Subject: Power Line Anchoring Law – Newfound Harbor

We were anchored(3 sailboats cruising together) in Newfound Harbor by the R 8 from April 10 to 14,2009. At 11:00 AM on the 14th an FWC Officer approached us with blue lights flashing to inform us that we were illegally anchored. He stated a new law had been passed, because an anchored sailboat drug and had hit the power lines during a storm. He showed us a brochure describing the situation but couldn’t give it to us because he only had one copy. He was friendly in an “official” way and said he had seen us since we anchored but was too busy to come sooner. But since a storm was coming he told us where we could anchor legally.

The dividing line for masted boats is marked with white PVC poles between Big Pine Key & Little Torch Key.

Hope this helps.

Ray H Daugherty

Who’da Guessed

Here is the definitive to the question of a “new powerline anchoring law,” provided by Captian Lee Oldershaw, of the Sailing Association of Marco Island:

Subject: Newfound Harbor Anchoring restrictions
Cruising News: Newfound Harbor is the only area in the state where the FWC regulates anchoring of tall masted vessels because of the mutual danger to powerlines and vessels there.
Lee

68D-24.144 Monroe County Boating Restricted Areas.
(1) For the purpose of regulating the anchoring of vessels in and adjacent to the Newfound Harbor Channel (also known as Pine Channel) within Monroe County, the following boating restricted area is established:
Newfound Harbor Channel (Pine Channel) ‘“ Anchoring of all sailboats and other vessels with masts is prohibited in Newfound Harbor Channel (Pine Channel), shoreline to shoreline, between Big Pine Key and Little Torch Key, from the centerline of U.S. Highway 1 south to a line drawn from the southernmost point on Little Torch Key to the southernmost point on Big Pine Key (a distance approximately 6,000 feet south of the centerline of U.S. Highway 1). If the overhead power lines are removed, the zone established in this paragraph shall no longer be in force or effect.