So, the pumpout
boat comes alongside to deliver a brochure.
They claim to be motoring up to Emerald Bay for discharge, or, in rough
weather, to a truck which will take it up there.
The brochure proclaims all of Elizabet Harbour to be a no-discharge zone, but I've not been able to come up with any authority which has made that a reality. Gord's link in the closed thread may address that? - I've not had the connectivity to pursue it.
However, the brochure has the official logo of the
Bahamas on it, and I presume one may not use that without some official permission. They provide a link, ehmgmt.wordpress.com "for more information. I have likewise yet to pursue that. It claims to be a blog. The brochure also suggests visiting the tourism office or the Port Office at the
Government Dock as part of the "for more information" block, so it is suggestive of having some official weight behind it.
The 15 moorings in Gaviotta Bay are as yet unoccupied. With literally hundreds of possibilities for
anchoring in the area (there have been as many as 500
boats in the
Georgetown area in past years, but the last couple have had only in the low 3 to high 200 range), aside from someone who just doesn't want to bother with
anchoring, and wants to be right next to the blaring
music from 11-7 at Chat'n'Chill, and just a tiny bit closer to St. Francis, and doesn't mind the freight, perhaps there will be some as the season intensifies.
They're limited to 45 feet, and are not
hurricane proof, as they are requiring those on them to leave if
weather is severe. The area in which they were placed is one which used to have lots of private moorings (boaters placing their own, or perhaps some from St. Francis; those on a St. Francis
mooring got free access to their on-again, off-again WiFi).
As mentioned in the closed thread, there was a lot of conversation on the demonstration
project (a demonstration
project, were it in the US, would be the
government throwing
money at lots of trials to see if anything worth making into a program developed from the differing approaches by the different contractors) last year.
By the time cruisers got
wind of it, it was already fiat. "The EHMP is a public-private
partnership of Bahamian Government agencies and local businesses working to provide improved facilities for the yachting community and to protect the beautiful
marine environment of Elizabeth Harbour." (from the brochure)
At the time of the discussions last year, it was stated that the moorings would be only in Kidds Cove; obviously they changed their mind about that. Cruisers signed an official position statement which was politically correct. That is, despite many of the sentiments seen in the closed thread of anger and upset and commitments to avoid
Georgetown, it's impossible to present a good face to officialdom without supporting a pumpout, never before possible.
Many cruisers here with sufficient
tanks do, indeed, store their waste and take it outside for disposal. However, I'd venture a guess that's a very small sample of the total here.
That said, the "season" is only a couple of months. I had to take it upon myself to start the cruisers' net when I arrived as nobody was doing it before today, and it had ended when we returned last spring from the Jumentos. Otherwise, you'll find very few
boats here - such as, in all of the
anchorages put together, less than 10 in the summer.
As such, the impact of lots of boats in the harbor is very limited in time. As this is a tidal flow area, it gets flushed several times a day, and, speaking for myself, when we were anchored right in the thick of it off Volleyball beach in the heat of the season the last couple of years, neither of us would hesitate to swim to shore, or go swimming in general.
Water here is generally crystal clear, and of no issue to, for example, watermakers.
So, whether or not there will be some enforcement of "no discharge" (nothing is mentioned WRT class of treatment possibilities, so it has the overtones of literally nothing,
grey water included) remains to be seen. Certainly, at this stage, with about 50 boats present, there has been no indication of it, nor any on-air (during the net) discussion of local officials warning of same.
So, that's the realities on the ground at the moment. Not
cheap, but not terribly expensive, courtesy only (not for protection) moorings, and pumpouts, available at a separate cost ($10 up to 20 gallons - do the math, that's the same as charged for fresh
water in many places in the
Bahamas - with a $0.50 per gallon charge over that). Note that the pumout
boat is nothing more than a skiff with a flat top on it and some sort of pumping mechanism; it doesn't have the capacity to do more than one or two before it has to go off to be emptied. In fact, when they were starting up last year, they made it sound like their practical limit was 40 gallons, though my eyeball calculation has it that it should hold several hundred gallons (perhaps a loading issue?).
As to whether Georgetown will prove to be an unfriendly place for the usual casual,
cheap, cruiser in the future remains to be seen. However, there's already a bit of a movement to
Long Island by long-time GT visitors, not only to get away from the above discussion, but to leave the "harbor Nazis" - as Lydia terms them (folks who have been coming here for a long time and feel they can dictate what happens, what place you can
anchor because someone left where you're heading to throw your
anchor, and they'll be back in a week, and other dictatorial stances) - but that's hardly the only place where one may freely move about (responsibly), have the beauty and isolation of the Bahamas at your bow and stern, and, if you want it, the company of other cruisers.
Probably the ones which would be most put out by feeling they'd have to leave are the ones who get off on the myriad of activities the regulars put together during the high season - characterized as day camp for seniors :{))
I'll be subscribed to this thread, of course, so I should be able to see any questions which may arise, but, absent some other links which have more info (see above about why I've not been to them yet), that's pretty much the picture here.
L8R
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