Several days ago we were in transit from the dinghy dock to the boat and were accosted by Officer Tharp of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the most prevalent sort of water cop in these waters. Seems we were going too fast in a Manatee Zone. Also seems that the sign informing people of the Manatee Zone was installed about 200 feet too close to the shore. The Manatee Zone, according to the state of Florida, is 100 feet from shore, according to Duval County it's 300 feet from the shore, and according to the Feds it is 600 feet from the shore. Because the sign was improperly placed he "just" gave us a "warning citation". I DID NOT suggest he give his citation to whomever put the sign in the wrong place. He also reprimanded us for driving at speed (about 15 mph) between anchored boats. The space he referred to was between a flock of anchored 20/25 ft sailboats and a 32 ft Tahiti ketch anchored about 50 yards further offshore from them. I DID NOT point out that for another underway boat to be invisible to us it would have to be stopped and hiding behind the ketch in which case, since it was stopped, it would not pose any hazard, and that if there were any boats moving they could not hide behind an anchored boat. I believe the real reason for this unwarranted attack was to show his boss that he was actually doing something to justify his cost to the taxpayers. Can you imagine the conversation? "Officer Tharp, you were out on the water all day Saturday and all you can show for yourself is one citation for insufficient number of life jackets and one warning for no bailing device. How is it going to look on my report to the Chief when I have to tell him that we spent $650 for your day's patrol, including overtime and boat expenses, and I have only one $100 fine and one warning ticket to show for it. If you value your job you are going to have to do better than that!" "Yes, sir." Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek 30 07.72N 081 38.40W _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
