New Miami (Dinner Key) Mooring Field

[Blue Crab]

Sure thing: If you're pooping and/or peeing on your vessel used only as a domicile, you need to have your holding thingy pumped out every 3 days or you are outa here!

[Crazy4Cruising]

Granted these posts are two years old. But it pains me to read this lack of information. Here is an updated account of what is going on at Dinner Key Marina/Mooring Field.

First off, The City of Miami got funds to build the mooring field and had to act quick. IMO they put out way too many balls, and yes they should have accounted for bigger boats. 60 foot is the max in Marathon and it works. Again the planning stages were VERY rushed.

That being said, they have learned a lot about how to accommodate the kind of crowd they are attracting in this area. Miami is a very popular stop off for cruisers provisioning before heading out to the Bahamas and ports further south.

Coconut Grove is a great stop for provisioning as Miami's public transportation is out of this world. We used to dock at Bayside's City Marina, but after we found Dinner Key we have never gone back.

My family kind of got "stuck" here as cruiser's do when we had to put in a new engine. At first our ball assignment was in the 180 zone which was really far out there! In the Winter months it can get pretty choppy out there. We asked to move in and were allowed to move in to a much closer spot. We are 36' with a 6' draft. After we swung around for a while we cleared a nice little patch of deep water under our keel, bottom is soft; no big deal.

We ended up living there for almost one year. I have seen just about every kind of weather pass through here. I have seen employees come and go and I have seen the staff learn and adjust to the needs of their customers.This marina went from having it packed full of weekenders to having people in their office everyday asking for questions like where can I get Internet, Fuel, Propane, Groceries etc. They were sooo not ready for us! Ha ha ha

When we first got there they had the crappiest dinghy dock, and I was always complaining to the Staff (but the still love me) about the dinghies that were locked to the dock who never even bothered to show up once a month let alone once a week to bail their dinghy. My family and I had to fight with these dinks with short painters every single day! It was very aggravating. But sure enough they made the switch to the boat ramp side, where the dock is much larger. The Mooring Field Offices are separate from the Marina side, which annoyed me at first but we rolled with the punches and it really does work out best for all involved. The more people come to the Grove and find this awesome Mooring field the better the services will become!

I recently had an article published by The Salty Southeast Cruiser's Net about our beloved home. To put it mildy, I think mooring fields are great. I'd much rather have the safety and security of a mooring. I'm happy to receive pump outs, mail service and shuttle service for the LOW cost of $300 a month. Do you know where I live??? Coconut Grove is THE best place in Miami to visit, work, play and provision before heading out to other ports. If you don't want to leave your welcome to stay.Hope to see ya around

[timbenner]

The St. Augustine mooring field has been over 80% VACANT every time I've passed through or by it. It is obviously overpriced, if it remains that VACANT. I think that the occupancy of a mooring field should enter into these regulations, to keep the incentive of the municipality in check.

The idea of a mooring field is great, I prefer them, but to overprice the mooring field to the point that it remains VACANT and band anchoring anywhere near the mooring field, is the same as banning the boater.

The concept of banning anchoring around a mooring field, is to keep anchored boats from dragging anchor into moored boats. If there are NO boats on mooring, because it's overpriced, then why worry about boats that drag anchor?

If a mooring field is over 50% vacant, there should be no restriction on anchoring around vacant moorings.

This would force the in-ept City Council to delegate mooring ball pricing and management to the dock master, with the incentive to keep the mooring field over 50% occupied. Which would allow "Mother Economics" to price the mooring appropriately and insure it's use. Rather than just running everyone off with over priced moorings and NO Anchoring rules.