Saw the signs for `Dock and Dine’ at the Marker 4 marina. Tried to contact on vhf with no answer. Called the restaurant and they said `sure, come on in, just pick a slip’. Up to this point, everything is great. Great restaurant, grocery store near by, and good food and vibes at the restaurant. However, at sunset, here comes the so called dock master, who wants two dollars a foot for dockage, forget the `dock and dine’ sign. Forget that you have no power or water or that you just go suckered into a `dock and dine’ situation. I have just about crossed Venice off my list of stop over sites. it seems like just when you think everything is going OK, someone intervenes and give the town a bad reputation for cruisers.
I paid the dock master $1.50 a foot just to keep peace for a slip. I’m sure the cash never made it out of his pocket into the confers of the marina owners.
Bob & Pat Hutchison
S/V Maverick

Doesn’t dock and dine mean just what it said? You had free dockage while you dined. How do you expect to get a free night of dockage after that? You eat, you go back to your boat and you leave to drop your anchor back in a proper anchorage, not think dock and dine entities you to stay all night for free and then accuse the dock master of pocketing what was actually less than the required fee.
You can actually still drive a boat after eating and at night.
Jesse

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