Friendliest marinas in Florida?

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

Nancie and I were anchored off Gulfport about eigth or ten years ago and I took an active roll in supporting the rights of anchoring off the Casino docks there by speaking at a city council meeting. I was supporting the need that, if they were to install a mooring field, as planned at that time, they would need to provide such amentities as pump-out, bath house, laundry and fresh water in order for a mooring field to work well. I mentioned that we were currently anchored off the Casino and it was made clear to me that transient cruisers with boats like ours were not their concern. It became clear to me that their concern and the motivation for their action was the dismasted derelict of a large Piver Trimarran that was long term anchored next to me. The simple cure for their distress would have been to have authorities inforce the holding tank an pump out laws, but their approach and the reaction of many is to approach the problem by trying to implement anchoring restrictions. It's not ethical or simple in our nation of individual rights to write laws that discriminate against poor or ugly, but the wreck off Gulfport was not in compliance with the Clean Water Act of 1972,- it could have been so much easier! I also noticed that the town of Gulfport did not recognize the general function of the docks at the Casino for boaters. As a support for ecological concerns they did not allow clusters of sharp oyster shells to be removed from the edges of the docks that would pierce inflatable dinghies and they would not allow the removal these same sharp oysters from the rungs of the ladders provided for people to climb up from low tide to the high docks. I was hopeful things would work out in Gulfport, but there were some policies that were difficult for me to understand and I have not been back.

I can't really blame you. The City Council has now decided to allow live-aboards in the municipal marina, and they're going to put in the needed facilities and upgrade others, but I fear there will be people on the City Council for some time to come with nothing better to do than try to micro-manage something they know absolutely nothing about.

Maybe it's just the nature of a small town. They don't have big issues like larger cities do, so they invent problems to solve.

[OnTour]

Originally Posted by Robin3

Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach is very friendly with plenty of liveaBOARDs. We lived aboard for a year unmoving ashore after I had a stroke, we now have a different boat , gone back to sail from our liveaboard mobo, but the ne boat is also now in Halifax. the marina is very sheltered with floating docks our insurers like it and and we pay no premium for named storms in hurricane season albeit the deductible goes up. Only slight drawback is depths in the ICW are a bit thin if you have deep draught, we are 5ft 5 inches and OK, neighbours have 6.5ft and have to be more careful. POnce iNlet is a little over an hour away south and they have been dredging around there in recent weeks . Our land home overlooks the icw and boats frequently sail past in both directions often just under a headsail, but not if they have to tack upwind as the channel is not that wide.... WE pay $10/ft/month on an annual basis plus extra for electrics ( fixed charge per cord ( 30 or 50amp) per month SEe herehttp://www.halifaxharbormarina.com/

I vote for Halifax Harbor also. Great marina ...safe, friendly staff, and close to shopping.