When we left Sidney, we took the advice of a friend and a couple of publications and checked out Maple Bay, just north and west of Sansum Narrows. On the chart it looked like a fine place to be sheltered from practically all weather. Alas.
Maple Bay has a lot of McMansions in the process of construction on shore, which means lots of chain saws cutting down the trees and backhoes fitted with jackhammers breaking up the limestone and granite for more septic tanks. Oy. And vey. Plus, the anchorage is a bit…ermmm….full of "permanently anchored" vessels – either those who have liveaboards, or those who have been abandoned. In Maple Bay’s situation, most of the available anchorage is occupied with large derelict formerly-commercial type boats that with the use of generators, Skil-Saws and belt sanders are being converted to more domestic, full-time liveaboard use; 
and boats that given the amount of moss on their topsides have not been visited for more than 2 years. The remainder of the available anchorage has been taken over by people who have placed "private" mooring buoys on the public waterway, reserving 24/7/365 their use for the few times of year they visit their vacation homes during the nice season. 
Given the construction noise both onshore and afloat the Fox diverted westerly to Burgoyne Bay, shown on the charts to be far more capacious. Difficulty: there is very little anchorage that is at less than a 30-foot depth. Further difficulty: much of the available depths for anchoring are occupied by long-term vessels, including an occupied houseboat with three floats tied to it in various stages of sinking; 
another small occupied houseboat near the shore where the public dock and parking lot are; and several floating objects of various sizes including unoccupied boats less than 25 feet long that can be easily beached or trailered but are permanently anchored in prime anchoring depths. 
It appears that the Burgoyne "residents" use the public dock and parking lot to dispose of their garbage and store their land vehicles, and use the public anchorage to store their boats. For free. And they give big-time stink-eye to any strangers like the Fox that come into their ‘hood.
This is a serious dilemma. The waters have traditionally remained free to whoever is able to use them and take them – see, e.g., railroad easements, mining grants and grazing leases. So in one sense it’s right and proper to take a public waterway, pay no money, and defend it aggressively with a "private" buoy or a permanently anchored boat. However, any watery depths below the lowest of the low tide line have been traditionally considered public land, available to all equally, like national forests, state (or provincial) parks, and public roads. When was the last time you saw soemone allowed to live long term in a broken-down motor home in a city park? On the other hand, it is almost impossible to dispose of a boat that has outlived its desirable or useful life and has no owner willing to take economic responsibility for it. There is no dump that will accept an abandoned boat, no government authority that has the budget to remove it. Generally, in these parts, such boats stay where they are until they sink. And even then, a government entity won’t pay for so much as a $40 float to mark the wreck until someone runs aground on it. (See again, Maple Bay.)
Unfortunately, certain anchorages, like Maple Bay, Burgoyne Bay, and Olga and Mats Mats in Washington State, have been so completely occupied by "private" buoys and/or derelict and neglected boats that the rest of the public (transient boats like the Fox) are excluded. And we on the Fox want a place to drop the hook at happy hour and start the martinis, dammit.
When does "local color" become an eyesore and a public health hazard? Nobody wants derelict boats leaking raw sewage and oil into the water, or the occupant exploiting public parking lots, water and garbage facilities. People who use public waterfront parks shouldn’t have to be shut out because the parking lots are full of the cars of those who anchor their boats in the water. Local governments should not be impelled to make room in a severely limited budget for water treatment, garbage disposal and sewage treatment for people who are poaching on public waterways. On the other hand, where do poor people go? Living aboard a boat – especially an old, broken-down one – in a Northwest winter is bloody inconvenient (and that’s when the weather is good).
Does a community necessarily want to have only pretty, well-kept, high-end boats in an anchorage? Doesn’t that present the same eyesore that a bunch of McMansions do onshore? Does eliminating marinas for the sake of waterfront condos exacerbate the problem (Florida boaters sure think it does)? Doesn’t allowing only 72 hours of continuous moorage fail to consider boaters who have temporary but serious mechanical problems, or medical emergencies? Where do we all go? Especially the Sterling Hayden wannabes?
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