Hi, i'm looking to rent a bareboat, about 28 to 30 foot cruiser.
I got my own Carver 28 footers in Montreal, but it's a long run on the
trailer to Florida.

I tought it would be better to rent one near Palm Beach, skipping the
stress having the boat behind the truck all the way.

I found a place in Miami, but really too expensive $3200/week for a 30
foot. I want to stay for 3 weeks on water. Maybe cruising the Keys or
the Bahamas in April 2006.

Someone have a idea ??


Thanks

Andre

Can't speak to price but I've chartered from Southwest Florida Charters in
Ft Myers and Sailing Florida Charters in St. Petersburg and was happy with
both.
BF


"Andre" wrote in message
...
Hi, i'm looking to rent a bareboat, about 28 to 30 foot cruiser.
I got my own Carver 28 footers in Montreal, but it's a long run on the
trailer to Florida.

I tought it would be better to rent one near Palm Beach, skipping the
stress having the boat behind the truck all the way.

I found a place in Miami, but really too expensive $3200/week for a 30
foot. I want to stay for 3 weeks on water. Maybe cruising the Keys or
the Bahamas in April 2006.

Someone have a idea ??


Thanks

Andre

I recently chartered with SWFY Southwest Florida Yacht Charters. The
boat was a 34' sloop Cool Change. General maintenance was adequate
though the auto pilot was out of wack. Make sure you top up the water
and pump the holding tank prior to the cruise. Previous charterers are
supposed to do it but our experience suggested they did not and no one
checked.

Charter company owner Marge Hansen struck me as penny wise and pound
foolish in her approach to customers though Jan in the office and Mark
who did the boat briefing were service oriented. Assume nothing. Ask
about everything. You may get surprising answers.

wrote:
I recently chartered with SWFY Southwest Florida Yacht Charters. The
boat was a 34' sloop Cool Change. General maintenance was adequate
though the auto pilot was out of wack. Make sure you top up the water
and pump the holding tank prior to the cruise. Previous charterers are
supposed to do it but our experience suggested they did not and no one
checked.

Charter company owner Marge Hansen struck me as penny wise and pound
foolish in her approach to customers though Jan in the office and Mark
who did the boat briefing were service oriented. Assume nothing. Ask
about everything. You may get surprising answers.

Thanks

Can you tell me, what should i not miss and what too skip (places). My
first time in Florida.

I found a 2002 power Catamaran 32 foot WIZZCAT (trawler) in SWFY to
rent. Seems very nice. It's avalaible.

Andre

Frankly Andre, I can't recommend those cruising grounds very highly.
I'm used to more variety or at least more deep water. If you're
looking for a road trip on water with restaurants, you may find it's
just what you're looking for.

If you are cruising when a low moves through, be attentive to tide and
time. A fellow two slips down was high and dry one morning and more
than once I heard [after the fact] "Oh yeah, it's always like that when
a low moves through." Mark at SWFY was kind enough to provide us with
a partial tide chart print-out. Fortunately we had full tide chart
data including local reports. Without that we'd have been in a pickle.

The travel up and down that patch of the ICW was no big deal. I'm not
sure why people did it. I happend to be down there and wanted to spend
a few days on the water. There wasn't enough of interest to return.
Maybe I missed the good stuff.

Had some windy days and wen't booting around Charlotte Harbor but
that's probably not of interest to you.

If you're looking for a slow paced motor cruise following the ICW
markers your on the right road. Of course you could explore the Peace
River I guess. I saw it on the charts but didn't see any mention in
the local guide books.

We called at Boca Grande Marina, formerly called Miller's marina. The
dockmaster told us she had never worked at a marina before so if it's
the same one, take that into account when you request//receive
information. The entrance channel is silted up so on entry you must
proceed with caution and on making the turn to port we had to hug the
the houses and docks to starboard. We learned this by trial and error.
There's an anchorage back in the bayou area. Go there by bearing
right on entry.

