"Frogwatch" wrote in message
...
I think the reason many people do not cruise is because it takes so
dang long they run outa time. They need to leave their boats
somewhere for a month till they can get back to sail on further. This
is very difficult because almost all marinas are geared toward long
term slip agreements.
What I envision is a series of mooring buoys spaced roughly 50 miles
apart on the Gulf coast to be used for no more than a month. Marina
operators may not like this but they mostly have enough business
anyway. These might have to be on state property (most bottoms are
state property). Fees would be by the night, by the week or by one
month max. payable at a drop box ashore or by CC online. The operator
of the system would pay fees to the state and community. Any boat
that exceeded the 1 month limit would be towed by commercial service
to a local marina.
Cruisers who would use such buoys, do not mind spending money at local
restaurants and stores so it would help local businesses.
Thoughts?

I do not like this sort of scheme for several reasons.
Firstly, if the anchorages are small snug spots in amongst the rocks as they
are around Oslofjord where I sail they will plonk their buoys right in the
best anchoring spots in the dead centre and leave anyone who wants to anchor
to find sufficient swinging room on the periphery. In other words the best
anchoring spots are forever given over to the sort of people who always want
to tie up somewhere rather than anchor.
This raises the second point which is that nice quiet spots which are
normally known to 'proper' cruising people who know how to anchor and like
to do so will be filled with the other sort of people who arrive in a huge
powerboat , tie up to a buoy and proceed to create just the sort of mayhem
that the rest of us go there to avoid. Loud music, kids zooming round in
outboard dinghies, noisy little generators running to keep their ice cubes
from melting. etc. etc.
I say let the blighters find a marina and use the guest berths and leave the
unspoiled places for the rest of us.