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Boaters' services slowly slipping away..
(Gould 0738) wrote in message ...
I have now heard a few reports from boaters in our region who say they are
finding
many mooring buoys just "gone" from state marine parks.
One boater found zero buoys at a park that previously had three.
He asked the park ranger about it, and was adamently informed that the park had
just as many mooring buoys now as ever. The boater asked the ranger to show him
where the buoys were, and the ranger then backed down to admit they were
"temporarily out of service."
Offical excuses seem to vary between "the crane on the buoy service boat is
broken" to "we can't get the permits needed to reanchor the buoys once we have
removed them for servicing or repair."
There aren't enough boaters to get anybody in government to give a serious rip
about maintaining infrastructure, dredging areas not frequented by commercial
vessels, etc. One version of the federal budget this year called for the
elimination of funding for dredging the ICW, (don't know whether that was the
version that finally passed), so it isn't just a regional issue.
Our sport and the boating industry depend on maintaining a certain
infrastructure.
This may not be the right economic environment to expect sweeping improvements,
but IMO we should all sing out when we notice the loss of existing
services.
I recently took a trip to Pensacola, FLA from LA. We go on this trip
every two years or so. It seems that there are a few more (and/or
better) marine services (fuel, ice, transient docks) and water
accessable resteraunts allong the Miss and West Ala. coast. Fl. had
plenty of service docks but not many transient. At least out of
several that I tried to contact in C. Youngs cruising guide, none had
transient slips availible. A lot of charter boat bussinesses have
taken over. I did find one at Perdio Pass. And the public pier at
Pensacola was great. (no overnight but anchoring off a few hundred
yards was ok). We did find all the other services was top notch, dock
hands there to help with everything from docking to bringing ice and
beer to the boat.
All in all, I see services getting better here along the Gulf Coast.
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