Brent Grimbeek and Ana Hill of SCAT Impi went to Suriname from French Guyana.

Pre-Arrival Requirements for Suriname

What one should do 48 hours before arrival is check in with MAS (Maritime Authority Suriname). It involves completing a form at their website.

However, the online system in Suriname does not work or works only partially. The two boats (us plus one other) who completed the MAS Notice of Arrival online had no reply. Part of the website does not work, one cannot add crew lists.

There is also an Entry Fee Voucher (VFS) website to be completed in advance – this only worked for 1 boat out of 4. Sections of the application via VFS do not work and we had to pay cash for the tourist levy on arrival. I believe it is linked to their archaic banking system.

Checking-in on Arrival

We stayed at Domburg Marina. The marina manager sent copies of clearance, passport and boat papers to MAS in advance. Then we had to go to Paramaribo to complete formalities. One has 48 hours before one has to check in.

The taxi ride to Paramaribo cost SN$1000 at least. The recommended taxi driver by Jeroen, the marina manager, is dangerous. At 79 years of age he should not be driving anymore!

In Paramaribo we first went to see MAS. We had to go to their offices to collect documents. They were ready on our arrival so we did not quite understand why we had to drive there as the documents were handed to us outside the office. One of the documents was a printed reply to our online Notice of Arrival. However, we did not receive a reply via email.

Next, we went to Immigration to pay the tourist levy of $50 or EUR50 per person (as we couldn’t do it online). From Immigration, once we were given the documentation, we had to go to the bank with a taxi to pay it then come back with the receipt to Immigration. One boat’s papers done at Immigration, were not signed and he had to drive twice to the bank to pay the levy. This held all of us up.

There are adverts in the Immigration office about the online application, but as we found out, it does not work and everything has to be physically done on arrival.

From here, you get a form to take to the Military Police who then stamp your passports. Although one can stay 90 days, you have to go back to Immigration every 30 days.  When we arrived at the Military Police at 11:00, they had already gone home. We had to return on Monday.  There was no charge for clearance.

Money

It is important to have cash on board if going to Suriname – either in local currency, euro or dollar. Foreign credit cards can only be used to withdraw cash and we were told that nobody accepts foreign debit or credit cards at business check outs. The ATMs are frequently empty or do not function on foreign cards. One can also only withdraw SN$20000 per day per card.

Yachting Facilities

I would not recommend for anyone to come here!  There are absolutely no repair facilities here and virtually no services for yachts.

We stayed at Domburg Marina. There are six mooring balls or so at 8-10 euros per day. The marina has a small pool, a restaurant, a few toilets and showers and one washing machine. It’s managed by Jeroen who does the paperwork for MAS on arrival. He could be more helpful.  There are no services for diesel or water delivery but there is karaoke at the weekend!

The mooring was not safe from huge logs and dragging boats who were on anchor. The river is full of debris making it unsafe to anchor and when you get in trouble the marina does not help. We cleared a 20m log from Impi. One boat with a log stuck on its anchor had to pay for a big fishing boat to come and lift it. This is a far cry from what we experienced in Brazil where marinas were supportive and caring.

There is a massive drug problem here, which is why yacht-transport companies refused to come and pick Impi up and ship her to Fort Lauderdale (we were dismasted on approach to the river Suriname).

The Suzuki dealership was very good. The head mechanic Melvin is the only reliable guy who helped us dispose of our mast and build the crossbeam. WhatsApp +5878622800. He also has a 1000l diesel tank on his truck and can deliver that quantity to your boat with an aluminium boat. Diesel costs US$1.10 per liter.

There is a chandlery – NV Propeller – with basic stuff, but I would not recommend going there unless, like us, you are desperate. The owner charged us 7 times the cost of cheap Chinese engine throttles (US$790 instead of $110 online). Then he also tried  to overcharge us on the conversion rate to Suriname Dollars too!  There were local little shops for limited food supplies.

Leaving Suriname

We cleared out with the Military Police in Paramaribo. You need to bring a crew list to check out.

We received an email from MAS prohibiting us from leaving after we had left. Two months after we left  we had still not heard from them.

I think this email had to do with a fight between MAS and Coastguard as it was as a direct result of training exercises by the Coastguard that we hit the log. We refused to pay the Coastguard for the tow as they threatened to drop the lines and caused considerable injury and distress by towing us in ever tightening circles and as a result got the towing lines under the keel.  They refused to take us to our mooring ball at Domburg Marina as it was beyond the harbour limits. They took no account of our inability to steer the boat as the starboard engine throttle was broken and we were dragging the mast. They also failed to understand we could not anchor as our cross beam was broken.

In desperation we phoned around to find a towing company who charged us EUR 1600 cash for a 1 hour tow.

We really didn’t like Domburg. We found it to be primitive (only cash money), unreliable (people agreed to help us and then didn’t turn up) and unwelcoming (no people at the marina had any concern for the trauma we had after our dismasting). Brent liked the howling monkeys, but to me it just added to the nightmare of being stuck in a brown river full of debris.

Brent Grimbeek and Ana Hill
SCAT Impi