[Shortnsalty]

So after getting some great help on finding charts and online reader programs etc. i started looking at charts in my area of the ICW (Florida). Now i'm a newbie so I have to ask. Where is it ok to drop the hook for the night? I ask because reading the boating guide lines etc. it tells you your not supposed to drop the anchor for the night on the ICW unless in an anchorage area. So I start looking at charts, find out how to find the anchorages (didn't work), they show that an anchorage will be marked by a small anchor on the chart. I look at the whole chart for my area and I see none. So whats the general rule to dropping the hook for the night safely and legally so at 1:00 A.M I don't get waken up by whatever authority would be out there to tell me I cant be there. That's all we will be doing right now as were just learning to sail and more or less just want to spend a few hours on the water to then camp for the night and go back home in the morning.

 

[Multihullgirl]

Go to activecaptain.com and register. It's about the most comprehensive source. Info is pretty fresh, since it's crowd-sourced.

The Dozier's Waterway Cruising Guides are also good references
Skipper Bob's guides are pretty good too
if you're in the Keys, Frank Papy's cruising book is a good resource

 

[denverd0n]

The spots marked on the charts with an anchor are officially designated anchoring areas. That does not mean that you cannot anchor anywhere else. In fact, so long as you are well clear of the marked channel, you can anchor pretty much anywhere that you want (with a few exceptions).

That, however, does NOT mean that it would be a smart thing to just drop your anchor any old place for the night. Some places make a good anchorage, and some do not. As mentioned, ActiveCaptain is a good resource. Here is another...
Cruiser's Net

And for southwest Florida, yet another...
Florida Sea Grant - Boating & Waterways - Anchorage Inventory

Good luck!

 

[Donna_F]

MHG offers some great guides. active captain is a great tool for pre-planning if you don't have internet access while sailing and you should keep a few hard copy guides on board. Generally, you don't anchor in any channel. If there is a cove or small area that gets you outside of the channel, you might be fine. Just watch your depth for the entire swing you may do around your anchor.

 

[Shortnsalty]

Thank you all so much. This post had led me to priceless information most of which never turned up in internet searches. I can't thank you all enough.

 

[Rhapsody-NS27]

active captain is a great tool for pre-planning if you don't have internet access while sailing

In addition to this, Active Captain does have something for smartphone/tablet users where you can download "tiles" for certain areas that you are at for off-line viewing. Takes some getting used to but downloaded info seems to be pretty current.

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

I used Active Captain on my i-useless-pad and found it excellent for the ICW.

Updated continually be people just before you the information is great. I dont think I ever came across wrong information or stupid comments.

To contribute back its easy to send your information into Active Captain.

 

[Multihullgirl]

AC for the iPhone probably android too is done by 3d party software. I'm using for my iPhone, NAVIMATICS CHARTS & TIDES. When you are in wifi range, you download the latest info from AC and then you always have it even when out of range

--oh yeah, there can be bad info and stupid comments. It's like any other online review. You have to have a glance at the source and make some judgment calls. There is a way to click on the individual and see his other reviews. Sometimes people are just jerks and nothing is good anywhere, know what I mean? I find it useful to read all the comments and see if there's a trend.

--oh BTW I think the SeaGrant Anchorages may be old data. I had a glance at their posted info in regards Sarasota's Bayfront area, and the SG doesn't mention at all the fact that Sarasota Bayfront Park is now a restricted mooring field...

 

[Sailormon6]

I have repeatedly tried to download a map tile on Active Captain for the past two days, and it fails, giving me the message that there was a "Download error - network error." When it happened, I was logged in to Active Captain, and was connected to the internet. Any ideas what's happening and how I can get it done?

 

[Group9]

Go to activecaptain.com and register. It's about the most comprehensive source. Info is pretty fresh, since it's crowd-sourced.

The Dozier's Waterway Cruising Guides are also good references
Skipper Bob's guides are pretty good too
if you're in the Keys, Frank Papy's cruising book is a good resource

Cruiser's net is another good source of local knowledge, although not organized as well as Active Captain.

 

[RichH]

http://www.waterwayguide.com/shipstore/product_info.php?ref=2&products_id=60 is a great guide to the *common* anchorages along the ICW.

 

[hellosailor]

A "designated anchorage" gives you specific rights, and obligations, as detailed in the Coast Pilot. General Anchorage /vs/ Special Anchorage, different regulations.

But as others have said, there's nothing to stop you from anchoring anyplace else. The biggest considerations are holding ground (good holding ground, foul area, cable crossing, etc.) and whether you're pitching your tent on a deserted highway, so to speak.

If traffic coming through the area doesn't expect to find anchored boats, or if you are in an area where barge tows might swing as they round a bend, etc., then anchoring there is a bad idea. Any location that isn't sheltered from traffic as well as from weather, isn't a good idea.

You are also prohibited from anchoring in designated channels, which mean those marked as such on the charts. You are free to anchor in "channels" that are not designated on the charts, but you can expect to either be run down or yelled at. Sometimes, even the local watercops don't understand the difference between the two.

