As far as anchorages go, this one has been pretty nice. It's big, it's protected, the wake from the ICW traffic is manageable, the night views are beautiful. We've been very pleased, pulling in two days ago and dropping the dink into the water for future use, and planning on staying awhile and exploring. We chose this anchorage because the ones in Ft. Lauderdale involved navigating a bridge under construction and we arrived at the wrong time to wait for it. So today we decide to go exploring, beginning with finding a place to tie said dink to. We knew we couldn't use the small grocery store dock because our friends had tried the day before with no luck. Active Captain shows a public boat ramp just inside North Lake less than 1/4 mile from where we are so we loaded up and headed over there. Beautiful ramps and a dock for each ramp. Voila! We headed over to the adjacent Hollywood Marina to be sure we could leave the dink there and were promptly informed that "there is no dinghy docking in Hollywood", and that is a direct quote from the manager. Now mind you, there are 6 empty docks there, along with a parking lot and a self-pay your parking station which could be ever so easily utilized to collect a $5 daily dinghy landing fee, but hey, why do that and make some money and encourage tourism in a bad economy? So Hollywood, FL has descended to the bottom of our anchorage list because, well, it basically sucks. So while we can highly recommend it as an overnight, if you want to leave your boat for any reason other than to eat at one of the restaurants, we recommend you try somewhere else.
As far as anchorages go, this one has been pretty nice. It's big, it's protected, the wake from the ICW traffic is manageable, the night views are beautiful. We've been very pleased, pulling in two days ago and dropping the dink into the water for future use, and planning on staying awhile and exploring. We chose this anchorage because the ones in Ft. Lauderdale involved navigating a bridge under construction and we arrived at the wrong time to wait for it. So today we decide to go exploring, beginning with finding a place to tie said dink to. We knew we couldn't use the small grocery store dock because our friends had tried the day before with no luck. Active Captain shows a public boat ramp just inside North Lake less than 1/4 mile from where we are so we loaded up and headed over there. Beautiful ramps and a dock for each ramp. Voila! We headed over to the adjacent Hollywood Marina to be sure we could leave the dink there and were promptly informed that "there is no dinghy docking in Hollywood", and that is a direct quote from the manager. Now mind you, there are 6 empty docks there, along with a parking lot and a self-pay your parking station which could be ever so easily utilized to collect a $5 daily dinghy landing fee, but hey, why do that and make some money and encourage tourism in a bad economy? So Hollywood, FL has descended to the bottom of our anchorage list because, well, it basically sucks. So while we can highly recommend it as an overnight, if you want to leave your boat for any reason other than to eat at one of the restaurants, we recommend you try somewhere else.
4 comments:
i couldn't help but call the Hollywood Marina to expand on the dingy issue. The person I spoke to was matter of fact in that the city doesn't provide a place to dock for the day. He did expand on the topic when I asked specific questions about grocery shopping and such. Apparently there is a grocery with dock across the water from them. And restaurants that let you dock and eat. I've had decent results docking, eatiing, and gaining permission to breifly do a walk-about.
Go figure. I'd have thought the town would be more welcoming. Thanks for your post. It will save Diann and I from stopping there.
For those who want to express their opinion to City Hall, the email address for their Marketing department is
rstorey@hollywoodfl.org
Alex,
Yes, you can tie up at the store dock to shop, but a friend of ours went there yesterday and was told that as soon as he was done shopping he would have to move his dinghy. They were absolutely not permitted to leave the dinghy there while they walked the block to the beach. There are several restaurants as well, but we're in full budget mode at the moment after having spent so much time on the dock for various repairs, so spending $40 for a meal just so we can go to the beach is something we're not interested in. I have to believe that the marinas have lobbied City Hall to eliminate the dinghy docks so that people are forced to use the marinas. Until just recently it was against the law to anchor within the city limits for more than 24 hours but the law was repealed. Since they couldn't win that battle they made it possible to anchor, you just can't go ashore. I think we will go up to Ft. Lauderdale and see if we have any better luck. Stay tuned.
You've probably seen the anchorage above the Pier 66 location. From the port everglades web cam it looks very sheltered and accessible to other areas. If you try it I'll be interested in your report. It's on my list for our trip.
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