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LETTERS Continued from page 9ages, two or three ”LTA” boats make itrough for cruisers to find space toanchor for a night. The derelicts, floatingor partially sunken, are as unsightlyto me as they are to local homeowners.This is a real problem to be dealt with.If the shortage of affordable slipshas not caused this problem, it has significantlyadded to the problem. Itshould be noted, that given the situation,mooring fields are not all bad.Three years ago when we visited FortMyers Beach, the anchorage wascrowded. Most of the boats wereLTAs. Several were liveaboards. Therewere 15 to 20 derelicts out of 90 boats.The short-term cruisers numbered nomore than 12.We visited Fort Myers Beachagain in April and found a townmooring field. The cost was a nominal$10.60 per night including pump-outand showers. The derelicts were gone.The liveaboards and LTA boats werenot a problem in any way. It was animproved situation.The above is what is happening.Now the why.Several changes have graduallyoccurred over the years, yet thesechanges may have just two or threecommon causes. I can identify at leastthree causes. The “Save the ManateeClub” has to take their share of theblame. The several-year moratorium onthe building of slips and marinassparked the initial shortage of—and thespike in—the cost of slips. The presenthostile environment to slip-buildingcontinues to exacerbate the problem.However, I fear a greater forcethan the “Manatee Club” may havetaken over. This is the retiring babyboomers. The baby boomers are retiringen masse and seem to have moremoney than former retirees. The resulthas been an explosion in building—inparticular, condo-building. We wereanchored in Sarasota Bay recently. Wecounted at least seven tall cranesworking on high-rise condos. Thefavorite place for these condos? Onthe waterfront. A big plus: building onthe site of a bought-out marina. Thecondo owner can rent or buy a slip athis door for his boat.You can’t blame the marina owners.They sometimes struggle to makea decent living at marina operations.The temptation when offered multimillionsof dollars is too much toresist. I know of at least four marinason the west coast of Florida that succumbedto this in the last year; nodoubt there are more.As a reference to the demand forcondos: Recently, a condo under constructionin Fort Myers had a preconstructionsale. The sale was to last forfour hours. People were lined upbefore the sale started. All units up forsale were gone in two hours. The unitswere all over one million each.How does the boater of moderatemeans fight back? How can we moderateif not reverse the trend?It goes without saying that weneed to get organized. We as recreationalboaters want to go boating to relax.Organizing anything more than a dockparty goes against the very reason wego to sea. Yet without some organizing,we will see our beautiful life on thewater become only a memory.Starting a grass roots organizingeffort would take a great deal of timeand effort. Is there an existing organi-See LETTERS continued on page 1512 January 2006 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindsmagazine.com