Dined at at very good restaurant called The Loose Caboose. Slip fee is
$2.50'. If you're health conscious be careful of the fried [though
delicious] appetizers.

We called at Cabbage Key, nice little marina with restaurant. Watch
your depth. Dockage about $1.50. Tame waterfowl are fun.

We call at 'Tween Waters Marina, Captiva Island. There's also room to
anchor there judging by some of the boats we saw but not having local
knowledge we chose to tie up. It's an hour off the ICW watching the
channel markers all the way .... slow is smart.

As to SWFY - check everything and top your own tanks before you head
out. The previous charterer is suppposed to do it, but they don't
check and in our case, the previous folks hadn't done their duty. The
boat was equipped with an autopilot that did not function. The TV did
function though and I got to see the Bears beat the Bucs and that was
more important than the autopilot.

Best of luck.

Oh yeah.... forgot the scariest thing.... propane leaks aboard the
boat.

Had two. Tried to tighten the fittings at the tank. Never was able to
stop it and we came back on empty.

So check that too, both below decks and in the aft lazarette.

We spewed a lot of gas and it wasn't from eating legumes.

Andre wrote:

wrote:
I recently chartered with SWFY Southwest Florida Yacht Charters. The
boat was a 34' sloop Cool Change. General maintenance was adequate
though the auto pilot was out of wack. Make sure you top up the water
and pump the holding tank prior to the cruise. Previous charterers are
supposed to do it but our experience suggested they did not and no one
checked.

Charter company owner Marge Hansen struck me as penny wise and pound
foolish in her approach to customers though Jan in the office and Mark
who did the boat briefing were service oriented. Assume nothing. Ask
about everything. You may get surprising answers.

Thanks

Can you tell me, what should i not miss and what too skip (places). My
first time in Florida.

I found a 2002 power Catamaran 32 foot WIZZCAT (trawler) in SWFY to
rent. Seems very nice. It's avalaible.

We haven't been on the west coast of FL because generally it is too
restricted over there and too shallow to do much over there for us.
If you have a shallower draft boat you could visit the Everglades and
the Keys.

grandma Rosalie

On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 07:09:47 -0500, Andre
wrote:

Can you tell me, what should i not miss and what too skip (places). My
first time in Florida.

===================

It depends what you are looking for. We live there in the winter and
do a lot of cruising in Pine Island Sound. One of our favorites is
Cayo Costa Island which has several possible anchorages. Cabbage Key
is also interesting, as is Tween Waters Inn on Captiva. South Seas
resort is supposed to reopen in the spring, also on Captiva. The
anchorage in the bight behind Sanibel Island is scenic and you can
dinghy to the nature preserve there.

I'd recommend Claiborne Young's "Cruising Guide to Western Florida",
available at amazon.com:

http://tinyurl.com/8nh4p

and also:

"A Gunkholer's Cruising Guide to Florida's West Coast", by Tom
Lenfestey

Further north on the ICW are Boca Grande, Venice, Sarasota Bay and
Long Boat Key which are all interesting in their own way.

Going south you have Ft Myers Beach, Naples, Marco Island, the
Everglades, and Florida Keys.

Andre wrote:

Hi, i'm looking to rent a bareboat, about 28 to 30 foot cruiser.
I got my own Carver 28 footers in Montreal, but it's a long run on the
trailer to Florida.

I tought it would be better to rent one near Palm Beach, skipping the
stress having the boat behind the truck all the way.

I found a place in Miami, but really too expensive $3200/week for a 30
foot. I want to stay for 3 weeks on water. Maybe cruising the Keys or
the Bahamas in April 2006.

Someone have a idea ??

I don't know about the price, but we talked to some folks who rented a
catamaran at Oceanside Marina on Stock Island (the next island up from
Key West) and went to the Dry Tortugas with it.

You might also be able to charter in the Bahamas which would eliminate
the necessity to wait for the weather to cross.


grandma Rosalie