BTW how long can an out of state boat remain in FL before it is subject to
FL tax ? I was thinking it was 90 days, but perhaps that is not correct.

"Skip Gundlach" skipgundlach at gmail dotcom wrote in message
...
I posted this on the flkeys sailnet group, but figure there's more people
here than there :{)) We've already heard about the routing in this group,
but the wind and marina stuff is still unknown...


We'll be coming through in our M461, 63' air draft, 6-6 water draft, from
St. Pete. We'll be headed to some point in the Bahamas where we can buy
fuel and find a post office, in order to satisfy our tax shelter from
sales tax.

We'll need to do that quickly - not hang out on the hook for the best
weather, which will mean trying to guage the weather before we leave from
St. Pete.

We expect to sail it straight through; the main portion of the trip is
pretty straightforward, but getting through the shoals around the west
side are enough to make us wonder if it can really be done.

Our target is to get there in plenty of light, even if it means just
heaving to somewhere off shore for the rest of the night - and then leave
by lunch, preferably the following day, with an overnight anchor to rest
up.

So, there's a couple of questions.

1) What recommended route (with waypoints, if available - but we've got
both paper and electronic charts so should be able to figure out stuff if
not) through the shoals and bridge from the west? And, the only other
time we were there, we tied up outside, as, at the time, there wasn't a
reverse in our tranny and we didn't want to risk going into the harbor.
(We then went on to Key West, not under the bridge/West.) Is it worth the
time to go anchor in the harbor, or is out front better to avoid having to
get up early to leave before lunch?

2) We expect this to be either late winter or early spring
(March-April-May). Is there any online resource for a track of how winds
behave in this time frame (or any other, for that matter)? That is, what
sort of wind tracking can we expect, in order to make our best arrival?
It would be very useful if we could have some assurance that we'd find the
wind as expected (which would mean extrapolation to that point from at
least a couple of days out) when we got there. Our tax issues don't allow
us the luxury of hanging on the hook until a suitable window arrives - we
have to get there when it does, if at all possible.

And, perhaps, a 3rd, as a backup plan, without going into all the vagaries
of the tax law:

What marinas there have haul-out facilities? We'd actually not haul out,
but that ability is one of the main qualifiers for a tax-sheltered
layover, and we'd be in water storage, so that we could leave on a
moment's notice.

Thanks for any direction and experience...

L8R

Skip and Lydia, preparing to cut the cord

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half
so much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing
about in boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do,
and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."