's go in two more weeks. Let's go to the Bahamas. pick their kids up, the family, jump on the boat, head to the Bahamas again. That was a very constant traffic the Bahamas was getting. It was awesome because there was people coming in. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And I think the anchoring fee that they came up with, $100 or $200, they did it because of the people that stayed out there and they didn't stand at marinas and hotels.

[00:14:08]But they're getting it wrong because when I went on my boat, I used to spend almost $800 extra on fuel in the Bahamas. So, I used to leave about $800 in the Bahamas in fuel.

[00:14:20]Sure, I did not stay in a marina, but it was moving the economy. $800 on me on fuel, $800 on another boat, and another one, another one. It racks it up. But my situation of staying on the water was very, very small.

[00:14:38]When I was out there, very few of the small boats, very few people that will spin on a little boat like this, very few, especially with their family. This boats don't have enough water capacity for more than one person or two.

[00:14:54]The fuel is very limited. Look at my accommodation. This is below deck.

[00:14:59]That's my bedroom down there, right?

[00:15:03]That's my bedroom. So, not a lot of people want to be staying on a boat like this. It's too small. And a lot of people don't even have a boat like this.

[00:15:11]They have a center console. So, they rather stay on a hotel and they will bring in a lot of money. They stay in the marina. They will bring in a lot of money. So, keeping these fees at 300, I think the Bahamas I'm going to give the Bahamas a prediction. I wish the Bahamas talks to me about these things because it looks like I have more understanding about the traffic in the Bahamas. I will still go back to the Bahamas. Yes, I will. I will. But the Bahamas is still going to lose from 30 to 40% of the visitors.

[00:15:42]That's a good change for them because they were losing 60 to 70. They're still going to lose 30 to 40, maybe 35%. But I will say between 30 to 40 of people are not going to go back to the Bahamas.

[00:15:56]That's just my prediction of what I can see, what my viewers have been telling me.

[00:16:02]And the the feeling, you get the vibe.

[00:16:04]You get the vibe of the people that some people are very heartbroken. They feel like the Bahamas treated them wrong by doing $800. They feel like that. So most of them, 30 to 40% are not coming back.

[00:16:22]That's my estimate. Let's see if I'm wrong. Let's see if hopefully I'm wrong.

[00:16:26]Maybe they'll get a lot more visitors.

[00:16:29]But I'm predicting based on what my viewers are saying that for them steal $300 is a little bit too high. I mean, I can go at least once or twice a year.

[00:16:40]They're not going to see me there all the time. I mean, I was in the Bahamas all the time. And you can ask the marinas out there at West End Biminy.

[00:16:51]I was there all the time. I will pop up all the time to the Bahamas. Now, it's not going to be that often, but I'm still going to go back to the Bahamas, guys. So, this this made it a little bit better, which I thank the Bahamas for lowering the ridiculous price of $800 to 300.

[00:17:12]So, now if I don't want to fish and I don't want to anchor, it's only $150, which is great. It's great, especially for the people that don't fish. It's great for them. But tell me, who do you know that goes to the Bahamas and don't want to catch a lobster? Don't want to catch a fish, a red snapper.

[00:17:33]Tell me who doesn't take a fishing rod on their boat when they go to the Bahamas. If you go to the marina, check out all the boats in the marina and tell me who doesn't have one fishing rod on a boat.

[00:17:46]It's like mandatory. When you're in the Bahamas, you have to have a fishing rod, right? So that means everybody will have to pay those $100 fees for fishing. So that's why I say it's not 150 bucks, it's more than that.

[00:18:02]All right, guys. I just want to give you guys my take on what I think about the prices. So, and also the research I did about the days that you will be available to go to the Bahamas days straight. so accurate because out on the re did the research for you guys. This is very accurate, right? But this can change. This can change. Like I said, I've been going to the Bahamas a lot. I know how the weather is out there. And uh due to small craft advisory, we we got to take it serious. We just just can we can just not hop on a boat, put your family, your loved ones in there and just cross that dangerous ocean all the way to the Bahamas cuz sometimes it gets pretty dangerous out there. And let me tell you a story. The last time me and my wife went to the Bahamas, we were going for 4 day trips. We packed the boat. We were so excited.

[00:18:58]We got to Biminy anchor at Honeymoon Harbor. Everything was great.

[00:19:05]We grabbed the weather forecast and the weather got upset out of no reason got upset for the next four or five days after that. So what do we do?

[00:19:18]We came back home. We lost our $150 entry fee, which it was okay because we had another free re-entry. You see the flexibility here?

[00:19:29]We left to be safe and be a responsible boater and we left the Bahamas. We were only there one day. When you're in a small craft like this, you can't just wing it. You got to see if the weather's bad, you got to leave. You got to leave.

[00:19:44]You can't stay out there, right? Got to be responsible. Remember that. Your your your safety first. Second is the vessel.

[00:19:51]But I still got places to go here in Florida. Like you saw in the Florida, the Keys, I found this awesome location in Boca Grande. I think it's Boca Grande. Yeah.

[00:20:02]Awesome location. I can stay there for three or four days. I have the Atlantic.

[00:20:05]From that point, 5 miles, 6 miles, I can go fishing to the Atlantic and go stay in that there in Boca Grand. Boca Grand is beautiful. And also the Marquees. I have not explored the Marquesas yet. So, I owe it to a lot of my viewers and to myself to go explore the Marquees. That will be in my future videos. As my shirt says right here, see this? You can get this awesome t-shirt through the links. Exploring Florida. If you want to keep exploring Florida and hopefully I'll see you guys in the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, um the Gulf, or also the Atlantic side here in Florida. Always navigate safe when you go out there. If you have a VA for radio, try to have a satellite, some other type of satellite communication.

[00:20:53]You can have a in reach locator, which is this right here, the satellite locator. You can have that. You can text uh your family members uh for help and also tracks you for secondary uh you can have the personal locator beacon, right?

[00:21:10]You can get this one. This is awesome features to have. So you can get those two things and also make sure your VSF radio is working. All right guys, thank you for watching and I'll see you guys on the next video.