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In my home base of King Harbor, Redondo Beach, CA, there was this long-time hidden gem about this harbor, and that is that you can just steer your boat to the side of the channel and drop anchor. You could chill out for a few hours if the sea was rough, and still feel like you're away from the dock. You can drop your stern anchor and stay the night - for which they didn't even bother charging most of the time, as long as you were registered. It has been really awesome having a calm place to drop the hook and watch the boats go by up and down the channel.
This week they're installing about 25 mooring balls, which will effectively take up all the anchoring space, and really bunch things up. The bummer is that most days, even weekends, nobody even takes advantage of anchoring along the channel area. So all the sailboats are accustomed to pulling in there to raise or lower their sails, sort things out, whatever. Now the mooring field will bring what felt like a 6 lane highway, down to a 2 lane road for all of the boat traffic.
I haven't gotten word about fees, reservations, who the moorings belong to, if I can even just stop there for a few hours anymore before returning to the dock, no information really.
Has this ever happened to any of you in your area? How did it change the freedom of being able to anchor and go whenever you pleased?
At the moment, I see mostly cons for the boaters and safety of random tourists renting paddle boats and SUPs who get in the channel, and pros for the harbor patrol or city or whoever will collect fees. The bottom is soft west coast sand/mud, easy to hook into. It's not like there are facilities for visitors or even marked tie-up docks to go into shore.
Here's a cam of the channel and the plastic moorings being installed so you get the idea of the close proximity.
Redondo Beach Resort - Harbor Cam
This week they're installing about 25 mooring balls, which will effectively take up all the anchoring space, and really bunch things up. The bummer is that most days, even weekends, nobody even takes advantage of anchoring along the channel area. So all the sailboats are accustomed to pulling in there to raise or lower their sails, sort things out, whatever. Now the mooring field will bring what felt like a 6 lane highway, down to a 2 lane road for all of the boat traffic.
I haven't gotten word about fees, reservations, who the moorings belong to, if I can even just stop there for a few hours anymore before returning to the dock, no information really.
Has this ever happened to any of you in your area? How did it change the freedom of being able to anchor and go whenever you pleased?
At the moment, I see mostly cons for the boaters and safety of random tourists renting paddle boats and SUPs who get in the channel, and pros for the harbor patrol or city or whoever will collect fees. The bottom is soft west coast sand/mud, easy to hook into. It's not like there are facilities for visitors or even marked tie-up docks to go into shore.
Here's a cam of the channel and the plastic moorings being installed so you get the idea of the close proximity.
Redondo Beach Resort - Harbor Cam