The Hillsborough Sailing Club has an informative website. Among
the many treasures there, is a copy of the
current (new) anchoring
regulations as passed in 2005. That statute eliminated almost all
local ordinances regarding anchoring of boats in
Florida waters.
According to the law, a yachtsman is not considered as operating a "liveaboard" vessel as long as he does not claim it as his residence and/or use it as his place of business.
What this means in practice is one should never give his lat-long where
anchored, or his vessel name as his residence / business location. He
should always give a landside address for these.
If you are not a "liveaboard" vessel, and you do not
anchor in
mooring
fields maintained by state or local governments, you are considered as
a "navigating" vessel and permitted to anchor as and where necessary.
You are expected to observe the no discharge
regulations regarding
garbage, dunnage, and sewage, of course.
We stayed at Lake Sylvia in Ft. Lauderdale for part of a week, and everyone was most helpful. We left the dink tied to a
remote corner of
the finger pier on the east side of the boat launching
ramp just north
of 17th street causeway, and just west of the
marine police docks.
From there it was a half mile walk to
shopping, including Winn-Dixie and Publix for groceries, RadioShack for a replacement
cell phone, officeMax for
electronics and supplies, and a UPS store where we mailed a package.
We stayed at Lake Boca Raton for nearly two weeks. Just south of the
Palmetto Blvd bridge, the city has a park with a boat launching
ramp.
dock for loading/unloading,
water for
washing down the boat and watering ship, and sinks for cleaning fish. It has toilets and is just a half
mile from downtown.
We are now in Lake Fort Worth, about 100 meters south of the spoil bank at the north end. There are quite a few cruising boats anchored here, and it appears there is a yacht club on the east side of the Lake.
From earlier visits, there is a
dinghy dock near the Flagler Bridge, too.
Of course, living at anchor is not always as convenient as lying in a slip,
where one may simply walk on and off the boat, but for those of us
on micro-budgets it is possible, once one gets organized.
Bicycles, particularly the folding kind, as our schwinn Montagues are,
fit in the dink and
permit one to undertake excursions to quite
remote locations, as I had to do last week.
An important letter was sent to us "General
Delivery, Boca Raton" and
was sent to the Post Office on Banyan Avenue, just east of Military Trail. This location is about 4 miles west of the
ICW, and pedaling in top
gear, I took 30 minutes each way to cover the distance. Without the bike, the hike would have taken most of the day.
Tomorrow we are off to Ft. Pierce Inlet, there we will anchor just east
of the Coast Guard Station and just north of the Yacht Club. This club
is reportedly quite friendly, though we won't go ashore as we are pressing on.
Finding
anchorages becomes second nature with years of
experience, but can be made easier through the judicious
purchase of
cruising guides covering the areas of interest.
Of course, once outside the US, anchoring becomes the norm.
Warmly,
INDY
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