Letter: Attend Pilot Program meeting

Dear Editor:

An important meeting at the Alcazar Room at 4:00 p.m. Thursday May 26th seeks your input on the City’s anchoring Pilot Program.

The mooring fields are appreciated on the bayfront. If you tour Salt Run you’ll see less use of them. City wants more.

The Alcazar meeting is to create further rules on anchoring.

All boats will come under the rules–not just live-aboards.

While St Augustine owns the submerged lands within the city limits, the navigable waters over them are public property.

Putting limits on how far or how close you can anchor in public waters creates a burden for enforcement and harasses our visitors.

Putting limits on how long you can anchor is also a nightmare; sending the message “You’re Welcome to St. Augustine only if you pay for our moorings” will send many boaters to more hospitable ports.

There is plenty of work just enforcing rules of registering your boat, keeping an anchor, light, and ensuring that a boat is capable of getting underway in our strong currents.

Jay Bliss, USCG Licensed Captain
St. Augustine