Sailboats get thirty days to move out of harbor
At five thirty every evening the Belize City Swing Bridge opens so sailboats and other vessels can enjoy safe harbor for the night. In the morning at the same time, the bridge swings again to let the boats go out to sea. But the Port Authority says for the last few years, boats have moored neared the bridge in rows of three and four instead of further up the river. Sailboat owners say it’s been a tradition to park there for security reasons and so they can go and come as they like. Tradition or not, it’s against the law, and the regulations will be enforced a month from now.
Today the mouth of the Haulover Creek is wide open but unfortunately both the Belize Port Authority and the fishermen in this area say this is a day few and far between.
Fidel Villamil, Fisherman, “Dalinda Blanco”
“That was from when we start to fish that we park here.”
Q: “Why? Because it close to the city?”
Fidel Villamil
“Well we can’t park out there because when we come from home, maybe the boat gone or somebody thief it or something happen.”
Gustavo Cruz, Fisherman, “Giana”
“Sometime we want to go out twelve o’clock and the Swing Bridge no open that time, so that’s why we stay on this side.”
Q: “Where will you take the boat to tie?”
Standford Franklin, Fisherman, “Giana”
“Which part? You can’t take them there because you no have no icehouse there. And you can’t load ice from here and go way back there because by the time you go there, your ice melts away. You have to be close to the co-op. The closer to the co-op, the better for you. This you will can’t stop.”
Come October fifteenth, however, boat owners will once again only be allowed to park in the area in front of the Swing Bridge temporarily. The newly opened Marine Office of the Port Authority will start enforcing the 1981 regulation and has been sailboat hopping to pass out the letters of notice. Sailboats will only be allowed to park two abreast, while tugboats have to be one after the other.
Domingo Lewis, Marine Officer
“Some are concerned and some have their own personal comments. Overall, it’s good.”
Q: “So October fifteenth, you don’t intend to see any problems?”
Domingo Lewis
“Well gradually; it’s a new system. We’ll have problems from time to time but they’ll get to learn what’s going on.”
The fishermen are asking one question…”Where do I go?”
Gustavo Cruz, “Giana”
“Hmph. That will be trouble because we no have enough space right here. Where will the rest of boats, only two on each side, where will we park that? And this space is not enough. You know how much space? This is a little bit of boat right here. And how the rest that are outside now? That will be drama.”
Q: “But if they find another place for you all to park, you going?”
Gustavo Cruz
“That hard because we done used to here.”
Fidel Villamil
“No want no sailing boat here? Where we will “henker” down?
You can’t park like this and block the traffic. Yeah but this no say that. This says none. No boat!”
J.C.
“For the time being they are working on somewhere safer to make you go, you know. That’s why they give you all until the fifteenth of October.”
Fidel Villamil
“But the question I am asking is where we could park after that?”
Deputy Harbormaster John Flowers says they must find an alternate place to park.
Major John Flowers, Deputy Harbormaster
“Basicly we have not designed any sites. Over the last couple of years, these people have been utilizing that area adjacent to the new Commercial Center and they have been sitting there for some time. I do not believe the Port Authority has any obligation to find anchorage for these boats.
I think the skippers for these vessels will now need to go and look at how best they could protect their boat; it’s their interest and it’s their investment.”
One man offers a solution.
Standford Franklin
“So it’s the Port Authority to see that the river dredge from there and make the boats tie the right way. The Port Authority only implement law but they no see what is going on, the condition of the place.”
Q: “So what will you do October fifteenth when the law comes in?”
Standford Franklin
“It’s what the law will do.”
The Deputy Harbormaster says while no one likes change, he believes eventually what the Port Authority is doing will make Belizean waters a much safer place for mariners.
Janelle Chanona for News Five.
The Harbormaster says they will recommend anchorage sites to boat owners but it will not be their responsibility.
