It's not just the ballast you have to worry about. Here in CA, they inspect your anchors and anchor line. The Ranger found a dead mussel in the hinge of my box anchor, and that was enough to have the boat out of commission for two weeks. Irony is, I didn't even use my anchor that trip and only tied off to the dock, so the anchor had been dry for at least a month. Now I keep a bottle of spray bleach, bleach my box anchor, slide anchor, and anchor lines when I'm leaving (whether I used the anchor or not), and leave it in the bed of my truck, so when I hit the inspection station I'm ready. It's what the inspector suggested when I was red tagged, and I haven't had a problem since. The 5 minute bleach job is well worth it vs. the hour delay at the station and the boat being out of use for a couple weeks.
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