A question for the Florida-dislikers?

[SebastianB]

I hear alot of folks saying negative about their experiences in Florida. Things like they are "treated badly" etc. What are some specific examples. We are planning on moving our boat to the Keys and although we havent been there yet via boat, we found the people extremely friendly and laidback everywhere we went in the keys both in the tourist traps and in the backsteet bars etc. Now, we didnt do alot of visiting at really high price places although we did stay with a friend on Duck Key which is pretty pricey environment and we again found most folks to be welcoming. Everyone knew we lived on a boat but we didnt find any prejudice towards us. Just trying to find some specifics of bad treatment people are experiencing.

[cruisersfarm]

Literally none. Everyone has been welcoming/ friendly and nice, including all cops and one time I was boarded by potty police.

Never a single issue, amd my experiences are in the crowded Miami-Dade, Broward counties, Stuart, New Symernia Beach. All nice, even interacting with water cops.

West Palm beach, they will come talk to you and find out your story. Both local amd state cops will. Local cops in Miami Beach do the same.

All pleasant experiences.

They sort through determining who might be a derelict boat offender this way. They have marked a ton of derelict boats in Miami recently (half of the anchorage) and will hopefully be removing them soon.

I must say, given what they are dealt in terms of a job patroling the anchorages, they do a great job of sorting out problems from cruisers.

[nknowland]

None personally. We travel thru FL twice a year on our way to/from Bahamas. It's boaters paradise, -- anchorages, marinas, mechanics, boat stores everywhere. Every year, it seems there is an issue regarding limiting anchoring in high end neighborhoods, but it's never impacted us. There are a lot of abandoned derelict boats out there, so I can feel their pain...

[WindwardPrinces]

I love Florida, but the Keys are a bit different from the rest of Florida.

There is some good and bad there.

Key West in particular has a certain element of discontent resulting from the social divide between the rich tourists and the locals who are trying to scratch out an existence there.

[HopCar]

There is a very cruiser friendly marine supply store in Miami. It even has a dinghy dock so you don't need a car to get to it.

[skipmac]

Been living and boating in Florida for 40 years, almost from one end to the other; Panama City, all the down the Gulf coast to the Keys, Miami (even visited that fabled marine supply store), all the way up the east coast to Jacksonville. My experiences have been overwhelmingly nice and positive.

Sure like anywhere there's a bad apple here and there but no more than any other place.

[SebastianB]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Been living and boating in Florida for 40 years, almost from one end to the other; Panama City, all the down the Gulf coast to the Keys, Miami (even visited that fabled marine supply store), all the way up the east coast to Jacksonville. My experiences have been overwhelmingly nice and positive.

Sure like anywhere there's a bad apple here and there but no more than any other place.

These are the same positive experiences I have experienced in my limited time in the Keys as well as more time in the panhandle though not as a cruiser/liveaboard. I am glad to see the positive comments because from alot of posts I have seen it would seem that I must have some rose colored glasses. I read posts about being treated poorly...to just skip Florida, etc. Hopefully its just a case of the complainers being more vocal than the people with good experiences.

I understand there are issues with Key West in particular as far as living expense out pacing the income for many working class but there again, as I tend to be drawn to the more "working class" folks, I found that most still said it was "the Best place in the world" to them. I lived in New Orleans in the years post Katrina and heard a lot of people that were unhappy with Post K verus Pre Katrina yet when pressed they also admitted that many things were better. Also, while people were griping about "gentrification" because of rising rent, etc. None of them complained about the lower crime rates in their gentrified neighborhood. I guess its all about expectations and trying to keep from becoming jaded. Like somone said "Wherever you go, there you are"!

[MarkJ]

Water Police in Florida are the worst ******** in the whole USA.

In fact the only less than very positive interaction with any official when visiting the USA has been Florida Water Police.

It takes a bit to rile me but the stupid corrupt jerk from Florida Water Police really showed me something. And that something ain't positive ...

Thank you for the opportunity to vent once again.

[Cheechako]

I had a great time in Florida. I parked in Lake Sylvia one night and was talked to by the water cops the next am though. But I was moving on anyway. Never had much problems outside of Lauderdale or other highly populated areas. They are pretty anti-dog on their beaches in a lot of places.

[Jason Flare]

Some of us are familiar with rural environments where the sheriffs and state police do not routinely patrol the roads. They're not routinely driving around looking for lawbreakers. They're more like the fire department. You call them if you need them and they show up then.

So, if you don't mind ever present law enforcement stopping you to look at your papers FL is OK.

I will say that I do not feel particular welcome anchoring out here in FL and I look forward to spending my Winters in Cuba.

[hellosailor]

Last year the State conducted an investigation (after a lot of pressure) into why there were something like 2000 "justified" police shootings (deaths) in the last ten years, and the state review concluded that all 2000 officers had been correct, all 2000 victims had needed killing.


Hmmmm....


But the FWC watercops are nowhere near as bad as people pretend they might be. They don't carry shotguns and they can't put you on a chain gang, so what's not to like? On the Southern in-bred badass authority scale? A ice cream man that says he's out of vanilla gets rated higher.


Just stay off the roads. For some reason, Floridians tend to be found in fatal car crashes, going the wrong way on highways, often in a condition mistaken for drunk. That could be partly because Florida doesn't want to raise taxes, so they don't build cloverleafs, they kind just use one pair of parallel roads for the entry and exit to all four directions of the highway. And in SE Florida, they keep fishing cars and bodies out of drainage canals and ponds, because that's cheaper than building guardrails to keep cars out of them.


Hey, every state has its quirks.

