sailing to canada from usa

[calamitas]

Now that the boat is docked in Northern Ohio on Lake Erie, I am considering sailing up to Pelee Island, Ontario. My boat has a Porta-Pottee. I read somewhere that Canadian regulations require that Porta-Pottees have to be permanently mounted to the boat with a deck-mounted pump-out. Is this true? If so, are they serious? Do they think I am going to discharge American sewage into Canadian waters without paying duty or something? Do I have to re-fit the head just to make it possible for me to cross a dotted line on a map?

[CapnHand]

You have to be able to keep your **** together before you come up here.

From the Canada Shipping Act

Fitting of Toilets

120. A toilet fitted on a ship shall be secured in a manner that ensures its safe operation in any environmental conditions liable to be encountered.

Holding Tanks

121. A holding tank shall
(a) be constructed in a manner such that it does not compromise the integrity of the hull;
(b) be constructed of structurally sound material that prevents the tank contents from leaking;
(c) be constructed such that the potable water system or other systems cannot become contaminated;
(d) be resistant to corrosion by sewage;
(e) have an adequate volume for the ship's human-rated capacity on a normal voyage;
(f) be provided with a discharge connection and piping system for the removal of the tank contents at a sewage reception facility;

[Sailormann]

Now that the boat is docked in Northern Ohio on Lake Erie, I am considering sailing up to Pelee Island, Ontario. My boat has a Porta-Pottee. I read somewhere that Canadian regulations require that Porta-Pottees have to be permanently mounted to the boat with a deck-mounted pump-out. Is this true?

yes - it may even be the case in the US as I thought it was a Great Lakes Regulation rather than specific to Canada, but I have not investigated it...

If so, are they serious?

yes

Do they think I am going to discharge American sewage into Canadian waters

yes

without paying duty or something?

we don't want it no matter how much you pay us

Do have to re-fit the head just to make it possible for me to cross a dotted line on a map?

yes - but you are indeed in luck ! For the paltry sum of 50 American dollars you may purchase an unused, Great Lakes legal, MSD currently residing in my garage. Unfortunately, you'll have to pick it up here in Toronto, but that's a nice sail at this time of year

Also note that you are not allowed to consume alcohol on your boat, even while tied up to a dock, unless it is equipped with a head and a permanently affixed cooking device. My advice to you would be to avoid flying a US burgee... It seems to be as much of a target up here as a Canadian one is down there....

[Kernix]

Originally Posted by Sailormann

Also note that you are not allowed to consume alcohol on your boat, even while tied up to a dock, unless it is equipped with a head and a permanently affixed cooking device.(

Thank stinks - what do they think you are going to pee in a bottle and empty it overboard? That would be my plan. And why when at a dock is there are bathroom facilities?

And why with a cooking device? So that you can cook a poo-poo platter for dinner?

[Valiente]

On the Great Lakes, I believe there is harmonization on discharge rules, so if you can't do it in Ohio, don't do it in Ontario. Lake Erie itself doesn't recognize a border, but the prevailing winds and currents send the poop over the Falls eventually...and into my lake.

That said, I know nobody who doesn't take "the captain's privilege" off the stern rail. Why, exposing one's block and tackle to a freshening breeze is one of the better parts of boating, and if you're like me, foreign-flagged vessels tend to dip their ensigns...

[Yado]

Sailing to Canada from USA:
I met a round-the-world sailor in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, who was furious with a Canadian law regarding firearms. Pirates in South America boarded his boat, he was beaten and robbed and his wife was raped. She went back to England and he purchased a pistol for protection and sailed on with a mate.
His goal was to sail through the Great Lakes then down to the Gulf of Mexico; he declared the pistol at Yarmouth and the authorities put it under lock and key. The dilemma was this: He could only recover the pistol if he departed from Yarmouth, they wouldn't send it to his port of exit from Canada or to the States. Nope, if he wanted his pistol he had to go back through Yarmouth. He was so frustrated. I don't know anything else about the law but this was his story as he told it to me.

[sailortjk1]

Moral of the story: Don't take your crap or your gun to Canada.
It will get you into a **** of trouble and your wife will be raped.

[tommyt]

Hey, Toronto sends their garbage to Michigan, and we accept it. Clean country. Living and sailing on the Great Lakes I have no problem with the discharge law. I do think Michigan should get its **** together ( pun intended) and let Canada take care of its own waste. However, if I was them I would send it as long as we will take it.

As to the gun laws, they do make a difference. I moved from Chicago where there were more than two murders a DAY, and remember picking up the paper in April the year that I departed Toronto and they had just had its first murder of the YEAR. You follow the laws of the country you visit. So who is right?Math is easy.

[Yado]

Since I posted about the guy with the gun issue, I went and sailed for several hours on the Chesapeake Bay and man was it beautiful. The skies were grey but I had a good breeze between 11-15, the tide extra high because of the new moon and there was no motor boat chop to deal with.
The gun laws: You guys missed the point, which was, to make Sailnet readers aware of the how Canadian authorities dealt with just one sailor who carried a weapon into Canadian waters, and the problems he faced.

[USCGRET1990]

I don't think past convicted felons are welcomed up thar either.