We sincerely thank Captain Glen Moore for sharing the note below. It is just one more example of how the state of Florida and its sun-kissed waters are coming to be looked upon by the cruising community.
Not all of this criticism is valid. I’m in NE Florida right now on a combination speaking/research trip, and I have personally observed some of the friendliest and best appointed marinas to be found anywhere. There are also many cruising friends, including new friends, to be met here in the Sunshine State, and visiting Florida is always rewarding for me.
However, with all that being said, when you bunch together the anchoring/mooring field controversy, the recent, “heavy handed” treatment in Marathon and elsewhere on the part of FWC officers, and certain Florida tax/registration laws that apply to vessels, it results in letters like the one below!

Claiborne,
I do appreciate all you have done to make our cruising more enjoyable, less stressful, and safer. Your guides were a great education to me many years ago when I first bought a boat on the St. Johns River. The Cruisers Net is an invaluable resource when we are cruising in the south.
After completing the Loop, we decided to continue north. Spent 3 months in Maine. A much too short of a time to enjoy those waters, but about 2 weeks longer than their summer. Decided to leave the boat north and cruise in Canada next summer. So, we haven’t been in “your” waters in a long time and have not been able to contribute to the Net.
We have found the people and communities in Maine and Canada very welcoming. We may decide to continue our cruising in the north and never return the boat to our home state of Florida, a state that is becoming increasingly less welcoming to cruisers.

And contrasting experiences from the Chesapeake:

We were anchored in a very small creek off the Rappahannock River. It was a well protected, albeit very shallow anchorage. We were visiting friends who lived in a community bordering one side of the creek. Dinghied farther up the creek to the community dock at their recreation center and walked to our friends home. After our visit, we got back in our dinghy, leaving the dock which had a “No Docking” sign, and headed to our boat. A man was standing on his dock on the other side of the creek, a dock close to where we were anchored. He waved us over to his dock, vigorously. Well, being from Florida, we were expecting a lecture on taking the dinghy to a dock with a sign prohibiting others than residents from docking there and, mostly, to hear a lecture on anchoring behind his house. As we got close to his dock, he said to us: “We don’t get many cruising boats back this far in the creek. Do you need a ride to the grocery store or anywhere else?”
Glen Moore
DeFever 40 Last Dance

I have had the exact same experience anchored up a creek in the Chesapeake, more than once. In fact, I would venture to say that the entire bay is one of the friendliest cruising grounds there is, with many towns throwing out the welcome mat with accessible dinghy docks, public marinas near the center of town, friendly harbormasters, and room to anchor. Annapolis, which is one of the busiest boating ports anywhere, allows free dinghy landing at the end of most public streets that end on the harbor, and offers showers and laundry at the harbor masters office for a modest fee.
John Kettlewell