‘Mud Ducks’ Vow Fight for Roosts in Emory Cove

Joyce Graf, a longtime live-aboard in Emory Cove, is mad as a wet hen, or, more correctly, mad as a mud duck.

She and her husband, Larry, are leaders in the fight against the San Diego Unified Port District, which is trying to oust the brood of worse-for-wear boats from their free anchorage in Emory Cove, a quiet harbor within hailing distance of the posh Coronado Cays residential marina along the Silver Strand.

The Grafs are scheduled to appear in court this morning for a readiness conference before a trial on misdemeanor charges filed by the Port District against them and 10 other boaters anchored permanently in Emory Cove.

Pledge to Carry Fight Further

Joyce Graf, speaking for the group that has been nicknamed the Mad Mud Ducks of Emory Cove, pledged to fight both the misdemeanor criminal charges brought by the Port District and the state Court of Appeal ruling Monday that the live-aboards have no legal leg to stand on in anchoring in the south San Diego Bay backwater.

She pledged to carry her fight to the state Supreme Court or further if necessary to win the group the right to remain at their Emory Cove anchorage despite Port District regulations that rule out all free anchorages in the bay south of the Sweetwater River mouth.

Port District authorities point out that there are other legal anchorages where the boats can moor without charge. They cite the danger of the shallow South Bay waters for the boaters and the pollution caused by the live-aboards in the area, which receives little tidal flushing.

For nearly two years, the legal battle has been waging, but the Emory Cove contingent has remained in place, threatened and, they claim, harassed on both land and sea. Their cars have been ticketed for parking in a long-used lot at the cove’s edge.

At first, Harbor Police officers threatened that the Emory Cove contingent would be forcibly removed from their quiet harbor, their anchor lines cut and their boats towed to the impound yard near the 10th Avenue terminal across the bay.

Now, however, Port District officials have softened their stance and have issued citations, much like parking tickets, to the recalcitrant boaters in an attempt to force them out of the South Bay location and into a mid-bay anchorage that Graf and others maintain is dangerous and unfit for the tired old boats, many of them without engines, now lying at anchor in Emory Cove.

In its ruling Monday, the 4th District Court of Appeal sided with Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman and against the Emory Cove boaters in ruling that the Port District has the right to evict the boaters from Emory Cove or any other undesignated moorage in the bay.

“Naturally, we’re disappointed about the decision. But we don’t consider it to be a crushing blow we can’t surmount,” Graf said. She said the group’s intention is to file an appeal of the court’s decision with the state Supreme Court.

‘A Good Case’

Graf added that the boaters’ lawyer, Leo Shaw, “thinks we have a good case,” and is ready to pursue the appeal. Shaw was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Michael Cowett, attorney for the Port District, is as sensitive to the agency’s role as the “bad guy” in the Emory Cove confrontation as Graf is to the boaters’ image as “squatters” in the bay.

Cowett said that the port commissioners “never have discussed towing the boats away,” although they have the right to do so. “It is not the port’s policy to tow away boats,” he said.

“We are firmly convinced that, once the constitutional validity of the port’s ordinance (restricting anchorage in the South Bay) is determined in the port’s favor, the boat owners will leave on their own accord,” Cowett said.

Graf, bristling at the term squatter being applied to the 60 or so Emory Cove boat owners, pointed out that “we pay as much taxes as anyone else.”

Many of the boats in Emory Cove cannot qualify for bay marinas, which do not accept wooden-hulled craft or other boats like the Grafs’ converted minesweeper, she said. For the same reason, the Emory Cove boaters refuse to move to the mid-bay anchorage designated for them by the Port District because the craft could not stand up the pounding of the waves in the unprotected mooring area or the wakes of passing Navy ships and merchant vessels.

She concedes that after fighting what appears to be a losing battle against eviction from the safe anchorage at Emory Cove, her husband is “so disgusted and disappointed with the whole thing (that) he is ready to go to Mexico and forget it,” if the state Supreme Court appeal goes against the Mud Ducks.

But Graf is not giving up yet nor are the others. They will be in court this morning, battling to have their misdemeanor citations dismissed.

The Port District, in a survey, found 204 illegally anchored boats in San Diego Bay, but has issued citations only to those in the South Bay area, especially in Emory Cove.

That is discriminatory, the Grafs maintain. The Mad Mud Ducks of Emory Cove have been singled out for persecution, they argue.