‘Mud Ducks’ Win Round in Fight for Anchorage

A San Diego appeals court on Friday threw out the convictions of nine boat owners found guilty of anchoring illegally in San Diego Bay--a victory for the Mud Ducks of Emory Bay.

The motley collection of houseboats has been anchored in the snug harbor--within sight of the affluent Coronado Cays residential marina--for years, long before the San Diego Unified Port District rescinded the right to free anchorage anywhere in the bay.

The action by a Superior Court appeals panel was based on the failure of a South Bay municipal judge to allow the boaters to videotape testimony of an expert witness for presentation at their trial a year ago.

Joyce Graf, one of the live-aboards who is fighting the Port District to retain free anchorage in Emory Cove, said the boaters “are flying high” after the victory, which she conceded may be short-lived.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Yackle asked the panel for a written copy of its decision in anticipation of an appeal.

The Emory Cove contingent, many of whom have called the Silver Strand anchorage home for more than a decade, are fighting Port District attempts to move them from the protected cove to an unsheltered anchorage in mid-bay.

The only legal anchorage designated by the Port District in the southern half of San Diego Bay lies off the mouth of the Sweetwater River, next to a ship lane used by commercial and Navy vessels. Emory Cove residents say that the open waters and wash from passing ships would wreck their aging houseboats if they were forced to move there.

Port District commissioners passed an ordinance restricting anchorage in the southern part of the bay in l987 and issued eviction orders to the live-aboards and other craft in the southern bay.

Leo Shaw, attorney for a majority of the Emory Cove contingent, said that the group also is fighting a Port District effort to dredge a parking lot used by the Emory Cove boaters in an effort to force them to move and is challenging the legality of the Port District ordinance regulating anchorage areas and speed limits in the bay.

Shaw praised Graf and her husband, Lawrence, who live aboard a converted minesweeper anchored in Emory Cove, as “the only ones who have had the guts to challenge the Port District” on the new bay regulations.