This is the most recent plea by Kim Russo, Director of America Great Loop Cruisers’ Association, asking your support of boaters’ anchoring rights in Georgia and Florida. Cruisers Net urges all boaters to get involved with fighting state restrictions on anchoring. See Latest Georgia Anchoring Regs and Florida Anchoring Restrictions. 

We Need Your Help! Florida and Georgia to Restrict Anchoring

1/18/20 Sample letter to Senators by Richard Allen, AGLCA member

As you [Kim Russo] requested, I am letting you know that I emailed the five senators on the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, acknowledging that SB 606, as expanded and substituted, had passed out of Committee and asking that they oppose the bill when it comes to the floor of the senate. I am pasting the text of my message to Senator Albritton below. The other messages are modified to suit the circumstances.

Dear Senator Albritton:

I was dismayed to learn that SB 606 (as expanded and substituted) passed out of the Environmental and Natural Resources Committee by a vote of 3-2, despite your negative vote. I urge you to continue to oppose this measure when it comes before the Senate.

My wife and I are happy to be residents of your Senate District. Our home is our 1969 cruising vessel, “Sunshine Girl.” The address on our Florida licenses, issued in Charlotte County, is DO 523282, Punta Gorda, FL. The DO # is the documentation number of our boat. In 2018 we moved from a rented slip in Cape Coral to another rented slip at the Laishley Park Marina in Punta Gorda. Previously we rented slips in Indialantic and Melbourne. Like land-based home-owners, we spend money in the supermarkets, hardware stores, restaurants, barber shops, physical therapy facilities, and other businesses. Because we move around a lot, our mailing address is a mail forwarding service in Green Cove Springs, FL.

Our boat is currently out of the water for reconditioning at Safe Cove Boat Storage in Port Charlotte. We are spending money at the boat yard and all the other local businesses. We like to keep our boat in good condition and fully functional.

In addition to renting longer term boat slips, while cruising we visit and spend money in communities along the waterways, rent short-term marina slips and enjoy many of Florida’s attractive anchorages. We share the frustration of other waterfront homeowners with abandoned and derelict vessels that ruin the viewshed and take up space. These derelict vessels cause even more trouble for responsible boaters than they do for waterfront homeowners because they clutter up scarce anchoring space and create resentment against all anchoring boat owners. We were pleased when Florida enacted Statute 327.4107 in 2016, giving state, county, and local law enforcement officers more authority to monitor and remove vessels at risk of becoming derelict. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission web site provides helpful guidance to boat owners, including warnings of fines and jail time for boat owners who might consider abandoning their vessel on the state’s waterways. Publicity surrounding these enforcement actions might go a long way in preventing the scourge of abandoned and derelict vessels. It might be useful for Florida to require all vessels to post the name and contact information for the person responsible for the boat in a conspicuous location at all times, not just when anchored.

We are opposed to SB 606 because it effectively usurps the power of the State to manage Public Trust lands, in some cases having the effect of transferring ownership of Public Trust lands to waterfront property owners to the exclusion of other citizens. We know that the Florida legislature has worked hard to meet the concerns of everyone who lives on or near the water, including those whose homes are boats, like ourselves. We believe it would be a mistake to open a floodgate of special exceptions to the existing Florida anchoring statute. As you saw with the Committee Substitution bill, additional special interests will continue to seek exceptions if they see others getting their way.

Thank you for your consideration of our views.

Sincerely,

Richard B. and Beverly A. Allen

An updated version of the iOS App was released in the App store yesterday.   It is a significant update but with mostly behind-the-scenes improvements, including:

• Optimization of database size – reduced size ~50%
• Data queries regularly optimized based on individual user’s usage history
• Data transfer methodology optimized and transfer requirements significantly reduced
• Fixed Best Fuel Price posts so they work in the App
• Several bug fixes that will improve stability and reduce crashes
• Improved multi-threading to reduce (hopefully eliminate) bad things that sometimes occurred
• Switched data server location to directly pull from the main Cruisers Net databases – will improve data reliability/accuracy
• Improved maps at high zoom levels
• Various enhancements to enable upcoming changes in website to be properly displayed in the App
• Improved robustness of crash notices and information back to the developer for debugging
• Improved handling of special characters/fonts in post titles

Please update your devices and let us know if you have any issues.  If you have elected your device’s automatic update option this should have occurred by now or will occur shortly.   Otherwise, you can click the “Download in the App Store” icon below to initiate the update now.  You can check your current version by look at the bottom of the Setting view – this lastest version is 1.80.

