The last surviving ferry that serves the Dry Tortugas National Park looked as bright as day in the dock lights at Key West Bight.
There is only one ferry service, in addition to seaplanes, these days because the Park Service wanted to reduce the stress on Fort Jefferson isolated as it is seventy miles west of Key West. The ferry service website: http://www.yankeefreedom.com/
For those who think living aboard your boat is the ultimate expression of freedom etc...etc.. you might be interested to know you literally have to deal with your own shit and because these are marine sanctuary waters dumping overboard into God's Own tides is no longer approved. So one can either order the city pump out for scheduled visits or one can tie up at the dock and handle the hose oneself. Which, having done it myself for years I can tell you is a chore comparable to mowing the lawn with the added chance of covering oneself in shit. But you didn't come here to ponder these urgent matters so I should bring in some pretty pictures:
Turtle Kraals looking good at dusk, and I'll venture a guess these good people are not sparing a single thought to ponder Key West's plumbing.
The county is apparently about to start to turn the screws on people who live in inshore waters on their own anchors. This rather gray area of boating has long been a Federal preserve which meant it was ignored. Now local agencies have the go ahead to deal with boats at anchor in their waters and rules and regulations are on the horizon, en masse. Change is good remember?
People who live at anchor come to town in their dinghies which they tie up at the city provided dock in front of Turtle Kraals for a small daily fee. This way of life will no doubt persist but too many people abandon their boats or end up trashing them and leaving them as expensive detritus along our shores and the county is fed up with paying to remove them- to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and they barely make a dent in the abandoned vessel lists. So the lifestyle will have to change somewhat.
So the usual response to human carelessness is coming- more regulation. And liveaboards, among whom I used to count myself, will as the trite platitude has it, have only themselves to blame.
There is only one ferry service, in addition to seaplanes, these days because the Park Service wanted to reduce the stress on Fort Jefferson isolated as it is seventy miles west of Key West. The ferry service website: http://www.yankeefreedom.com/For those who think living aboard your boat is the ultimate expression of freedom etc...etc.. you might be interested to know you literally have to deal with your own shit and because these are marine sanctuary waters dumping overboard into God's Own tides is no longer approved. So one can either order the city pump out for scheduled visits or one can tie up at the dock and handle the hose oneself. Which, having done it myself for years I can tell you is a chore comparable to mowing the lawn with the added chance of covering oneself in shit. But you didn't come here to ponder these urgent matters so I should bring in some pretty pictures:Turtle Kraals looking good at dusk, and I'll venture a guess these good people are not sparing a single thought to ponder Key West's plumbing.
The county is apparently about to start to turn the screws on people who live in inshore waters on their own anchors. This rather gray area of boating has long been a Federal preserve which meant it was ignored. Now local agencies have the go ahead to deal with boats at anchor in their waters and rules and regulations are on the horizon, en masse. Change is good remember?
People who live at anchor come to town in their dinghies which they tie up at the city provided dock in front of Turtle Kraals for a small daily fee. This way of life will no doubt persist but too many people abandon their boats or end up trashing them and leaving them as expensive detritus along our shores and the county is fed up with paying to remove them- to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and they barely make a dent in the abandoned vessel lists. So the lifestyle will have to change somewhat.
So the usual response to human carelessness is coming- more regulation. And liveaboards, among whom I used to count myself, will as the trite platitude has it, have only themselves to blame. 
No comments:
Post a Comment