Cane Garden Bay Beach (Tortola)... WARNING!

"Warning" may be too strong a word ... but, it is "Disturbing Information"!

We have been both to The Baths and sailing in Tortola several times so we were planning to just take a taxi and spend the day at Cane Garden Bay Beach on our upcoming port stop there.

I was telling a business aquaintance whose family has a house in Tortola about our plans. She strongly suggested that we NOT GO THERE TO SWIM!

According to her .... While Cane Garden Bay Beach remains as beautiful as ever, locals NO LONGER SWIM THERE! This bay is a very popular spot for yachts and small sailboats (especially, the smaller ones with no holding tanks). What is washed upon the beach makes it a less than desirable place to swim! :eek: Actually, she used more graphic language! :D

ALSO .... HAL (Holland America) has cancelled its BEACH excursion to Cane Garden Bay. :confused:

Has anyone been there RECENTLY or have any additional information/comments on this situation? :confused:

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

No, but thanks for the warning! :eek: :eek: :D

so what is it thats washing up on shore?

The waste from those small ships

My business friend who gave me the WARNING on the original post sent me a web site from the BVI Planning Board on Water & Sewerage:

Tortola Water & Sewerage Report

It's rather long and boring BUT she "highlighted" the thing she most wanted me to read ...........

"... in problems w/reference to sewage disposal: ... Cane Garden Bay where it was found that the acceptable limits for fecal coliform bacteria were exceeded ...."

Don't like posting this :o ... BUT I'd also feel bad it I didn't ... especially, since there is proof to back up the statement ....

OCruisers :o

the report is dated back in 1992, some 12 years ago. is the situation worsen, or has it been improved?

mjforfunca .... My business friend FAXED this to me with a hand written note: "It continues to get worse each year! Go and enjoy! It's beautiful but don't get in the water!"

:o Honestly, I don't know! Can't see any reason why she, one of the many VP's of a well-known huge company whose family has had a 2nd home in Tortola for ages and someone I've known in business for a very long time , would feel so strongly that we should not SWIM there .... :confused:

HAL recently canceled their beach excursion to Cane Garden Bay Beach which could be for a totally different reason but .... :confused:

Gosh, HATE being the messenger .... OCruisers :o

Also ... Please see the note at the botton of the page of the Report: UPDATED, Thrusday, 7th Feb. 2002. That's 2 years, not 12!

Thanks for the additional info. Will be there in November, but defintely will not get in the water. Thanks again.

this is very sad...we chartered bare boats several times over the years and always loved Cane Garden Bay ! it was a wondeful oasis....amazing how people continue to pollute beautiful water ! Stanely's Bar was a great meeting place, I wonder if it is still there? We will be in Tortola in Dec on the Westerdam.....maybe we should just head to the Baths for great snorkeling and skip CGB

Oh how depressing. I'm going to Tortola next month and was planning on going to Cane Garden Bay. I'm very glad for this warning, though. Does anyone know if the other beaches in Tortola have the same problem? Can you swim at any of them? Yuck!

Does Brewer's Bay have a fecal coliform problem as well:confused: It looks like a nice alternative to Cane Garden Bay with fewer sailboats moored offshore.

http://www.b-v-i.com/ocean.htm#Brewer's%20Bay

Does anyone have other beaches you could recommend in Tortola other than Can Garden.

We require rest room and bars also good swimming.

Thanks

but I'm not so sure the info is current...

I've been to Tortola and Cane Garden Bay both as a land based tourist and a cruise ship passenger, although it's been a few years. I swam and snorkeled there with no issues. The only problem in 2000 was too many cruise ship passengers. Now I may have to plan a visit next year to find out for myself.

http://www.bvibeacon.com/020603/sewage020603.htm

"The government is indeed capable of fast action on a central sewerage system, as was the case in early 1997 when the water at local tourist mecca Cane Garden Bay -- then depending on septic tanks and soakaways -- was turning dark green. Conservation and Fisheries officials traced the cause of the discolouration to the presence of E. Coli bacteria, which is found primarily in human feces.