Finally, please let us know there are any features or enhancements that will make the App more useful for you.

Reminder that comments on ending printed chart publication are due Feb 1; see NOAA Seeks Comments on Ending Paper Chart Publication.

January 14, 2020   Quarterly Newsletter   NOAA seeks public comment on ending production of traditional paper nautical charts NOAA is initiating a five-year process to end all traditional paper nautical chart production and is seeking the public’s feedback via a Federal Register Notice published on November 15, 2019. Chart users, companies that provide products and services based on NOAA raster and electronic navigational chart (NOAA ENC®) products, and other stakeholders can help shape the manner and timing in which the product sunsetting process will proceed. Comments may be submitted through NOAA’s online ASSIST feedback tool. The comment period ends on February 1, 2020.   Read more   NOAA field crew works through the night to repair bridge clearance sensors A NOAA field crew traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, to perform maintenance on the air gap sensors located on the Don Holt and Ravenel bridges. These stations provide critical real-time under-bridge clearance data, and in conjunction with the nearby meteorological and water level stations, provide ship captains and pilots with invaluable information. South Carolina Department of Transportation regulations require that all bridge work that requires lane closures be conducted at night after 9 p.m., leaving the crew to navigate the repairs in the dark. Despite the challenging nature of this maintenance trip, the team completed the work in a smooth, safe, and timely manner. NOAA has 18 bridge clearance systems across its network of 33 Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems (PORTS) in the U.S.   Nav-cast recording available: How to obtain NOAA ENC-based paper nautical charts   Did you miss NOAA’s recent Nav-cast: How to obtain ENC-based paper nautical charts after NOAA ends production of traditional paper charts? The Nav-cast discussed the decision and timeline to sunset raster charts and provided a demonstration of the NOAA Custom Chart Application prototype. You can listen to the recorded presentation or review the slides and transcript. NOAA Nav-cast is a quarterly webinar series that highlights the tools and trends of NOAA navigation services.     Great Lakes water level station survives winter storm A massive storm that caused near-record storm surge along Michigan’s west coast on November 27, was no match for NOAA’s water level station located near Holland, Michigan. The storm caused significant damage along the coast, but the NOAA station never stopped disseminating data. There was some damage to the surrounding infrastructure, but the station continued to provide important water level data throughout the duration of the storm. Stations in the Great Lakes are part of the National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON), a permanent observing system of more than 200 water level gauges throughout the U.S. and its territories. NWLON is the source for accurate real-time and historical water levels for governments, the commercial navigation sector, and recreational users.   NOAA responds to bridge damage near Houston following Tropical  Depression Imelda   While many are aware that hurricanes can inflict costly damage when they make landfall, tropical storms and depressions are not to be underestimated. Tropical Depression Imelda moved over the Texas coast in mid-September producing heavy rain and causing extensive flooding. Nine barges broke free from their mooring on the San Jacinto River and two of these barges hit the Interstate 10 bridge in Lynchburg, Texas. At the request of the U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port Houston-Galveston, NOAA’s navigation response team was called in for rapid hydrographic survey response. The Lynchburg section of the San Jacinto River is a heavily-used mooring area for barges and tugs making their way in and out of the Houston Ship Channel. After the channel was surveyed and the damage assessed, the Captain of the Port allowed vessel traffic to transit the area with restrictions. Authorities also partially reopened the bridge for commuter vehicle traffic.   Read more   Great Lakes Coordinating Committee meets to update international vertical reference system   The Coordinating Committee on Great Lakes Basic Hydraulic and Hydrologic Data held their 107th meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland. NOAA is working with Canadian counterparts on this committee to update the International Great Lakes Datum (IGLD), a common vertical water level reference datum. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River System, one of the world’s largest freshwater resources, is shared by the U.S. and Canada. Management of this shared resource requires a common elevation reference surface, or datum, from which to measure its water levels. Due to the gradual rising of the Earth’s crust from receding glaciers, the IGLD must be adjusted every 25-30 years. This updated reference system is critical for safe and efficient navigation, shoreline development, and habitat preservation in the Great Lakes. An updated IGLD (2020) datum is due to be released in 2025. Click here for more information on the IGLD update.   Nautical Charts   Real-time Observations, Forecasts, & Predictions   Observing Systems   Framework for Positioning   Weather   navigationnews@noaa.gov   STAY CONNECTED  ‌  ‌