A Minted Location day guide
Dock & Dine in Anguilla
Anguilla's dock-and-dine question has a one-word answer — mooring — and the government, not a restaurant, sets the terms.
Dining here works the way it always has: pick up a Government buoy, and go in by tender. There is no marina and no guest dock on the island; the access is the mooring field, and the terms come from the Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources.
What is published is better than most dock tariffs, because it is a clock. "All Marine Park moorings are for DAY USE ONLY (6.00am to 7.00pm daily)", and the Marine Parks Regulations say the same thing as law: "no vessel shall be moored or anchored in a marine park between the hours of 7 p.m. and 6 a.m." That is your lunch window, and it is thirteen hours long. Pick up a Government buoy off Sandy Island or Prickly Pear in the morning, spend the day, and be off it before seven. Dinner ashore on a cay is not a thing the rules contemplate.
In two of the four mooring fields the anchor is not a fallback — "Absolutely NO anchoring in Little Bay or Shoal Bay East." Elsewhere in the parks, anchoring is "permitted ONLY in specially designated sandy areas." If the buoys at Little Bay are taken, the answer is not to drop the hook nearby; it is to go somewhere else.
There is one detail here that explains the cays better than any review could. Under the Marine Parks Regulations "No person shall camp or carry on any business or erect any structure within a marine park except under … a permit", and Schedule 3 prices that permit at 5% of gross income relating to the operation. The beach operations on Anguilla's offshore cays are, in the government's own framing, licensed businesses inside a protected area — which is why the mooring field exists, why the buoy money is stated to go "to mooring buoy maintenance and other coral reef and seagrass bed protection activities", and why nobody is building a dock out there.
The Department also publishes the one procedural rule that trips people up: "Before applying for a Marine Park Mooring Permit applicants must have clearance forms in their possession", and "All Vessels must legally meet Anguilla Customs and Immigration requirements." Clear at Road Bay first, then go to the cays — not the other way round. The chart below runs the island west to east, from Dog Island out at the far end of the bank, through the cays and Road Bay, along the north coast to Junks Hole, because that is the shape the published rules give the day.
The stops, as their own docks describe them
| Spot | Where | Arriving by boat |
|---|---|---|
| Sandy Island and Prickly Pear — the mooring is the accessAnguilla's dock-and-dine answer, and it belongs to the Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources rather than to any venue. Mooring fields are installed at Little Bay, Sandy Island, Prickly Pear and Shoal Bay East, and the window is published: "All Marine Park moorings are for DAY USE ONLY (6.00am to 7.00pm daily)." That is a thirteen-hour lunch window and it is the whole mechanism — pick up a buoy in the morning, tender ashore, be off it before seven. The Department publishes the buoy technique too: approach slowly, do not attach the pickup line or eye directly to a cleat, pass your own dock line through the eye of the pickup line and secure both ends. One procedural rule is worth knowing: "Before applying for a Marine Park Mooring Permit applicants must have clearance forms in their possession" and "All Vessels must legally meet Anguilla Customs and Immigration requirements" — clear at Road Bay first, then go to the cays. | Offshore cays north-west of Sandy Ground | Government mooring buoys, day use only 06:00–19:00; permit required; anchoring only in designated sandy areas |
| Island Harbour, Scilly Cay and the beach barsEating on the cays and along the north coast works from a mooring or from an anchor in a designated sandy area, and then the tender — no venue in Anguilla runs a guest dock. The reason is in the regulations: under the Marine Parks Regulations "No person shall camp or carry on any business or erect any structure within a marine park except under … a permit", and Schedule 3 prices that permit at 5% of gross income relating to the operation. The cay operations are licensed businesses inside a protected area, which is why the mooring field exists and why nobody is building a dock out there. Take the buoy, take the tender, and be off the mooring before seven. | East end and the offshore cays | Mooring or anchor in a designated sandy area, then tender in |
Dockage notes are what each restaurant publishes on its own site — space is first-come and dinner-hour rafting is real, so hail ahead. Where a venue states nothing about docking, we say so rather than guess.
Planning more than lunch?
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