Strange story about Boot Key Harbor

[taxwizz]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I don't want to start a pissing war with you.....I've been to the Keys a bazillion times, including this year, and it's simply not the same place at this point in time.

I am confused.
How many zeros in a Bazillion?

[CaptFigmo]

I live in Pompano Beach and cruise the keys often for weeks at a time. Never go beyond fiesta Key.
Marathon is too crowded and populated with derelict boats. Key West is too expensive and has other drawbacks including an overabundance of drunken cruise ship passengers with Hemingway t-shirts. If I want to socialize I will head up the west coast to Everglades City, Marco Island or Naples

[MSgt]

On land for two more years [until wife retires], but back in the day I lived aboard in BKH from '91 till 2002 [when it was a free harbor. Vessel was Irwin Citation 34 - Winds Of Change anchored off the flats out from the the city marina [was not city marina at that time - Pat & Kelly's] and was also a 'Docksider'. Some of the best years of my life with many interesting people there and yes there were some 'bum boats' as well as abandoned ones as the more things change the more they remain the same. Seems some of ill will there now days and hope it is just due to CoronaStress as want to return. If too many problems there, as retired Master Sergeant we can always head down to the NAS marina on Boca Chica. note; one should always have a Plan B ; )

[lestersails]

Originally Posted by smj

Last time I was sailing in the Caribbean was 32 years ago, maybe better to leave the memories intact?

Interesting. I commonly read in the sailing rags of serious concern over a decline of sailing and in forums like this I read about over-crowding and how excessive numbers of sailors are just ruining places. It seems the solution for sailors is for there to be more sailors - somewhere else.

[Poche]

Originally Posted by tomfl

Boot Key Harbor between Boot Key and Key Vaca has a marina run by the city of Marathon. [/URL]

You write very well. I would guess you are a professional or were awake in college, lol.

[Achernome]

We spent several winter months in BKH over the past 10 years. We always enjoyed it until it became too crowded to get a mooring ball OR anchor. The crowd changes are expected in a mobile community like this one and we missed the "original" group of characters we met in 2012-2015. They have scattered to the winds now. That said, we never were aware of murders and attacks from people anchored in the harbor like the one that took place on Friday last week. Don't know the particulars and don't want to know. IJS the timbre of the harbor does seem to have changed for the worse.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by lestersails

Interesting. I commonly read in the sailing rags of serious concern over a decline of sailing and in forums like this I read about over-crowding and how excessive numbers of sailors are just ruining places. It seems the solution for sailors is for there to be more sailors - somewhere else.

The problem children aren’t sailors, they are often down on their luck people that the boat is the cheapest way to live, a step up from under the bridge, but these boats don’t move, ever, most can’t.
Then you have a metric ton of “stored” boats, boats that dropping an anchor tied to a rope must be a way to dispose of them, or maybe they were really stored at one time, but they sit long enough so that the jib rots away, sometimes rigging just breaks and hangs loose, and eventually they either sink or break loose and end up in someone’s yard.

It’s not hard to understand why many land owners don’t want boats in their backyard, who wants a junk yard and a homeless shelter in their backyard?

[BlackHeron]

I think the vast majority of the boats left in anchorages to rot are owned by someone with the intention of someday fixing it up and going sailing/cruising. Many are likely CF members.

It's just that life gets in the way. No money, no time, no follow through. It's ultimately irresponsible to abandoned a boat like that, but they do it incrementally -always with the best intentions as the dream slowly fades
Out if sight, out of mind.

In many parts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas it seems some of these boats are owned by hoarders who have multiple boats all close together or even rafted up together. Perhaps an admiral in their own minds...

[Happydrv]

Originally Posted by CaptFigmo

I live in Pompano Beach and cruise the keys often for weeks at a time. Never go beyond fiesta Key.
Marathon is too crowded and populated with derelict boats. Key West is too expensive and has other drawbacks including an overabundance of drunken cruise ship passengers with Hemingway t-shirts. If I want to socialize I will head up the west coast to Everglades City, Marco Island or Naples

That's OK. We don't miss snooty people in Marathon or Key West.

[N3qtrtme]

Originally Posted by Davy J

Yeah, there were a lot of colorful characters in Boot Key Harbor. I came out of the cabin one morning to find this guy hanging out on my stern:

That happens more often than you might think. I was shocked to see how well and how often those critters swim. That’s our trawler with the kayak on the bow, by the way. Sorry if we didn’t meet in person while you were here. We are a friendly bunch, often found on pool noodles behind the boats in the afternoons. I am withholding comment on the pumpout boat issue until I get the other side of the story from Charlie. We enjoy living in the harbor and working in this small town. It’s like any other small town in the US with maybe less square footage. Yes, there are various groups of people and joining whatever one fits for you is fine. We just try to play by the rules, work as we have to and go exploring the backcountry as much as possible. We are not about all the drama. We get on pretty well with the marina staff, went through Hurricane Irma and the rebuilding and appreciate what they are trying to do, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. In any case, we enjoy the harbor, it serves our needs and sometimes you gotta take the bad with the good. In a perfect world we’d be cruising the islands nonstop. Real world, we still have a few bills to pay and are making good headway on the cruising kitty. In any case, I’m happy to not be freezing in the winter anymore!

