I dont have any first hand experience to offer as a sailor, and certainly none from Florida, but based on what has been posted here over the years there is not likely any other state in our Union which sees as much transient boat traffic as Florida.
And its just as easy to read, as well as assume, that some percentage of that traffic includes some rather undesirable people that most of us, regardless of where we live, wouldnt care to share any of our space with.
I can imagine that local shore police see a lot of crap that doesnt get enough press, people aboard ugly boats living like pigs, dumping raw sewage, poaching fish, invading protected waters, harassing indigenous wildlife as well as other people, and simply being crude and vulgar, you name it. And y'all know this is true. And being true, when the more decent among us come sailing through, we likely have some angry eyes on us. You can just hear them saying "oh, here comes another one". And we can equally imagine that some of us, upon being confronted by a local police officer, cop an attitude. Why wouldnt the newer and pretty 40 footer get the nod over some old 30 foot antique, when its the cheap old boats the trash generally live on?
We took a scenic flight around Key West in 2006, "Dans High Sky something or other", his slogan was "get high in the keys". One of the more remarkable things we saw were long linear scars along the coral sea bottom from sailboats that were pushed from hurricane winds, and just dozens and dozens of abandoned sailboat wrecks. Some of those scars ran for a mile or more, some for several miles. And there were hundreds and hundreds of those scars.
Like any community that has some event that brings tourists, there will always be some negative effect. Around here we have "Bikes Blues and BBQ", which last October brought over 800,000 Harleys to Fayetteville and the surrounding area for a weekend of cruising and fun. But its only a weekend. I can tell you, I like the sound of a Harley, even the rather load ones. But after three days of constant Harleys passing our place 24 hours around the clock, I am ready for them to go home.
Florida has boaters coming from as far away as Canada and the Great lakes, the entire eastern seaboard, the entire Mississippi water shed, the western gulf all the way to south Texas, and miles in between plus Europe and points south, and they don't just show up for a weekend, they stay for months. If Florida residents are getting tired of some "us", it's on us to make sure we dont add to their problems. Lets make sure we don't act like angry Pirates and do all we can to discourage any among us who are. Florida is a beautiful state, but it wont stay that way on its own unless we all work together to help Florida out.
And its just as easy to read, as well as assume, that some percentage of that traffic includes some rather undesirable people that most of us, regardless of where we live, wouldnt care to share any of our space with.
I can imagine that local shore police see a lot of crap that doesnt get enough press, people aboard ugly boats living like pigs, dumping raw sewage, poaching fish, invading protected waters, harassing indigenous wildlife as well as other people, and simply being crude and vulgar, you name it. And y'all know this is true. And being true, when the more decent among us come sailing through, we likely have some angry eyes on us. You can just hear them saying "oh, here comes another one". And we can equally imagine that some of us, upon being confronted by a local police officer, cop an attitude. Why wouldnt the newer and pretty 40 footer get the nod over some old 30 foot antique, when its the cheap old boats the trash generally live on?
We took a scenic flight around Key West in 2006, "Dans High Sky something or other", his slogan was "get high in the keys". One of the more remarkable things we saw were long linear scars along the coral sea bottom from sailboats that were pushed from hurricane winds, and just dozens and dozens of abandoned sailboat wrecks. Some of those scars ran for a mile or more, some for several miles. And there were hundreds and hundreds of those scars.
Like any community that has some event that brings tourists, there will always be some negative effect. Around here we have "Bikes Blues and BBQ", which last October brought over 800,000 Harleys to Fayetteville and the surrounding area for a weekend of cruising and fun. But its only a weekend. I can tell you, I like the sound of a Harley, even the rather load ones. But after three days of constant Harleys passing our place 24 hours around the clock, I am ready for them to go home.
Florida has boaters coming from as far away as Canada and the Great lakes, the entire eastern seaboard, the entire Mississippi water shed, the western gulf all the way to south Texas, and miles in between plus Europe and points south, and they don't just show up for a weekend, they stay for months. If Florida residents are getting tired of some "us", it's on us to make sure we dont add to their problems. Lets make sure we don't act like angry Pirates and do all we can to discourage any among us who are. Florida is a beautiful state, but it wont stay that way on its own unless we all work together to help Florida out.
