My experience of crossing into Canada on the Great Lakes is that the Canadian customs officers are practical people. What they are looking to prevent is the bringing of wine, beer or alcohol into Canada just because the US price is cheaper. By this I mean gifts or sales to Canadians, transporting of quantities by Canadians themselves, or a large stock by Americans which is abnormal for that boat. They seem to have a sense of what is a normal stock on a cruising boat and may let it pass even though it is over the limit. On our last entry at Kingston we correctly stated we had 2 unopened bottles of alcohol (1.5 liters), 6 unopened bottles of beer, and 5 unopened bottles of wine. We also told them we had perhaps another 7 or 8 opened bottles of alcohol totaling perhaps another 4 liters. They let this pass without duty. We are an American flagged boat. This is similar to what happened to Bay Pelican when we entered Canada at Trenton. Marty Campanella Bay Pelican KK42

I've been told British Columbia is the toughest on the alcohol, especially wine. I'm of the opinion that since they are so proud of their emerging wine industry on Vancouver Island, and frankly overly eager to gain acceptance, that they're trying to force people to buy local. There is a higher percentage of BC wines in Vancouver Island liquor stores than you find with Washington wines in WA liquor stores. A really big push to BUY LOCAL, and you see that branding everywhere, especially for food. Just my opinion. John On Dec 20, 2008, at 7:55 AM, Martin Campanella wrote: > My experience of crossing into Canada on the Great Lakes is that the > Canadian customs officers are practical people. What they are > looking to > prevent is the bringing of wine, beer or alcohol into Canada just > because > the US price is cheaper. By this I mean gifts or sales to Canadians, > transporting of quantities by Canadians themselves, or a large stock > by > Americans which is abnormal for that boat. > > They seem to have a sense of what is a normal stock on a cruising > boat and > may let it pass even though it is over the limit. > > On our last entry at Kingston we correctly stated we had 2 unopened > bottles > of alcohol (1.5 liters), 6 unopened bottles of beer, and 5 unopened > bottles > of wine. We also told them we had perhaps another 7 or 8 opened > bottles of > alcohol totaling perhaps another 4 liters. > > They let this pass without duty. We are an American flagged boat. > This is > similar to what happened to Bay Pelican when we entered Canada at > Trenton. > > > Marty Campanella > Bay Pelican KK42 > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power > > To unsubscribe send email to > passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word > UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message. > > Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World > Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.