[RaymondR]

It's wonderful to see this great range of diversity in the boating public. In the Australian vernacular at one end of the spectrum the "battlers" (no money, get their hands on a boat which then becomes a derelict) and at the other "silvertails" (sleek 60'-80' cruiser with satellite phone and TV domes in top and a boat person to keep the wax polished during the week)

[Bali43Cat]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

The problem children aren’t sailors, they are often down on their luck people that the boat is the cheapest way to live, a step up from under the bridge...

Precisely. Being just off shore also enables drug habits & dealing that the police can’t...well, police as well as on shore.

We were in BKH the past two days picking up our catamaran after some maintenance. This just after the shooting/murder in the harbor 2 nights before. Seems someone was threatened by another in a dinghy as he approached his boat - so in return the boat owner opened fire with not one but 2 different weapons...killing the approaching dinghy driver. Any bets on whether prior drug/illicit activity was involved?

The evening we were there we visited a popular waterside restaurant for entertainment. Everything was terrific...until a woman began tripping out from something drug induced. Literally could not control her actions while simultaneously chain smoking an entire pack of cigarettes one after another. Two separate sets of “friends” sat by seemingly oblivious to what was happening. The story climaxed with her urinating right there in her seat, in the restaurant. Par for the course I guess.

I don’t mean to pick on BKH but it does have a very ragged edge to it and the killing the other night is frankly not surprising. The chances of a stray bullet catching a bystander are very real there. There are plenty other harbors I’m sure we can all identify as well - the harbor just across from Cortez, FL comes to mind. The derelict boats stand in stark contrast to the well maintained and developed neighborhoods a stone’s throw away.

Sad fact: Until the police/narcotics units include these areas as they would any other on land - we’ll get what we got.

[Davy J]

Originally Posted by N3qtrtme

We are not about all the drama. We get on pretty well with the marina staff, went through Hurricane Irma and the rebuilding and appreciate what they are trying to do, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. In any case, we enjoy the harbor, it serves our needs and sometimes you gotta take the bad with the good.

I was there six months or so......

Had a very good time, met a lot of people from all over, even some international cruisers.

This thread has drifted all over the place........ from someone anchoring and being confronted/engaged by a pump-out boat driver to a guy that thought shooting someone with a 12 gauge shot gun was not enough and then brought out, you know, a very powerful .22 rifle..........

I won't hesitate to come back. The bad press will make it easier for me to get a mooring........

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by boatman1

There was a Danish woman who ran the “Castaway restaurant” a short walk away who was a superb hostess and kept a party going as much as a human can do.

i was down on Vaca Key back in the mid 90's .. after turning around from the insanity and filth of Key West. anyway there was a small seafood place on US1 called American Seafood i believe. anyway it was the best grouper sandwich i have ever had in my life. the guy who ran it was ex military with a crew cut. we ate there almost every night. a real treat but that was 25 years ago

[smj]

Originally Posted by Bali43Cat

Precisely. Being just off shore also enables drug habits & dealing that the police can’t...well, police as well as on shore.



We were in BKH the past two days picking up our catamaran after some maintenance. This just after the shooting/murder in the harbor 2 nights before. Seems someone was threatened by another in a dinghy as he approached his boat - so in return the boat owner opened fire with not one but 2 different weapons...killing the approaching dinghy driver. Any bets on whether prior drug/illicit activity was involved?



The evening we were there we visited a popular waterside restaurant for entertainment. Everything was terrific...until a woman began tripping out from something drug induced. Literally could not control her actions while simultaneously chain smoking an entire pack of cigarettes one after another. Two separate sets of “friends” sat by seemingly oblivious to what was happening. The story climaxed with her urinating right there in her seat, in the restaurant. Par for the course I guess.



I don’t mean to pick on BKH but it does have a very ragged edge to it and the killing the other night is frankly not surprising. The chances of a stray bullet catching a bystander are very real there. There are plenty other harbors I’m sure we can all identify as well - the harbor just across from Cortez, FL comes to mind. The derelict boats stand in stark contrast to the well maintained and developed neighborhoods a stone’s throw away.



Sad fact: Until the police/narcotics units include these areas as they would any other on land - we’ll get what we got.

First killing I’ve heard about in Boot Key, but there may have been others. Also supposedly not drug related.