"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
anews.com...
Good Grief! It sounds to me that George Town is now officially a good
place for cruisers to avoid. Who needs all the bureaucratic crap
administered by
There are mutterings to that effect among the cruisers here...
I enjoyed George Town when I was there years ago but that was when there
were only a hundred or so boats in season. I guess like most places nice the
word gets around, the crowds of pretenders arrive and things go all to hell.
elitist amateurs who seem to think because they've vegetated there longer
than most that they have the right or duty to control the actions of
others?
Not me, for sure. No freaking way, mon!
(See below for expansion on this)
No discharge zone, indeed. Just where does everybody think all the shore
side effluent ends up? Exactly! In the harbor. Sure, some of it might
pass
through the occasional working septic tank (many are probably not working
because of old age, salt water intrusion, etc.). At least the fish,
snails
and crustaceans can eat fresh turds from boats. Septic tank effluent is
poison in comparison. Why is it that landlubbers are such hypocrites?
They
sit on their thrones flushing their crap into the harbor and look down
their noses at somebody else doing the same thing.
I wonder where the pump-out boat discharges its contents, btw? Outside
the
harbor? Probably. I doubt all of George Town has anything that resembles
a
working sewage treatment plant.
Actually, they do have one, for the Sandals resort attached to Emerald Bay
Marina. That's where it is taken currently, or by truck if the weather's
impossible.
The mooring and pumpout issue started as a result of a demonstration
project
with the Bahamian government, primarily to achieve a treatment plant near
GT. Once that's built, the pumpout will use it...
That's better than I thought. I wonder what they do with the treated
effluent? Deep well injection or outflowed into the ocean....
Oh, that reminds me of something. Just about every settlement has a de-sal
plant using reverse osmosis. I wonder where the brine ends up? The point
being once they start down this silly 'green' road where does it stop? Brine
is even more deadly to sealife than freshly-bucketed human waste.
It would serve George Town right if all the cruisers went elsewhere.
Would
probably cut the settlement income in half or more. Are they so stupid
that they will bite the hand that feeds them? Elizabeth Harbor is large
and well circulated being open at either end. It would take several
thousands of cruisers dumping sewage overboard year in and year out to
degrade the water quality in that harbor. What's them max there in
season?
Three hundred? Four hundred?
Max in good times has been over 500. Last and prior years were high 2 and
low 300s, respectively. However, that concentration is very brief. After
Regatta, folks start leaving, and after the Family Island Regatta, it's
nearly empty. In June, you're likely to be the only boat in sight. When
we arrived (where this thread started) there were less than 30 boats in
the entire area. It's up to about 50 now, but the crowds will begin after
Christmas.
Too many folks. I'll remember to avoid the place unless in the off-season.
Marsh Harbor sounds like a better option for a cruising base to me.
A very significant portion of the "season" boats is Montreal and other
Quebecois (how do you do a c-cedilla in text?), who have to return to keep
their medical coverage in Canada; they have their own clique, and are a
significant portion of the HNazis.
Quebeçois. Use Character Map under System Tools on the start menu. The
Canadian invade the Miami area quite heavily - and I do mean heavily as in
weight - every winter. They are notoriously known as cheapskate tippers.
On which subject, it was because of one of the same who stormed the
immigration office here, demanding (rather than politely working with
them) something WRT visa extension. That got the official person there
angry enough that she dug out the regs (vs the generally accommodating
nature of handling visa stuff).
Turns out that the regs call for no more than a 90 day stay without
someone leaving the country. [Practice had been to give sailboats 180
days, with up to another couple of months (no more than 8, we discovered
to our horror) by stopping into an immigration office being routine.
Those arriving by plane were given up to 90 days, same downstream
instructions by the immi guy/gal at the airport.]
Wrong! The cruising permit is for 180 days with an option to renew for
another 180 days before having to leave the country for ONE DAY before
returning. The 90 day stay limit is for other tourists who did not arrive on
boats with a valid cruising permit.
As a result of that brouhaha, word got back to Nassau, and, at the moment,
arriving criusers and deplaners are given no more than 30 days, ditto on
renewal, and will be required to leave in 90 to remain in compliance.
Correct for those arriving on airplanes. Incorrect for those arriving on
boats with valid cruising permit.
General guessing on that is that it won't last, as that will drive all the
cruisers off (for the entire Bahamas, not just GT), by default, and sooner
or later, the officials will come to the conclusion that it's a bad
decision. But, the way things work here, it won't be a quick change, so it
may not happen in time for all the many folks here and arriving, as many
stay (ordinarily) for well beyond 90 days even if they're "commuters" -
let alone full-timers who are spending an extended time in the Bahamas,
such as we.
It won't last because it's in incorrect interpretation of Bahamas customs
and immigration law.
It sounds like the anchor/control thing only has to do with radio
transmission and not anchoring restrictions as I had thought. It's bad
enough that harbor KKKops feel the need to regulate radio transmissions
but regulating when and where people can anchor is even worse. Glad
that's
not the case. I rarely use the VHF anyhow and if some harbor KKKop
doesn't
like how I use my VHF then they can go f**k themselves.
Bottom line is: Just where is the real cruising sailor these days? What
kind of loser pretends to be a live aboard cruiser but insists upon
treading with his Nazi jackboots on the freedoms of others and into
everybody else's business enforcing petty bureaucratic nonsense the likes
of which we real cruisers gladly left behind when we divested ourselves
of
the lubberly life?
Well, generally speaking, it's NOT the full-timers. It's the commuters.
There are plenty of Statesiders who do the same routine, though not for
medical reasons.
As you well know, there is so much to love, see and do in the Bahamas that
coming here in the cold months, and heading back to the states for the
warm ones, forever, is a viable option if you don't have wanderlust.
So it's the pretenders who are trying to be the controllers. Sad. Typical
condo commandos.
Full-timers like us (and many others here at this time, of course) tend to
be a great deal more independent, not to mention tolerant. Why those who
come only during the high season feel they can dictate to others is beyond
me, and, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, causing many to rethink
the Georgetown experience.
Aside from the "Daycamp for Seniors" activities which are impossible to
support without a crowd, there is every bit of what is great about
Georgetown available when it's just you and a few other boats. As
commented upon in other threads' observations about our habits, we much
prefer to be where there aren't a lot of folks, anyway, so that if we have
to run the Honda occasionally, nobody hears us - and, we can dispense with
clothing, saving on laundry, to boot :{))
Of course, right now isn't the time for that, as it's so damn cold at the
moment that I finally surrendered and put on jeans, then a sweater, then a
jacket last night. We're thankful that the high will be in the 70s today,
but sad that the wind won't be there to twirl our KISS!
Kiss is the most noisy and shoddily-built of all the wind generators - shame
on you. When it wears out in the very near future consider getting two of
these.
http://www.marlec.co.uk/products/win...3-windcharger/
They are very kind to your neighbors. It's freezing cold here in the Keys,
too. Been in the forties the last two nights but it's supposed to warm up
10-20 degrees in the next couple days but another cold front on the way
Sunday or Monday. The water's already down around fifty degrees.
Wilbur Hubbard