Saba - Clearance
ADVANCE PLANNING
To speed up the check-in process the necessary forms can be downloaded from the Saba Ports website. Please download, print and fill in before arrival.
Go to: https://www.sabaport.com/downloads
SailClear advance web notification service for clearance is now operational here. This will assist with speeding up the Customs clearance process on arrival. For a full explanation of this service and other web clearance services in the Caribbean see report: Eastern Caribbean Cruising: Clearance Procedures Simplified
ARRIVAL FORMALITIES
All yachts should proceed to Fort Bay harbor for clearance. Contact the Harbour Master at Fort Bay on Channels 16 or 11. Once contact has been made safely moor the boat.
Note: The authorities strongly advise yacht crew to only come ashore at the harbor, as attempting to land at Well’s Bay, Ladder Bay or Cove Bay can be treacherous in certain seas.
See Fort Bay Clearance for possible mooring options.
In strong winds from the S/SE, anchoring in Fort Bay is very difficult and getting ashore even harder. It may be necessary to carry on to the more protected anchoring area on the NW side of the island, between Ladder Bay and Well’s Bay, where several moorings (yellow with blue stripe) have been laid for visiting yachts, and wait for suitable conditions to complete clearance.
It’s a 2 mile dinghy ride around to Fort Bay.
If landing is possible on the NW side of the island, it may be possible to take a taxi over to Fort Bay. See the Tourist Board website for taxi numbers.
General Process:
Clear with Customs and Immigration, then check in/out with the harbour master. If Customs and Immigration are not available, then the HM deals with all formalities. Customs and Immigration are located in the ground floor of the Harbor Office.
The Harbour Office is open 0600-1800 Monday to Saturday.
Clearing in and out at the same time is possible, even if you are staying a few days.
Yachts must also clear in with the Marine Park at the office in Fort Bay.
Due to the number of forms to be completed (with multiple copies), clearance can take a surprisingly long time. It speeds things up to have the forms ready. See Advance Planning at top of page.
More details at: https://www.sabaport.com/visiting-yachts.
Last updated: March 2024
If you have information for this section, or feedback on businesses used, please let us know at editor@noonsite.com. We also welcome new information about businesses you have used (see Related Businesses).
Next Section: Formalities: Clearance Agents
Related to following destinations: Saba
Country Navigation
Courtesy Flag Discounts
YachtFlags.com provides high quality courtesy flags that are manufactured in durable Knitted Polyester fabric. Knitted so that the fabric itself does not deteriorate in the constant movement that marine flags are usually exposed to, and polyester so that the flag does not weaken in the strong UV-light usually found in the main sailing areas of the world.
YachtFlags.com offers a discount to Noonsite members.
Use the coupon code NOONSITE_5A2B when checking out to get 10% off today.
Buy Now On YachtFlags.comMain Ports - Saba
Courtesy Flag Discounts
YachtFlags.com provides high quality courtesy flags that are manufactured in durable Knitted Polyester fabric. Knitted so that the fabric itself does not deteriorate in the constant movement that marine flags are usually exposed to, and polyester so that the flag does not weaken in the strong UV-light usually found in the main sailing areas of the world.
YachtFlags.com offers a discount to Noonsite members.
Use the coupon code NOONSITE_5A2B when checking out to get 10% off today.
Buy Now On YachtFlags.comFormalities
Courtesy Flag Discounts
YachtFlags.com provides high quality courtesy flags that are manufactured in durable Knitted Polyester fabric. Knitted so that the fabric itself does not deteriorate in the constant movement that marine flags are usually exposed to, and polyester so that the flag does not weaken in the strong UV-light usually found in the main sailing areas of the world.
YachtFlags.com offers a discount to Noonsite members.
Use the coupon code NOONSITE_5A2B when checking out to get 10% off today.
Buy Now On YachtFlags.com
If there is swell or wind from the south/south east at all the mooring at Fort Bay is very tricky (I was told you can stay on them overnight if you want)… and the dingy ride to the port even trickier. In this case better to grab a mooring on the west side and make the 2 mile dingy ride. If conditions look not good for this just sit and wait till they do and then check in.
Also, they take sailclear now… didn’t help wiht imigration, but did help wiht customs paperwork. Worth doing.
Thanks for letting us know about SailClear – that’s very helpful. We’ve added the info. to Noonsite.
See this link for mooring maps: https://www.sabaport.com/yacht-moorings
About half of the moorings in Ladder’s and Wells Bays were missing as of early Jan 2018. I think we were on mooring P, which is farther out than it seems from shore. Mooring G is definitely the best sheltered. Definitely take a look around the mooring field to understand the mooring locations. (Also the balls are pretty small so you’ll need to get up close to locate them.) Make sure that you run your own rode through the mooring pendant; the marine park is trying to prevent chafing of their mooring lines.
We used the Anchor Pro app and kept one phone with the boat at all times.
The marine park people said that mooring overnight at Fort Bay was not recommended at all (but you can take your “big boat” there during the day if your tender cannot traverse the sometimes treacherous 2 nm from Wells Bay to Fort Bay).
Mooring at Wells Bay was most comfortable but rolly at night. Wind speeds were roughly 12 knots or less. Would not recommend going to Saba if the forecast calls for any higher than that.
We found it impossible to land our dinghy at Wells Bay or Ladder Bay, so we took it to Fort Bay every day. We have an inflatable that did just fine. We were lucky to catch a weather window with little swell. Make sure you have enough dinghy fuel when you arrive. If you need to fill up a tank, there is a gas station at Fort Bay — take the road heading east and walk up the slope. The fuel station is at the top of the slope.
Taxis: you can get a list of taxi operators at the marine park office. Hitchhiking also works.
Must-dos: hiking the Ladder, hiking Mount Scenery, scuba diving, snorkelling. You can moor your tender to the diving mooring balls as long as you vacate the mooring if an actual dive boat shows up. Wells Bay and Torrens Point have great snorkelling.
Laundromat: is on The Road, about a third of the way up to the Bottom.
We really enjoyed Saba and thought the visit was worth the extra preparation and hassle.
Sargassum hits Saba:
Reported by Joan Conover 10 August 2017.
Saba has its beaches full of Sargassum weed. There is currently no solution to this problem. An online site to track Sargassum weed via satellite images is in development – lots of discussions right now about what to do about this problem.
Search “Sargassum” on noonsite for latest news items.