We love to anchor out!

As a cruising boater it is embarrassing to me to see the many derelict boats in Florida.  We have seen many...power boats and sailboats, sunken sail boats where we only see a mast sticking out of the water, power boats without obvious propulsion, boats that have obviously not been maintained for months with severe bottom growth and velcro lines, boats listing and ready to sink, boats growing vegetation above the waterline, boats that have turned in the tide so many times that Alexander the Great could not undue the knotted lines attached to their anchor!  I have many pictures having navigated almost the entire Florida coastline.

 

This may well be the root cause of the real concern for many Florida communities and restricting the anchoring rights of cruising boaters would be an unintended consequence.  The legislature of Florida really needs to focus their efforts on dealing with derelict boats and not impair the rights of many boaters who simply need a place to anchor for a day or three as they travel the Public Trust Waterways of the State of Florida or have need of a safe anchorage before continuing a trip to the Bahamas from points in SE Florida.

Existing laws should be used or modified to strongly address the derelict boat issue.  Enforcement to address the derelict issue is needed, not new laws that will restrict the rights of cruising boaters to use the Public Trust Waterways as the have since the first use of boats!

Please note that the FWC study specifically included a reference excluding live aboard vessels......"explore potential options for regulating the anchoring or mooring of vessels (other than live-aboard vessels) outside the marked boundaries of public mooring fields."  Is that being taken into account?  Are we unintentionally going restrict the many cruising boaters who travel the waters of our state when the issue is the derelict boats?