How shallow a draft do you need? Your dillema reminds me of a guy who
used to be here, flying for one of the airlines. He bought a brand
new Valiant 40 in anticipation of retiring to Florida. It was a
beautiful boat. Just before leaving he developed anxieties over the
boat's draft, so he had the boat hauled and ignoring the warnings and
pleadings of everyone, proceeded to take about a foot off the bottom
of the keel with a chain saw. I guess that is one approach to the
problem He must have been related to Jim Cate/Bobsprit.


On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 20:07:22 -0400, "katysails"
wrote:

Sheesh...over 750 posts while I was gone..

Well, here's the news...we won't find out until the end of the week about
the job situation, but it looks very good. The bad thing: very very
shallow....if we did take Chanteuse down, we'd be sitting on her keel half
the time and half to sail 15 miles offshore to find water deep enough for a
good sail...The good thing: lots of sailing in the area, just need a much
shallower deaft boat...the Fort Myers area isn't nearly as built up as I
thought it would be...not anywhere near as "throbbing" as St. Pete/Tampa
area...lots of hummocks and estuaries, etc to explore. We stayed on Estero
Island (yourist trap...) which is just south of Sanibel (bigger tourist
trap) A lady was wading in a canal on Sanibel and offered herself for lunch
to a 15 ft alligator who ended up being euthanized for his efforts (heck, if
she was dumb enough to wade in a crick...)Went to 3 different nature
preserves, rescued a whelk and a sea urchin ( very tricky, sea
urchins...trying not to get stung, that is...) watched a pair of dolphins
fishing and playing about 30 feet offshore in low tide...really having a
grand time of it....found a poor little manta that must have been clobbered
by a gas hog...saw the biggest red ant I've ever seen in my life and hope to
gravy I never get bit by one....found a cute black snake about 2 ft long
with a pretty head (not a pit viper configuration...going to have to look
him up in a book...) ate grouper almost every day. Didn't get sunburned
until the last day, when I listened to Mr Sails who said: You could stand a
bit more sun...Was a big shocker getting off the plane in Grand Rapids at
midnight...40F from 87F and cold rain...was ready to het right back on the
plane...and then I had to be up at 6am for work this morning! But I had a
great time!