"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
anews.com...
"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
Rock Sound, Eleuthera to Georgetown, Exuma
mass snippage

Once in the Georgetown neighborhood, I eagerly turned to the cruiser's
net
channel, 72. Hm. Silence. Must be too far out... So, once I got in, I
hailed one of the very few boats to ask when it started. My source told
me
that the usual anchor/control wouldn't be in for over a week. Heh.



What's this anchor/control thing all about? I sure hope it isn't a
maritime version of the condo commando conundrum.


Wilbur Hubbard


Yah, unfortunately, it is.

Lydia refers to them as the "Harbor Nazis" - recognized by frequent
visitors as those who have been coming for many years, and feel they can
dictate what happens, when and where.

So, yesterday, I took a break from my volunteering. They'd already set up
all of December's volunteers, but it didn't start until the 11th. As,
between getting comprehensive weather, researching a trivia question and
"thought for the day" and organizing all the segments (businesses,
community announcements, open mike where cruisers could as the others for
help one way or the other, emergency messages - extremely rare - and
channel restrictions due to emergency or civil authority or designated
channels for things like taxis to avoid when shifting from the two hailing
channels - 68 and 16 - after making contact), I usually put in a couple of
hours minimum a day of prep to do it, then about a half hour of actual
activity, I was happy to step aside.

So, it's net control, or net anchor, who directs traffic in that time,
which is a good thing, IMO, or it would be anarchy. I was much amused,
given that there would have been NO net happening during my tenure, that
there were complaints directed to the coordinator for the morning nets
(but not until the 11th) to the effect, in any event, that it wasn't what
they were used to. It's too late - I can't get out to do my day's
activities and still listen to the net. The weather's too long. You
don't need a weather recap (that despite there being someone, always, who
didn't get it in the beginning who asked for a repeat during the open mike
session). Yada, Yada :{)) But if they didn't like it, all they had to do
is ignore it until the "official" version started up in a few days. That
said, I've had quite a few folks stop me yesterday and today to say that
they sorely missed my version of the net now that they've had a couple of
days of the "official" version.

This harbor nazi stuff is what has many of our acquaintances, without our
bringing it up, who express some dissatisfaction with what goes on here.
It started on the first day of my net, during open mike, with a
long-termer telling of how the top-notch fisherman in that boat was
corralled by the local police for being a commercial fisherman without a
license. Supposedly they had accepted payment for a lobster - which, it
turns out, was some fudge. Some lengthy irritation was shared by that
cruiser that day :{))

There is now some concern for what's going to be the realities of the
now-supposed no discharge zone as seen in a brochure from the pumpout
boat, new last spring. 15 new moorings have been placed in Gaviotta Bay
(between the holes next to C'n'C). Not really secure moorings, as they
require you to move in severe weather or 4' seas, but those who used to be
able to put their own moorings there, or anchor, have been displaced.
It's for real, as the place to find out more info isn't just the pumpout
folks, but instead includes the Harbour Authority at the Government dock,
and the tourism office - and the brochure has the official Bahamas logo on
it.

However, nobody has seemed to be checking about discharge, but that could
just be the startup nature of the program. Should that become reality, I
think that will result in a mass exodus, as the vast majority of those
here either have no means to store, or no interest in paying a pumpout
boat to the tune of fifty cents a gallon



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
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!

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.

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?

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?


Wilbur Hubbard