Florida Cruisers Stage 'Civil Disobedience' in Marco Island
Local Anchoring Restrictions in Opposition to Florida State Law

By Claiborne Young
Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2007

 
 E-mail this page
 Printer-friendly page

Marco Island Cruisers Challenge Local Anchorage Regulations through Civil Disobedience

Good Morning Fellow Cruisers:

Several months ago, we posted a lengthy message on the Salty Southeast Cruisers’ Net (http://www.CruisersNet.net) concerning Florida’s tough, new anchoring law. As you may remember, this new statute basically outlaws all anchorage regulations by local and county governments in the state of Florida, with only a few very specific
exceptions. This posting resulted in more visitors than any other message ever posted on the Salty Southeast Cruisers’ Net. Now, we have an IMPORTANT update on this developing situation!

In our first message, we predicted that some communities in Florida might well choose to ignore these new laws. As has already been shown by way of earlier postings on the "Western Florida" page of the Cruisers’ Net, one example of this local regulation continuation is the community of Marco Island. For those of you not
familiar with western Florida’s geography, Marco Island lies some twenty miles south of Naples, and is a popular cruising destination.

This morning, we received an important message from Herman G. Diebler, a Marco Island resident, and Rear Commodore of the Seven Seas Cruising Association. Commodore Diebler related that local cruisers have staged a "civil disobedience" in order to challenge the local anchorage regulations in court. Diebler also enclosed a
copy of an article about both the civil disobedience and the background of this entire matter from the Marco Daily News. A subsequent telephone call by this writer to the Naples Daily News, parent publication of the Marco Daily News, resulted in permission to reproduce the entire article on the "Western Florida" page of the Salty Southeast Cruisers’ Net.

You’ve heard enough from me. Let me urge you to go to http://www.CruisersNet.net without delay, and then click on the "Western Florida" navigational button along the left side of the page. After you’ve read the posting (currently at the top of the "Western Florida" page), we suggest you undertake two actions. First, e-mail me here at CruisingWriter@CruisersNet.net. I want to put up a "page of support" from members of the cruising community for the Marco Island cruisers. Secondly, if you live in southwestern Florida, or are cruising in the area, you might contact Commodore Diebler (hfdiebler@earthlink.net) or others who are part of this movement to pledge
support.

We look forward to hearing reactions from many of you! Good luck and good cruising to all!

Claiborne S. Young
Watermark Publishing
CruisingWriter@CruisersNet.net
http://www.CruisersNet.net
http://www.CruisingGuide.com