"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...

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...


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.

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.

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.]

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.

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 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.

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!

L8R

Skip


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