We had a small parcel shipped by US Postal service to Antigua, stupidly forgetting to send it “ship in transit” as Jolly Harbour marina kindly said they would except the parcel which seemed very straightforward.  I failed to more closely question them:  what they meant was that they would be happy to be the address that customs would notify when the parcel reached the island…..a completely different thing altogether!

Parcels not marked as a ship in transit end up at the Post Office in Long Street, St Johns where a Customs officer from the Customs House across the road, maintains a desk.  When a parcel arrives they despatch a yellow slip to the address given to notify you of arrival.  It is literally a yellow slip, no envelope and there seem to be lots of opportunities for it to disappear.

We rang Jolly Harbour daily but they professed no knowledge of the slip.  Eventually, we rang the Post Office on 268 462 0023 to inquire about the slip as the tracking for the parcel indicated it had reached its destination.  They were able to confirm that the yellow slip had been despatched and armed with this information, miraculously the slip materialized in JH’s office!

We then took this slip, with our ship’s papers and passports to the Post Office where at the Customs desk we were given the parcel and paid the duty.

We also know of another boat whose yellow slip never arrived but if you take a copy of your tracking paperwork for the parcel, plus the usual identification of ship’s papers and passport, Customs will allow you to pick up your parcel at the Post office.

Hope this is useful to others hanging around in hope!

Sarah Bell

Serafina of Maldon

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