Making Cruz Bay a swimming beach
A DPNR boat in Cruz Bay on a recent day with an officer slapping notices on abandoned boats.
Would you swim in Cruz Bay? You might get the chance sometime in the future.
Boat owners in Cruz Bay were recently served up a rude awakening when DPNR started slapping them with notice of vessel inspections and orders to get their boats out of the bay. For some of those beautiful, old, derelict pieces of crap, moving them may be a problem. Enforcement is now on hold, but the plan is to clear the boats out and put swim buoys in.
Even boats with proper permits would theoretically have to move 50 feet off the beach, which would be an obvious problem for boat businesses in Cruz Bay.
Like all things, this will get resolved, but it has caused confusion and raised conspiracy theories…like Grande Bay is behind it all. Maybe so, but we hear turning Cruz Bay into a swimming beach has been informally talked about for many years. It may sound gross, but assuming it can be cleaned up, imagine it. Food nearby. A couple of bars. A dive shop. Not a bad place to lay around. St. John is lacking a beach with commercial amenities and it might actually be a great little beach. Assuming it could be cleaned up. Cuz right now, we’re happy to leave Cruz Bay to the sharks and Wade’s ankles.
June 14th, 2007 07:48
Grande Bay isn’t behind this scheme, it’s Slimman!
June 14th, 2007 09:13
I would wonder if some of the boats even have owners? in 2005, a resident was telling us that some were anchored/abandoned in the same spot as long as he could remember. This guy lived-aboard and was about 25-30 years old.
June 14th, 2007 09:13
Let’s face it, I grew up in NJ and at the Jersey Shore. That said, I’d be reluctant to swim in Cruz Bay, sharks or not, until they did a little cleanup.
It’s nice to walk along and kinda wet your feet in, but that’s about it
June 14th, 2007 09:39
Yuck.
June 14th, 2007 11:56
Swim in cruz bay…NOT…When they get a pump out station for the live aboards maybe…Where do you think all that waste goes?
June 15th, 2007 05:35
Swim in Cruz Bay? I think NOT!! Perhaps my great great great great grandchildren might! These of course would be Wade’s offspring as well……unless of course that shark comes back for revenge(bad shrimp?) Hmmm sounds like a bad Jaws sequel!
June 15th, 2007 14:22
Cruz Bay was a swimming beach in the past. In fact my two children learned to swim there in the late 70’s in a program sponsored by the Department of Education, if you can believe it! I have a wonderful picture of kids taking advantage of the water there. Not many boats in thoses days.
June 18th, 2007 11:10
I think it would be great for business for wharfside and am all for the city cleaning up the beach and getting all the boats out of there.. I for one hope they go forward with this project.. change is good everybody shoud embrace it.
June 22nd, 2007 22:09
Cleaning up Cruz Bay Beach is just a conspiracy for US Airways to bring in seaplanes directly to St. John from Charlotte and ruin the taxi cab industry of St. Thomas for trips to Red Hook!