Crown Bay Marina Takes the Work out of Port Clearance
As the premier megayacht destination in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Crown Bay Marina recognizes that luxury yachts of the caliber that frequent our facility often require specialized ship’s agent services to meet the demands of tight schedules and complex itineraries.

Crown Bay Marina offers a flat fee package of VIP Port Clearance Services to facilitate the customs and immigrations clearance of your vessel, cargo, captain, crew, and passengers. All services are provided by specially-trained marina staff who are familiar with St. Thomas port clearance offices, Federal government requirements and certain local procedures (which are unique to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) that some mariners from the U.S. mainland may not be aware of.

Available services include advance preparation of applicable forms and documentation, ground transportation to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) offices in Charlotte Amalie, scheduling of pilot boat services (by special request, with 24 hour advance notice), and coordination with the U.S.V.I. Port Authority regarding pilotage fees (assessed on any vessel over 100 gross tons, whether or not pilot boat services are utilized). For VIP Port Clearance Services details and pricing, please contact the Crown Bay Marina office.

USDA/APHIS Regulated Garbage Disposal Service
To prevent the dissemination of plant pests and livestock or poultry diseases, U.S. Federal law requires that all vessels entering U.S. waters (including the U.S. Virgin Islands) that have visited a foreign port within a given period must properly dispose of all onboard ‘regulated garbage’ upon arrival.

Garbage is considered USDA/APHIS regulated garbage if your:

Crown Bay Marina is currently the only marina facility on St. Thomas, USVI that has entered into a Compliance Agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) office and been certified by its officials to operate as an approved facility for the handling and disposing of regulated garbage by incineration to ash.

If you have determined that your vessel is subject to ‘regulated garbage’ regulations, you may choose to take advantage of Crown Bay Marina’s disposal service. Contact the marina office for details on how the disposal service works.

Your receipt for this service — verifiable by Crown Bay Marina’s garbage disposal log book — may serve to corroborate your vessel’s port log book should you be subject to USDA/APHIS inspector surveillance from ashore, be boarded at the marina, or questioned at subsequent ports regarding compliance. Penalties for noncompliance are substantial.

Waste management is also the subject of the U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) enforcement of MARPOL Annex V Environmental Regulations which may apply to some vessels.