Living on the Waterfront
For several years back in the 1980's, we had a waterfront home in south Florida: a small house on Charlotte
Harbor, on the north shore just east of the US 41 bridges. Since then, a builder has
bought and expanded the home, and added nicely to the dock.
We just had a small dock, and it suffered from the chop that would gnaw at
it constantly in the prevailing southeast winds. It was suitable for small
boats that could be secured to the shore or with a stern anchor and tied to
the dock with a short bow line. A large boat with fenders would probably
just knock that dock down.
It was a good dock for fishing and watching the action of the harbor.
Schools of mullet or other baitfish would be torn up by marauding schools of
jacks or other predator species, and the birds would come to pick up the
scraps. We had some rocks along the shore to control erosion, so we would
just stick a ladder into the water and lean it on the dock to go swimming in
the harbor. It was shallow until you swam out a bit from shore.
The current owner of the house on the harbor took out the little old dock and put in a
really nice long one that extends out to deeper water. It has a small shade
roof with a boat lift underneath most of the way out, then has a U-dock at
the end which is adequate for a fairly large boat, and allows access to the
boat from three sides. There are also a couple of pelican pilings set
outside the U shaped dock to better secure larger boats and hold them off
the dock.
Underneath the shade roof is a fish cleaning table with a hose, and there
are standard marine electrical boxes for both the boat slip at the end of
the dock and the boat lift under the roof. The view of the harbor could
hardly be better, and although the shore is an exposed location and there
can be some chop at the dock, it is set up to handle boats bucking around in
a chop without damage. One boat can simply be lifted out of the water, and
the other can be secured at the end with multiple lines and fenders to
ensure that boat and dock do not damage one another.
Many harborfront home owners do not bother putting in a dock, or have only a
little one like we had, suitable only for small boat use. If you are going
to have a harborfront or oceanfront home with a boat at a dock in choppy waters, it is necessary to have a strong
dock with extra pilings set out from the dock so that many long lines can
dampen the motion of the boat as it rocks and tugs in the chop. Chafing of
mooring lines and gradual bending of pilings and/or dock structure as the
boat pulls in the prevailing winds are constant problems. If you are going
to live right on a bay or harbor and have a dock, you're going to want a
really junky little dock or a really nice strong one.
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