West Bay Dock Dead

by Alan Markoff

Friday, May 21, 2004

The plan for a cruise tender dock at the entrance of Northwest Point Road in West Bay has been abandoned, however the Leader of Government Business, Hon McKeeva Bush, said that project would still proceed, possibly near the Turtle Farm.

Mr Bush said that the first proposed site was being withdrawn because the Government has been unable to acquire the necessary land for the project. While the Government had some land with which to build the facility where it was originally planned, it needed to acquire more in order to meet the requirements of the project.

In an inclusive interview with Cayman Net News on Monday, Mr Bush indicated that he would make a determination on whether to proceed on the project at its proposed site this week, and then needed only one day to make a final decision.

“Some people said that they didn’t want to sell their land,” said Mr Bush in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “I respect that, and I did not feel I should make it compulsory for them to sell.”

The Leader of Government Business said that new sites for the dock would be considered, but that they would not include locations at Barkers or on the North Sound.

One site that Mr Bush confirmed would be looked at is close to the Turtle Farm. In March, Cayman Net News reported that rumours had been circulating in West Bay that the Turtle Farm was being considered as an alternate location for the dock, something a government spokesperson denied at the time.

However, several West Bay residents seemed to think at the time that a Turtle Farm area location for the dock made more sense, citing the depth of the water there, and the tourist attractions planned for the area, such as the Turtle Farm expansion, the swim-with-dolphins facility, and the antique car museum.

Working against the dock location there are the strong currents at Northwest Point and the potential damage of the seasonal nor’wester storms. One construction industry expert also said that the cost of building the marine portion of the facility near the Turtle Farm would be much higher because the dock would have to be built in much deeper water.

A potential benefit of the deeper water would be that the facility could be built to allow cruise ships to actually dock alongside the pier, something sources indicate the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) prefers, partially because it reduces the possibility of injury to cruise passengers getting on and off cruise tenders.

If the original West Bay site for the cruise facility would have been used, it was planned for high-speed tenders to take the passengers to and from the new dock.

A local insurance industry professional confirmed that a docking facility for cruise ships would be much more preferable from an insurance cost standpoint. “Liability insurance is almost impossible to get for cruise tenders throughout the Caribbean,” he said.

The FCCA is repaying the Port Authority loan to finance both the Royal Watler Cruise Terminal facility in George Town and the West Bay Cruise Terminal by remitting US$1 per cruise passenger toward the loan for the next fifteen years. Construction on the marine portion of the George Town facility started in late March.

More than two million cruise ship passengers are expect to visit the Cayman Islands in 2004, after a record 1.8 million visited in 2003. “The cruise industry is here to stay,” said Mr Bush, “We have work with it.”

Mr Bush has indicated that one of the reasons that he has advocated a second cruise terminal in West Bay is to help alleviate the overcrowding of George Town when there are many ships calling on Grand Cayman the same day.

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