US Navy Gives a Big F.U. to Recreational Anglers

[No Misses]

I tried heading out of Port Everglades Saturday, only to find that the US Navy had closed the port from 07:00 to 10:15! Fleet week had ended and they needed to get their ships out of the port.

Now before all you patriots get your panties in a bunch, understand that I support the military. I enlisted right out of high school. And yes, I do remember the attack on the USS Cole.

The reason given for the wide time window was to confuse any evildoers, by staggering the interval between ships leaving. OK, I get that. Wouldn’t it have confused them even more if you slipped out of port at 02:00? If you wanted to have the photo op of steaming out of port – do it in the middle of the day, after the fishing fleet has gotten out of your way. The least that they should have done was to open the port for 15 minutes after a ship has left so that the fishing vessels could get out.

Oh, there were alternatives. We could have idled south through miles of “manatee –no wake zones” to get to Haulover inlet (~1 hr). Then, depending on sea conditions, we could run back north on the ocean side to get to were we wanted to dive.

The original estimate for reopening the port was 10 AM. The chatter on ch 16 got more and more belligerent, as 10 AM came and went and still the Navy was screwing around with getting their tin cans out of the port. Knowing that my radio DSC was on record kept me from joining the Navy bashing.

They surely did not make any friends Saturday morning.

End of rant.

[keenstyle1]

The military has a hard time moving anything without being as cumbersome as possible. I think it's all the non-experienced officers they let in these days, at least that's what I'm seeing.

[ameliahunter]

I had a similar issue after the 9-11 attacks. I was anchored offshore about 12 miles when a sub was heading back into Kings Bay. Rather than avoiding me (anchored boat) they sent a coast guard cutter, gun boat, and a helicopter buzzing just over head for us to pull anchor and move one- mile away. I was just about to roll over the side. I don’t know what would have happened if I was under water. The kids on the gun boat talked to us like we were terrorists shouting orders and trying to act tough which was the worst part. I am all about our military and supporting our troops (picked up a bill for a few soldiers the other day at a restaurant) but sometimes they get carried away with the protection zone around their boats in busy U.S. ports. But I guess their billion dollar boat takes priority over my day of fishing

[No Misses]

"Winning Hearts and Minds, everywhere they go."