Coral Bay Marina

[tedprosser]

Ruth

Sorry I did not mean to offend, anyone, I just like the slower pace on the Coral Bay side. I love ALL of STJ and the VI. BOTH sides have water quaility issues. The Cruz Bay side with it's wonderful blue water did not meet water quality standard for two weeks in July for fishing or swimming.

I have been going down for years, and the water quality is a real concern in both the USVI and BVI for me, as a part time resident and boater.

We all have to take better care of the water and the islands

Ted

[StJohnRuth]

True, Ted. Many bays have trouble passing the water quality test after heavy rainfall. If you watch the web cam when it rains, you can have no doubt that we are not taking good enough care of our island.

- Ruth

[bevm]

But I don't know how you control run-off after a day of over 8" of rain (what we experienced). Everything is going to run downhill and right in to Coral Bay and other beaches...

[California Girl]

The only way to control runoff is to stop scraping all of the vegetation off the hills and building condos and such! I bet this was never a problem until the construction boom.

[captainjay]

So the double edged sword. We love it we want a house but we don't want anyone else to have one. So round and round we go. We only hurt the ones we love. I agree that a moderate Marina would be a plus for the area. Properly set up and used. A mixed use of some limited live aboard, transient and day use boats. Fuel and a pumpout station. Also a fair number of transient moorings for additional access to shore and a dinghy dock for the same reasons. Frankly in the current economy and regulatory state I wouldn't hold my breath.
I have commented before about boat access on St John and the only bright spot are the national park moorings. As far as cruisers and charter boats having any real access to shore, restaurants, shopping etc the island fails miserably. Taking a mooring at Caneel Bay and riding the dink into Cruz bay is the only real access. This is problematic because Caneel is a horrible overnight anchorage due to the captains that work for Caneel Bay Ferry's they drive like idiots and wake the hell out of the mooring fields.
Now to the issue of boats and water quality. It is laughable that everyone points at live aboards when they want to clean up a body of water. Yes it is true that most if not all liveaboards use direct discharge for there waste water. The government can't come up with a descent sewer plan for sewage and run off on land so lets blame the little boats, this has been used time and again to put limits on boating. The truth is a rainfall event with an inch an hour hard rain will put more "stuff" in the water in 15 minutes than all the boats in Coral Bay or Cruz bay for that mater will in a week or two. Does that mean that they shouldn't try to clean up the boating discharge, absolutely not, but if you build a pump out station and force everyone to use it were is that waste going to go? Which came first the chicken or the egg. If it is pumped out on shore and then gets improperly treated and pumped back into the ocean what have you accomplished?
Jay

[PA Girl]

The only way to control runoff is to stop scraping all of the vegetation off the hills and building condos and such! I bet this was never a problem until the construction boom.

I know lots of people think they are cute but the goats and donkeys definately contribute to the run off problem. The young, small, tender plants are eaten or trampled. The root systems are destroyed, allowing the silt to wash down the hill.

[California Girl]

I hadn't thought about the goats & donkeys... that's a really good point! I bet they never have to mow the ball field in Coral Bay! LOL!