Errol Flynn Marina, Jamaica

The last couple of months we have been hearing stories about Errol Flynn Marina that started to confirm our suspicion.

Good friends Leo and Christina on S/V Lahna wanted to spend time in Port Antonio waiting for another boat to arrive but did not want to pay the ridiculous price of U$ 18 /day for anchoring in front of the marina. They anchored in the free East harbour.

The East harbour is declared a discharge free area, meaning you cannot flush your toilet into the sea. The joke of this is that there is a huge amount of rubbish and sewage that is constantly flowing into the sea at this place. The reason for this stupid rule is to force sailboats to anchor at Errol Flynn and pay the fees!    

Leo and Christina were arrested and thrown in jail for the night by the police for not having a grey water tank.

Luckily the judge in court the next day realized the stupidity and released them immediately.

Tomas and Isabella of S/V Zao also anchored in the East Harbour and was threatened by the manager of Errol Flynn Marina and harassed by Customs who found a small discrepancy on the papers issued by Ocho Rios Customs and they were forced to pay a fine of U$ 200!

We also felt the effect of this control of the marina when we tried to get our imported gearbox from customs. Customs told us that if we were at Errol Flynn we could get the gearbox without paying import tax, but because we are in Ocho Rios they did not want to help and we had to pay U$ 200 extra!

We strongly advise any sailboat that can do so, to skip Port Antonio and Errol Flynn Marina.