By the end of the year, government signed a contract with local firm Caribbean Basin Enterprises (CBE) to build a treatment plant. The plant cost about $1.7 million and, although it has had some problems, the bay's waters are clear blue again. East End's troubles have not elicited the same reaction. "

http://www.cep.unep.org/pubs/Techreports/tr43en/BVI.htm

"Sewage disposal in the British Virgin Islands has classically been by either direct dumping in the ocean or by the use of septic tanks and soak away or field beds. The direct discharge of raw sewage to the ocean is practiced in the BVI by residences and businesses along shorefronts and by yachts anchoring in the many harbours and bays. In these areas where swimming, snorkelling and scuba diving are tourist pastimes, direct discharge of raw sewage to the sea is not entirely appropriate. In the capital, Road Town, sewage is collected by gravity sewers and channelled to wells from where it is pumped into the ocean. Intermittent disinfection of the wells is carried out.

In many other areas, there have been ongoing complaints of flows of septic tank effluent across public thoroughfares and into neighbouring properties. In the BVI, there are few, if any, areas where simple land disposal of sewage would be practical, in part due to the shallow depth of topsoil throughout the islands. Recently the first public sewage treatment plant with capacity of treating 45,000 gallons per day has been commissioned to serve Cane Garden Bay in Tortola. This plant is a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with three parallel tanks. "

Hated starting this thread and don't feel very good about responding here. :(

As of an email yesterday, my friends in Tortola STILL don't think Cane Garden Bay is a safe place to SWIM! (Note: We really wanted to go there for the day.)

We will NOT do this :( ... BUT wish others would ask LOCALS if they swim there ... or, more importantly, do folks who go ACTUALLY see LOCALS swimming there?

Where on the island to locals swim and snorkle. We were hoping to just cab it over to a nice beach.

Has anyone actually gone to Cane Garden Bay in 2004 that can give us their own first hand impression?

Has anyone been to Cane Garden Bay recently? I noticed that many of the cruise tours go there. Do you recommend it?

Our family just returned from a stop on Tortola. The taxi drivers would only take us to Cane Garden Bay. They stated the story on the water being unsafe due to discharge was not correct. HAL no longer offers their Cane Garden Bay excursion.

It was only when we turned away to reboard the ship (they didn't need our money that bad?) since no one would take us to our destination of Brewer's Bay, that a driver agreed to take us.

My post regarding our wonderful afternoon at Brewer's Bay

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=2644214#post2644214

Anyone else have a recent experience with Cane Garden Bay?

"Warning" may be too strong a word ... but, it is "Disturbing Information"!

 

We have been both to The Baths and sailing in Tortola several times so we were planning to just take a taxi and spend the day at Cane Garden Bay Beach on our upcoming port stop there.

 

I was telling a business aquaintance whose family has a house in Tortola about our plans. She strongly suggested that we NOT GO THERE TO SWIM!

 

According to her .... While Cane Garden Bay Beach remains as beautiful as ever, locals NO LONGER SWIM THERE! This bay is a very popular spot for yachts and small sailboats (especially, the smaller ones with no holding tanks). What is washed upon the beach makes it a less than desirable place to swim! :eek: Actually, she used more graphic language! :D

 

ALSO .... HAL (Holland America) has cancelled its BEACH excursion to Cane Garden Bay. :confused:

 

Has anyone been there RECENTLY or have any additional information/comments on this situation? :confused:

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

Any recent experience with Cane Garden Bay?

It's no big deal, just pick the paper off when you get out of the water.

It's no big deal, just pick the paper off when you get out of the water.

Are you kidding or serious?

Has anyone actually gone to Cane Garden Bay in 2004 that can give us their own first hand impression?

I went to cane garden bay when on a cruise with ocean village, the place is gorgeous and I went in the water which was perfectly clear! I had no problems at all, I would recommend it for visiting! :)

Oh No.....We have pre-booked an excursion on Tortola which ends up at Cane Garden Bay for 1 1/2 hours on the beach. Now I'm concerned too. Just because the waters look clear and clean, does not mean that it isn't polluted with bacteria. Do they test the water for bacteria levels?

On our January port stop I honestly tried to ask as many locals as possible (crew on catamaran and a couple of bar tenders at Pussers) if Cane Garden Bay Beach was a safe place to swim and if they would swim there. No one would say anything negative BUT nothing positive either ... like "better to sail in the open water" ... "so many other islands nearby for the beach" ... AND MAYBE THE MOST HONEST ... " ... anytime there are so many small sailboats in ANY bay there can be problems ...."

Who knows? We've all probably been swimming worse places! :rolleyes:

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)