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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Still planning instead of sailing

The basic plan of our next sailing trip is to leave on the Gulf side of the Okeechobee waterway, then sail east. When we got tried of that, or got to Lake Okeechobee, we’d turn around and head back.

Way back when I was in NH planning this, the original idea was to get dropped off on the Atlantic side then picked up on the Gulf side. Good plan, except my ride fell though.

The problem I’ve been left with is finding a good boat ramp where I can leave the truck and trailer for a week or more. Florida has a zillion boat ramps and marinas. Most ramps are for day use only. Unfortunately, many marinas either don’t have ramps, or lack truck and trailer storage. One marina was willing to rent me space for the truck, but not the trailer. What good is that?

I did find one nice ramp that allowed overnights, but only for 72 hours -not nearly as long as I’d like. Their web site said they’d make exceptions, but once I got them on the phone, they claimed they never did and never will.

The funny thing is, I know a guy who has a place on the Gulf side, near a nice boat ramp. He has plenty of room to store a truck and trailer. Unfortunately, it’s pretty hit or miss contacting him. Right now it’s a miss -he’s not in Florida right now.

Back to the drawing board. Between a decent Florida boating guide, and the Active Captain website, I’ve a whole new list of places to call. It’ll come together.

The temptation is just go sailing in places where we’ve sailed before. We’ve found some nice places the last two winters, but there’s too much we haven’t seen yet. It’s too early in the process to pick favorites.

Some day I plan on having a larger boat and staying out longer. By then I should have a much better idea of where to go.

-Sixbears

4 comments:

  1. Parking is a problem. On my canoe trips, had to have two cars. Left one at the end and use the other to launch. It was always worth the trouble.

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  2. Dizzy. Did that often with canoes myself. Very nice on river runs.

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  3. I hope this part of your trip. Our first choice in Florida was the Withlacoochie river at Yankeetown but we have since decided on the Alva/Fort Myers area. The Rialto Marina near Alva may be able to help you out but it's not at the Gulf. Worth a stop there though because they're great people and have live aboards who've been there for years. I sure envy you if you make this trip!

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  4. Thanks Treesong. We are playing a lot of this next trip by ear.

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