And of course in Florida, if you can see a mowed lawn, then the owner is liable to complain that you're obstructing their view.

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

And of course in Florida, if you can see a mowed lawn, then the owner is liable to complain that you're obstructing their view.

Yes, I had an "interesting" experience with a Florida marine policeman in an authorised international anchorage (i had just confirmed it with the coast guard).
Boy oh boy, I would have had that pricks guts for garters if I wasn't on the move, had a car, or in my own country.

Corruption sux big time and that was one corrupt jerk.

But may I say he was the only official whom I didnt get along with well in the whole 9 months in the USA. The rest were great, polite, happy and good ambassadors for tourists. But one arrogant, lying, cheat really made me re-read a few "anchoring in florida" threads on these forums that I had previously found unbelievable.

Mark

 

[Minnesail]

I think we can all agree that Florida is crazy.

There's a reason fark.com has a separate "Florida" tag for their crazy stories.

 

[Group9]

I think we call all agree that Florida is crazy.

There's a reason fark.com has a separate "Florida" tag for their crazy stories.

No doubt. I used to live in south Florida. There is no doubt that there is a war going in Florida, and has been for sometime, between real estate developers and condo commandos, against boaters. The real estate developers and condo commandos would weld the drawbridges on the ICW shut if they could.

One of the most damaging things the real estate developers did down there, which is the cause of most of the disappearing marinas and boatyards, was to get the law changed where property taxes were based on the highest and best use of a property, instead of what it was actually being used for (with a grandfather clause in it to get it passed).

The result of this was boatyards and marinas closing because they had pay property tax, like their were condos there instead.

A friend lost his family home on the beach with several acres when his parents died. He inherited it, and found that without the grandfather protection, his property taxes had escalated to $22,000 a month. So he had to do, exactly what the law was designed to make him do. Sell his family house and land to real estate developers, who promptly bulldozed his family home and put up giant condos there.

Carl Hiassen has made a living out of writing about this craziness. Best thing to do is just pass through as quick as you can to the Bahamas and enjoy them before the same type people destroy them.

 

[Multihullgirl]

Just received a newsletter from AC in which they discuss 'tiles.' this may be of some help:

">>> The Companion Tile Saga >>>

You can count on problems developing with any version 1.0 software
product. And while it has been months since the release 1.0 of the
ActiveCaptain Companion for Windows, OSX, Android, and iOS, we've had
no real bugs uncovered.

And then came the end of February.

We tested everything pretty well but we couldn't test for the unusual
success that the product has had. And that bit us last week. You see,
the background map tiles come from OpenStreetMap (OSM), an open source
map organization that wants to make sure there is a completely open and
crowdsourced map for the entire world. It's exactly the type of product
we should be using in the Companion. What we did by mistake though was
use a CloudMade version of OSM. They render the map tiles and provide
them for free. But we missed that there is a limit to "free" and as use
of the Companion has skyrocketed, they noticed the huge tile downloads
coming from the Companion apps. And they stopped it.

In February there were over 1 million tiles downloaded. And without any
warning, CloudMade stopped responding to Companion requests to download
the tiles. They want about $1,000 per month for that level of use. And
if we run the numbers for the more detailed tiles coming later, that
would climb to about $5,000 per month. That's a lot of money for
providing a free product.

So we had to step back and find a tile source that was willing to
provide the free map data, well, for free. MapQuest turned out to be
the only company who would do it. But using MapQuest's rendering
required a code change to the Companion - they load the tiles from
their own servers and use a different pixel format.

The new MapQuest tiles stitch perfectly to all existing tiles but they
have different colors and are rendered differently. You can always
delete a section of map tiles and re-download them to have them all
in MapQuest format. See Menu / Help / Adding Map Tiles.

You can download and install the new Companion v1.04 for desktop
(Windows and Mac OSX) from the ActiveCaptain website now. The Android
version has been uploaded to Google Play and can be updated there
right now as well. If you have automatic updates on, you might have had
the new version already installed for you. See Menu / Help / About, in
the Companion to verify that you have v1.04. The iPhone/iPad version
has been submitted to Apple for approval and will take a few days. It
will go through the normal App Store update process and you'll be
informed when a new version is available.

We're terribly sorry that this happened. It was a mess with about 250
people writing to us for help. We're also working on making the map
tiles less blurry and providing more zoom levels. It's not critical for
the product today but so many of you are asking for it that we're going
to take some steps to make it a little better. Higher resolution tiles
are coming after Locations is released to increase the resolution too.

Thank you all for using and exploring this new Companion capability.
We'll continue to test the things that can go wrong; but we'll also
give more thought to the things that go right too."

 

[Sailormon6]

Thanks multihull girl! I also just received that notice from Active Captain, and downloaded the new version of ActiveCaptain Companion, and have downloaded tiles successfully. It appears to be working fine now!