A dock on the New River rents for $250-$300 per month. From my house to
the Port Everglades inlet there are 5 bridges. Unless it is between
7:30-8:30am or 4:30-5:30pm, I call about a half mile from the bridge and
usually it is open when I get there and I don't have to slow down,
except for the 17th causeway bridge. It opens on the hour and half hour,
so if your timing leaving is a little late you may have to wait. If your
mast height is less than 55' you don't have to have an opening.
We sail down to Miami, Biscayne Bay, Elliot Key, Pumpkin Key, Boca Chita
Key. Lots of spots to anchor. We don't do marinas.
The $300 for the Bahamas is good for a year, or if you leave and come
back to the states, a second entry if within 3 months. FLL to Bimini is
41 miles, FLL to West End, 68 mi. A 8-12 hr overnight trip. We have
crossed the stream in almost all the months of the year. You just have
to watch for the right weather window even in the summer.
Kelton
s/v Isle Escape

Rosalie B. wrote:
(anchorlt) wrote:


Rosalie B. wrote in message . ..

"just me" wrote:


I am planning to move my boat, a 40' Jeanneau, to the ocean (one of them)
around the first of the year.
I'm trying to decide where and which one. I plan to fly to the boat every
month or so. I expect I'll spend anywhere from a long weekend to ten days
or so. Eventually, I'll retire and spend longer times aboard. Once there, I
would like to have places to go to, visit and explore. Choice A: San Diego
area. Choice B: Atlantic side, Florida to North Carolina. Direct and
numerous daily flights by more than one airline are important. Your
thoughts, experiences and opinions are welcomed.

The Florida east coast has very little sailing (IMHO) except Hawk
Channel along the Florida Keys (where there's very little in the way
of protected anchorages for a boat with any kind of draft to her, and
on the other side it's very shallow and iffy - ditto on the draft),
and in some sections of the Indian River. Possibly also the St.
John's River (Jacksonville). Miami and the St. John's River and the
St. Mary's River are Class A inlets. There are so many power
boats....

South Florida is NOT expensive, unless one has only a few sheckles in
pocket, and then anywhere is expensive. I live there. S FL has access


South Florida is way more expensive to keep a boat at a marina than
the Chesapeake or North Carolina. I have lived there, I have visited
there, and my daughter lives there. I'm sorry to disagree, but I
don't regard prices of $2.00/ft/day or $28 to $55/ft/month (plus tax,
and liveaboard fee) as inexpensive.


to Keys, Bahamas, Cuba (when embargo and Bush are gone), Turks &
Caiacos, and all of Caribbean islands, east and west. Nowhere else in
U.S. are there as many choices and good sailing waters and winds.


The problem here is that all those places you mention except the Keys
involve going to a foreign country. Thus NOT in the US. For the
Bahamas, the 40' boat will pay $300 every 3 months to go to the
Bahamas. Also the normal winds in the winter appear to be from the NE
which makes it a problem to cross the Gulf Stream.

Want flights? No more anywhere than into and out of Miami and Ft.
Lauderdale. If "it" exists for a boat, any boat, and cannot be found
easily and quickly in S FL, it does not exist anywhere.


The disadvantage to Ft. Lauderdale for a sailboat is that there are
too many bridges. And also too many power boats.

This is not say there are not other great sailing areas, i.e.,
Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound and nearby, Maine and N, Gulf coast,
far NW (Puget Sound and nearby) and some of Great Lakes (Ontario, Erie
and Huron are, in my experience, the better ones).

St. Johns River in N FL? You ain't goin' to do much sailing on this
river, except in northern reaches, and their ain't much even there. I
have motored all of navigable St. Johns River and very narrow channels
and shoaling in mid and southern areas are all too common for sailing.


I have not tried the St. John's River myself, but people have
recommended the sailing there and in St. Augustine where they say they
go out of the inlet and sail, and I do not think much of that inlet,
especially in a contrary wind.

The whole area from there north past Charleston has a great tidal
range (for the south east coast) which makes shoaling a problem. Plus
in Georgia one is not supposed to stay aboard more than 30 days a
year.


grandma Rosalie