[SebastianB]

Originally Posted by Jason Flare

Some of us are familiar with rural environments where the sheriffs and state police do not routinely patrol the roads. They're not routinely driving around looking for lawbreakers. They're more like the fire department. You call them if you need them and they show up then.

So, if you don't mind ever present law enforcement stopping you to look at your papers FL is OK.

I will say that I do not feel particular welcome anchoring out here in FL and I look forward to spending my Winters in Cuba.

Well, having grown up in a rural area, I understand this but I also understand that one must adapt to their surroundings and just go with the flow unless its really a battle worth fighting. Case in point, we had our first boarding by USCG the other day. We were like maybe 1 of 2 SV in the Sound that day near Gulfport. They came alongside and asked permission to board, it was granted. They asked if wqe had a firearm, we said yes, they asked us to point it out, we did they then just closed the door to the cabin it was located in and went about their business of checking boat. There were three instances where I could have argued with them during the check. 1. He said my flares were out of date, they were not but rather than even object I told him that I would be taking them back to WM as I had just purchased them and thanked him for alerting me. 2. They asked if I had a throwable I pointed to my throwable on the handrail and told him I also had a seat cushion but it was stowed. He told me I should have it out so I took it out. 3. He asked for a sound device I showed him my whistle and my disposable airhorn. He told me I needed to get an actual boat horn. I told him that I indeed had one but it wqas not installed yet. I could have pointed out his foibles but I just went along. Just after this he was looking for my oil discharge and waste stickers. I had forgotten to get a new waste sticker after I peeled off the old faded one. He actually offered to see if they had one on their vessel he could give me and said that if not just get one when I could. He then gave me an "All-Compliant" and reminded me to show any boarding party in the next 6 months and I would not have to go through it again. They were extremely courteous and while not entirely correct, nothing was worth making a line in the sand over. While I may not agree with things, I have found that its not the time nor place during a law enforcement stop to argue. That is for court. It has worked for me thus far!

[zeehag]

i more than enjoyed west coast florida--is beautiful, as long as ye remain away from cities.

[Jason Flare]

Originally Posted by SebastianB

Well, having grown up in a rural area, I understand this but I also understand that one must adapt to their surroundings and just go with the flow unless its really a battle worth fighting. Case in point, we had our first boarding by USCG the other day. We were like maybe 1 of 2 SV in the Sound that day near Gulfport. They came alongside and asked permission to board, it was granted. They asked if wqe had a firearm, we said yes, they asked us to point it out, we did they then just closed the door to the cabin it was located in and went about their business of checking boat. There were three instances where I could have argued with them during the check. 1. He said my flares were out of date, they were not but rather than even object I told him that I would be taking them back to WM as I had just purchased them and thanked him for alerting me. 2. They asked if I had a throwable I pointed to my throwable on the handrail and told him I also had a seat cushion but it was stowed. He told me I should have it out so I took it out. 3. He asked for a sound device I showed him my whistle and my disposable airhorn. He told me I needed to get an actual boat horn. I told him that I indeed had one but it wqas not installed yet. I could have pointed out his foibles but I just went along. Just after this he was looking for my oil discharge and waste stickers. I had forgotten to get a new waste sticker after I peeled off the old faded one. He actually offered to see if they had one on their vessel he could give me and said that if not just get one when I could. He then gave me an "All-Compliant" and reminded me to show any boarding party in the next 6 months and I would not have to go through it again. They were extremely courteous and while not entirely correct, nothing was worth making a line in the sand over. While I may not agree with things, I have found that its not the time nor place during a law enforcement stop to argue. That is for court. It has worked for me thus far!

I hitchhiked all over the US and Europe in the late 60's and 70's. I looked like I had just gotten out of college freshman English class; short hair well groomed and I looked people in the eye.

On an on ramp I would say hi to the hippie and ask how long he'd been there. Then I'd go farther down the ramp and give him first shot at the traffic.

They passed him up and stopped for me.

My argument was that I wanted to get from point A to B and dressed to accomplish that. I wouldn't have been surprised if my views were more radical than the hippy's.

I do the same thing today. Short hair, well groomed, good attitude; old but well cared for s/v. I smile and wave to the cops and coast guard and maintain course and speed. The time to grouse about the loss of liberty and the militarization of the police is not when they're on your boat.

I'm probably a little disappointed with the way people accept a police presence in their lives but History has shown that that is what people do and that will work itself out eventually.

So, my position is that the CG and water cops boarding vessels for either safety reasons or environmental reasons is a waste of taxpayer money from the standpoint of marine casualties and historical compliance with the clean water act. I think they're using these boardings as a pretext for snooping around looking to score the big headline inducing drug bust.

I'm the smiley wavy guy who is thilled that these officers are doing such a bang up job keeping our waterways safe and fecal free.

[cruisersfarm]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Just stay off the roads. For some reason, Floridians tend to be found in fatal car crashes, going the wrong way on highways, often in a condition mistaken for drunk. That could be partly because Florida doesn't want to raise taxes, so they don't build cloverleafs, they kind just use one pair of parallel roads for the entry and exit to all four directions of the highway. And in SE Florida, they keep fishing cars and bodies out of drainage canals and ponds, because that's cheaper than building guardrails to keep cars out of them.


Hey, every state has its quirks.

Although if they just drove home "yellow line on the left, white on the right" these traffic problems would decrease.

Florida drivers are definitely the worst in the USA. The combination of old people who have lost vision and motor skills along with the guy next to you that got his first car and license at 35 yrs old (last week) is a recipe for disaster on the roads.