ARC Arrives - Caribbean Compass

JANUARY 2008 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 46
Voiles Assistance
Didier and Maria
LE MARIN/MARTINIQUE
Sails & Canvas (repairs & fabrication)
located at Carenantilles dockyard
Open Monday to Friday 8-12am 2-6pm
Saturday by appointment
tel/fax: (596) 596 74 88 32
e-mail: didier-et-maria@wanadoo.fr
A&C YACHT BROKERS
BOATS FOR SALE
Port de plaisance du MARIN
MARTINIQUE
www.acyachtbrokers.com
E-mail: acyb@wanadoo.fr
MARTINIQUE
All the Supplies,
Chandlery
& Safety Equipment
for your Boat
Port de Plaisance 97290, Le Marin
Tel: +596 74 87 55
Fax: +596 74 85 39
email: le-ship-martinique@wanadoo.fr
Open 7/7
—Continued from previous page
A good alternative has developed 300 metres farther
south, in front of the Rumbar. A new dock has been
built, with a depth of two metres and 24-hour security.
Water and electricity will be available shortly, with
authorities for clearance only 100 metres away. The
helpful guy who is watching the dinghies speaks
English, German and Spanish. There are several businesses
around, e.g dive shop, sailmaker, mechanic for
outboards, and a small supermarket. Just around the
corner are several day-time restaurants and therefore
it’s easy to find a taxi there.
Porlamar is a very important anchorage for hundreds
of yachts who sail the Caribbean and want to
stay out of the hurricane belt in summer. This new
infrastructural development is definitely going in the
right direction. By the way, we haven’t heard of any
piracy attacks or other burglaries in the 2007 season
so far.
Gabriele Drucker
S/Y September
Dear Compass Readers,
Anybody who has been to Bequia during the past
month will have probably seen the high wall that has
sprung up to block the path over the headland between
Plantation House and Princess Margaret Beach.
Ugly and threatening, it is topped with broken glass
with menacing strands of razor wire at the sides to reinforce
the message that YOU ARE NOT WANTED HERE.
How can it be that a path which has been in use for
hundreds of years, so by normal criteria must have
established a clear right-of-way, be blocked and
amenity destroyed in this way? Who has allowed it to
happen? More important, who in Bequia has the
authority to get it removed?
Almost everybody in Bequia one speaks to is perplexed
and angry at this selfish destruction of amenity.
Richard and Suzanna Roxburgh
S/V Mirounga
Dear Compass,
One of the more charming features offered by Bequia
is the bayside footpath that starts in Port Elizabeth
and winds along the Belmont waterfront passing bars,
restaurants and boutiques. Continue along to the end
of the Sunny Caribbee (Plantation House) beach, and
stone steps invite you to climb the hill up and over to
Tony Gibbons (a.k.a. Princess Margaret) Beach. At the
height of the land you get a spectacular view of this
beach. Continue on to the end of Tony Gibbons beach
and you can climb the next headland over to Lower Bay
where there are more beach-bars and restaurants.
I have been writing about this convenient and
attractive path for many years in the guidebooks I
write for yachtspeople, and I encourage them to enjoy
this delightful, shady, ecological walkway. It is also
well used by all visitors who stay in hotels and cottages
around the waterfront. Along with this tourist
traffic, it is regularly used by locals. It has been so
ever since I first came here, over 35 years ago, and I
am told it was a major path for Bequians going back a
hundred years or more. Even recently, work was done
MARTINIQUE
BICHIK SERVICES
Full Service Station:
- Fuel/Diesel/Gas - Laundry - Call Station
- Grocery - Ice - Cigarettes - Cold Drinks
- Breakfast (Coffee, Croissants) - Fishing Items
Conveniently located at
Carenantilles Dockyard LE MARIN
Tel: +596 74 70 94 Fax: +596 7478 08
Mobile: +696 29 28 12
Open 7am to 7pm Sundays: 7am to 1pm
on this path by youth from the Paget Farm Sports
Culture and Environmental Organization, who
planned to continue upgrading it by putting in hand
rails in the steep spots.
So, imagine my surprise when I walked along the path
in early December to be met by a huge, ugly concreteblock
wall, topped with jagged shards of broken glass and
complete with razor wire, built right across it! This is
towards the top of the headland that separates the Sunny
Caribbee beach from Tony Gibbons Beach. Yes, the property
is private, but is not a major path that has been used
for generations a de facto and legal right-of-way?
I discovered that the property owners had put in the
newspapers an advertisement stating this was private
land, not a public right-of-way. But does wishing this
and advertising it make it so? (There was nothing in
the advertisement stating clearly this long established
right-of-way was to be closed or saying where objections
could be posted.) Michael Connell, Chairman of
the Bequia Tourism Association, tells me he wrote to
Anthony Bowman of the St. Vincent & the Grenadines’
Physical Planning Unit as soon as he saw the ad and
has not yet had a reply.
I discussed the matter with Herman Belmar, Deputy
Director of Grenadines’ Affairs. He tells me once he
took Mr. Bowman to the spot where the wall was subsequently
built. Mr. Belmar says that at the time Mr.
Bowman expressed a view that agreed with his: that
this traditional right-of-way should stay open.
Did the planning board give permission for this wall
to be built and a right-of-way that is part of both
Bequia’s heritage and its tourism product destroyed?
If so, can the SVG Physical Planning Unit tell us why
this decision was reached and if there is any right of
appeal? If not, has this structure been built unlawfully?
If so what action will the planning board take to
ensure these landowners remove this wall and reopen
the right-of-way?
Chris Doyle
Yacht Ti Kanot
Editor’s note: We e-mailed the Planning Board in St.
Vincent offering to publish a response, but one was not
received by press time.
Surprise! A recently constructed concrete-block wall topped with broken glass (right) now confronts visitors and
locals alike who are accustomed to walking the scenic trail along Admiralty Bay from Plantation House
to Princess Margaret Beach
Dear Compass Readers,
We want to hear from YOU!
Please include your name, boat name or address,
and a way we can contact you (preferably by e-mail) if
clarification is required.
We do not publish individual consumer complaints or
individual regatta results complaints. (Kudos are okay!)
We do not publish anonymous letters; however, your
name may be withheld from print at your request.
Letters may be edited for length, clarity and fair play.
Send your letters to:
sally@caribbeancompass.com
or fax (784) 457-3410
or
Compass Publishing Ltd.
Readers’ Forum,
Box 175BQ
Bequia,
St. Vincent & the Grenadines
S C H I P - O - C A S E
Guadeloupe – F.W.I
Your Caribbean Marine Flea Market
New & Second-Hand Chandlery
Charts – Sails - Book Exchange etc…
Close to Marina Bas-du-Fort - Pointe à Pitre
Open 6 days a week except Sundays
Phone : + 590 (0) 590 831 775
E.mail : anke.beunis@wanadoo.fr
Contact : Anke
Dutch – English – French – German spoken