News & Views for Southern Sailors - Southwinds Magazine

FROM THE HELMSTEVE MORRELL, EDITORPark Your Dinghy FeesBoot Key Harbor—one of the most popular anchorages inthe country in one of the most beautiful areas of the world,the Florida Keys. Cruise on in, anchor your boat anddinghy ashore. There is a convenient dock there and youcan use it—for $22 a day. No—that is not a misprint. That’sthe fee. Or at least that is the proposed new fee in Boot KeyHarbor. See this month and last month’s “Our Waterways”sections for more information (back issues always availableat www.southwindsmagazine.com) on these new feesand other changes at Boot Key Harbor.There are 246 moorings in the harbor and—during theseason—approximately 150 boats anchored. Dinghy feesare for the anchored boats. You do get a break if you staya month. Then you pay $225. What a break! This is anopportunity for the city that cannot be passed up. The citycould really start making money. To be fair, the city couldstart charging people $22 to park their cars in Marathon.Profits could be enormous. So great, they could probablylower property taxes for residents. For example, charge$22 for tourists who go to Sombrero Beach by car and parkit there—or to park it near any one of the other Marathoncommunity parks. Or for parking anywhere when touristswant to walk around beautiful downtown Marathon.Oops—sorry. I forgot Marathon doesn’t really have adowntown. Marathon’s “downtown” is mainly a highwaywith stores on each side. It’s a great example of urbansprawl. If you really want to see some beauty, go to BootKey Harbor. It’s a beautiful tropical setting with bluegreenKeys water, palm trees and a few hundred boats,mainly sail. People love to look at the harbor. Theyhaven’t paved it over yet or lined it with stores. Peopleuse their dinghies to come ashore. No paving needed.Paving costs money, although they do charge people whoare anchored out there if they want to bring their dinghyashore. It’s only $22. But if you drive into town and go tothe beach, or just come over and park at Boot Key Harborto walk around and look at the beautiful boats, you canpark for free.I know I am getting sarcastic here, but Boot KeyHarbor is a great resource for sarcasm. It was just a fewyears ago, they use to raid boats at night with search lightsand blaring police megaphones—to make sure boatersweren’t a danger to themselves or others, but the police gotover that, somewhat (I hope), and Boot Key Harbor grewto be a peaceful place. Now, they are back at it, creating allsorts of new material for commentary. Jon Stewart wouldhave a field day with this place.What’s amazing is that it’s free to park your car inMarathon, but they charge $22 to park your dinghy—andthe city doesn’t even have to pave the way for the dinghyto come ashore. After all, the car is king.Plastic Boats in Miami BeachThere’s more. Fast-forward to Sunset Lake, a popularcruisers’ anchorage in Miami Beach. Cruisers have beenanchoring here for decades—long before the area waslined with waterfront homes—all of which are worth millionstoday. In “Our Waterways” section we have a guesteditorial from Wally Moran, who’s been cruising aroundSouthern waters for some time and regularly returns toSunset Lake as a favored anchorage. Although I’ve heardrumors about this for months, Wally has really sent us agood report on the situation, along with a photo. It turnsout some guy who owns a waterfront home has boughtabout 15 small boats (many of which are obviously plastic,meaning rotomolded and inexpensive) and anchored themoff his property so others can’t anchor there—others meaninglarger boats like cruising sailboats. Seriously. See thephoto on page 28.This is what the world has come to: A waterfronthomeowner thinks he has rights to the water in his backyardthat he looks at, even though it doesn’t say so on thetitle to his property. He just thinks he has those rightsbecause he spent a lot of money on that home, and consequently,he thinks he deserves it—and he pays lots of taxes,and in the United States, even though you only get onevote per person, you get lots of power if you pay moretaxes. Personally, I think cruisers should just go anchoramong these boats. If they swing around, there’s not muchthey can do to anything. They’re plastic. Just keep yourcameras ready for their owner when he sees you. After all,boaters have been anchoring there long before any of thatproperty was built upon—and maritime law is on the sideof the boaters.This all would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. JonStewart would love this guy, too.Articles Wanted —“I Learned About Sailing from That”We are seeking articles about sailing experiences peoplehave had over the years. Articles wanted: a lesson learned,a great experience, a funny experience—or whatever. Sendthem to editor@southwindsmagazine.com. We want tokeep them around 700-1000 words, but a little longer isokay. Contact me with questions.Cover Photos WantedWe are always looking for cover photos, so all you photographersout there, please send them to us. We get lotsof racing photos, but not so many non-racing ones. Theonly requirement is that it have a sailboat in it—or showpart of the boat to show that the photo was taken from asailboat. It can be anchored, sailing, motoring, at dock—orwhatever else is possible. Composition is what matters; itjust must be a nice photo to look at. It needs lots of pixels;the horizon must be reasonably level; it must be focused,and it must be a vertical photo. For pixels, we need at least1700 pixels wide and 2200 pixels tall, so set your camera tothe highest level of quality/resolution Contacteditor@southwindsmagazine.com for questions. And westill seek racing covers.8 May 2012 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindsmagazine.com