IMHO many American citizens are painfully ignorant of what a wonderful backyard they have complete, legal, extremely easy, somewhat “inexpensive”, access to:
Puerto Rico!
But how hard can it be to get there?
If I have a row boat or motor boat, can I legally go without informing anyone?
Yes, I know it’s, like, 1,000 miles from Florida [awaiting stupid post from know-it-all doper].
I’m talking legal issues here.
Jump on a plane from the U.S. all you need is positive identification (drivers license, state I.D. card, etc.).
What if I live in Miami and have a row boat/motor boat with lots of gas cans, and so on. What would happen if I tried to get to San Juan? Who would stop me?
The U.S. Coast Guard? Fidel and his giant cock he hides under that beard?
Are you thinking of Cuba? Castro is the dictator of Cuba. The US currently has an embargo on travel to Cuba. Cuban refugees take small boats to the US (and are more likely to be granted refugee status than a Mexican who jumps the border, since Cuba is communist and therefore the enemy, and anyone who tries to escape is the enemy of our enemy… etc).
Puerto Rico is a US entity, and is pretty far away. You can legally travel to PR the same as you can travel from any state to any state in the US, but you would die if you tried to take a rowboat there. More on the relationship between PR and the US:
Puerto Rico began the 20th century under the military rule of the U.S. with officials, including the governor, appointed by the President of the United States. …
In 1917, “Puerto Ricans were collectively made U.S. citizens” via the Jones Act. …
As a result of their new U.S. citizenship, many Puerto Ricans were drafted into World War I and all subsequent wars with U.S. participation in which a national military draft was in effect.
In between Florida, and Puerto Rico is a whole bunch of places with territorial waters. If you don’t have a very good map, technically you will be entering all of them illegally. Not that anyone will notice.
The source is a sailing website, but motor boats have the same requirements.
If you stop at other islands en route, then you have to check in and out of each country, and you’ll also have to check out out of Puerto Rico when you leave. Here are detailed instructions to get you to Puerto Rico from Miami (skip the last step for the short passage to St. Thomas, USVI): http://www.ehow.com/how_5653290_united-states-virgin-islands-boat.html
Pro tip: I’d recommend you upgrade to a sailboat from a rowboat for your voyage.
Can a US Citizen legally take a private boat from the US mainland (Florida, most likely), passing through either international waters or the territorial waters of the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, etc., and arrive in Puerto Rico, without having to check in with any authorities?
I think the clear answer is that if you go ashore at any non-US location, then you have to check in with the local authorities if necessary, and then must check in with US Customs/Immigration on returning, since you left the country.
If one sets sail from Maine and sails into the Bay of Fundy (Canadian waters), but doesn’t go ashore, then returns to Maine, do they have any reporting requirements to either Canada or the US? I don’t know.
Can a US Citizen legally take a private boat from the US mainland (Florida, most likely), passing through either international waters or the territorial waters of the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, etc., and arrive in Puerto Rico, without having to check in with any authorities?
I think the clear answer is that if you go ashore at any non-US location, then you have to check in with the local authorities if necessary, and then must check in with US Customs/Immigration on arriving in the US, since you left the country.
If one sets sail from Maine and sails into the Bay of Fundy (Canadian waters), but doesn’t go ashore, then returns to Maine, do they have any reporting requirements to either Canada or the US? I don’t know.
I don’t think this question has anything to do with the practicalities of making it all the way in a rowboat or any other specific class of boat. Assume they have an oceanworthy yacht, fishing boat, or even something larger.
In international law, there is a right of innocent passage through the territorial sea. That doesn’t mean that the countries whose territorial seas you pass through won’t have domestic laws that say otherwise, but I’d tend to doubt they’d start a diplomatic row with the US over a guy passing through in a rowboat.
