Inter-Island Group Clearance out of Vava’u

September 29, 2014

Clearing in and out of various countries can be mind numbingly tedious and time consuming or it can be quick and easy. Tonga tended towards the tedious side for us, and that was exacerbated by the fact that you have to clear in and out when transiting between island groups, and it’s difficult to get the full scoop on exactly what you have to do in order to clear out.

So, here’s what I did: 1) Went to the immigration office and they filled out a form and gave it to us to give to immigration in Ha’apai. 2) Went to port authority to pay our port fees, which is based on the gross tonnage of your vessel. It was right about here that I realized that our registration has the incorrect gross tonnage on it, and the error is not in our favor. So, we paid more, whatever. 3) Then I went to customs and here’s where it got a little confusing. Some countries allow you to get fuel duty free upon clearing out, and Tonga is one of these countries. And I had *heard* that if you intend to do your final clearing out of Tonga from Ha’apai they will let you get your duty-free fuel when you leave Vava’u, because there are no fuel dock facilities in Ha’apai. So, when I went to customs to ask, the guy seemed a bit shifty and told me to come back when the supervisor is there. I came back later that afternoon, and the same guy told me, no problem, you can do it. So, we ordered our fuel to be delivered by truck the next morning. The next morning, we went to the fuel dock, and I walked over to customs in order to get our form for duty free fuel and our final outbound clearance for Ha’apai. Of course, there’s a different guy there, and he says that you’re not allowed duty free fuel until you are leaving Tonga. Of course, I responded that I had been told that we could, and he wanted to know by whom, and at the point I didn’t feel like hanging the other guy out to dry, so I just said I don’t remember. He said, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do.” I’m not sure if he was wanting/expecting me to bribe him or what but I just stood there silent with an obvious disappointed and dejected look on my face, and he could only take this for about 30 seconds and then he said, “OK, just this time. But please don’t tell any other yachties, because we are not supposed to do this.” I have no idea what the real deal was with the duty-free fuel, but we got our forms, got our fuel, and got the heck out of there as soon as we could.

Of course, we didn’t leave Vava’u straight away. We had some southern small islands to visit, and we wanted to wait for the right wind for the overnight passage to Ha’apai.