21
Merely leaving it up to people to respect the rights of others
to operate in public waters won’t work going forward as well
as it did decades ago.
Owens has increased enforcement and created pamphlets
to hand out to boaters. The town has posted two signs by the
public docks at Wynn Plaza. The next step, he suggests, might
be installing cameras.
He’s heard the locals call for action and understands that
some complaints are justified.
“I find it hard to believe that some-body
hasn’t illegally discharged,”
Owens says. “It could be a serious
$10,000 federal fine if they get caught.”
Airbnb boat rentals at docks and
anchored out on the Cape Fear River,
Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach
can be found advertised on national
sites.
Homeowners like Clark do not want
to see North Carolina turn into an East
Coast version of San Francisco. The Wall
Street Journal published an article May
16, 2019 entitled “Home Prices Leads
Some to the Water” that detailed how
many homeless people in San Francisco
and Marin County just north of the city
are living on unsafe boats that substitute
as makeshift houseboats.
“The ragtag collection of some 200
barges, sailboats and other mostly
decrepit boats in which they live and
store their belongings is a sign of an
affordable-housing crisis in California
that is being felt particularly acutely in
the San Francisco Bay Area,” the article
states.
Clark sees enough signs off
Wrightsville Beach to act now before
his paradise gets overrun. Like those
in North Carolina, boats anchored or
moored in waters all around the coun-try
have broken loose in storms, endan-gering
anyone within a short paddle.
“A lot of people buy cheap boats and
beat-up boats and anchor them off the
coast of San Francisco,” Clark says. “The
same thing can happen here.”
Pat Bradford contributed to this story.
Left and above: Nine buoy locations
are available for rent in the Carolina
Beach mooring field, in Myrtle Grove
Sound.
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