Dec. 17, 2008 — A developing logistical crisis in Cruz Bay appears to have been averted Wednesday when the U.S. Coast Guard agreed that Inter-Island Boat Services and large tour boats can continue to use the Creek until the V.I. Port Authority makes it a secure facility.
Those boats have used the Creek facility in Cruz Bay for many years. Inter-Island has a trailer on the Creek bulkhead it uses as an office and place to sell ferry tickets.
"We will work with you as long as there are reasonable measures," said Coast Guard Capt. Ed Pino of the San Juan office, during a meeting at the Legislature building. "The key word is 'reasonable.'"
What counts as reasonable has to be worked out.
The Port Authority should have the security infrastructure in place "within the next couple of months," said VIPA Director Kenn Hobson.
The Creek, a shallow corner of Cruz Bay, is ringed almost entirely by a bulkhead. V.I. National Park and its dock occupy one corner. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has another, and the center portion is used by Inter-Island, the tour boats and other commercial vessels. Dinghies also tie up in a section near the park dock.
About 75 people, most with some interest in what happens at the Creek, attended the meeting Wednesday. It was organized by Delegate Donna M. Christensen's office after she received complaints about the unfolding Creek problem.
Last week, the Coast Guard told Inter-Island that it would have to use the Cruz Bay ferry dock because the Creek was not secure. Inter-Island runs trips from St. John to Tortola and, when it has enough passengers, to Virgin Gorda. The Cruz Bay ferry dock has a gate across it that slides open just before passengers board and when a ferry arrives. The Creek has no gate.
For weeks Inter-Island was forced to use the Cruz Bay ferry dock, according to Sara Puterbaugh of Inter-Island. Passengers bought their tickets at the Creek office, then had to walk several blocks to the Cruz Bay ferry dock to board the boat.
"It's not a safe and secure thing to do," Puterbaugh said.
And it crowded the already-busy Cruz Bay ferry dock.
Tour boats with more than 150 passengers also have to use a secure facility, even if they don't go "foreign." If they had to use the Cruz Bay ferry dock, the safari buses that pick the passengers up for tours would have to vie for parking space with taxi drivers picking up ferry passengers. This would add to the normal traffic congestion that happens when ferries arrive.
Park Superintendent Mark Hardgrove said his organization will do its part to help make the Creek secure.
"We're trying to bring our port into compliance," he said.
Marcelino Borges, director of field operations for Customs, said he worried that something like the recent terrorism incident in Mumbai, India, could happen on St. John. One person who attended the meeting pointed out that there is no security on the barges that travel between St. Thomas and St. John. He suggested that anyone could blow up the barge by bringing a cooler filled with dynamite on the barge. Additionally, there is no package screening on the ferries.
"Common sense has left," he said.
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