Slips available in SW Florida

[rcoleman67]

Picking up my first "big" boat, a Catalina 30, in Punta Gorda, FL in a couple of weeks. Looking to keep her there for about 3 months before sailing her home. Having problems finding affordable slips. Used to paying $4/ft with the total being right at $200 month including fees/taxes. Anyone recommend a place? Hopefully finding something for under $400/month.

[Messing About]

Congrats on your boat. Punta Gorda and port Charlotte are my old and hope to be returning cruising grounds. That budget will be hard to meet.

My favorite marina, Burnt Store, has a 3 year waiting list for slips. A 40’ wet slip is $17.50 on annual contract. A dollar more for 6 months. Still a dollar over that for month to month.

With the waiting list, those rates will not likely go down in our lifetime.

The marina at fisherman’s village is nice too. With your boat, you might clear the Orace River bridge but check your air draft against it. I think it’s 50’ at low mean tide but check that. But again, you’re going to have trouble staying under $600 per month.

Let us know how it turns out for you.

[geoleo]

Originally Posted by rcoleman67

Picking up my first "big" boat, a Catalina 30, in Punta Gorda, FL in a couple of weeks. Looking to keep her there for about 3 months before sailing her home. Having problems finding affordable slips. Used to paying $4/ft with the total being right at $200 month including fees/taxes. Anyone recommend a place? Hopefully finding something for under $400/month.

I have seen slips advertised in Port Charlotte at both a Marina and on craigslist for private docks. Theres also potential docks toward Naples going South and going North too.

[flee27]

Congratulations on you boat. Where are you from/where is home. $4 per foot seems to hard to find anymore. Definitely not possible in Florida.

Best
Foster

[boatpoker]

Head up the Okeechobee. Much cheaper inland.

[Shanachie]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

Head up the Okeechobee. Much cheaper inland.

Also, no place to sail it, which kind of defeats the purpose of buying the boat in the first place.


Lake Okeechobee is thin water. I've bounced off the bottom with a 4'3" draft. The waterway is a ditch. There are only a few marinas, and at least one of them has a shallow entrance.



It's at least a day in either direction to find water you can sail.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Shanachie

Also, no place to sail it, which kind of defeats the purpose of buying the boat in the first place.


Lake Okeechobee is thin water. I've bounced off the bottom with a 4'3" draft. The waterway is a ditch. There are only a few marinas, and at least one of them has a shallow entrance.



It's at least a day in either direction to find water you can sail.

Suggest you re-read the OP ... cheap, short term storage seemed to be the primary factors.

Waterway Guide - "Lake Okeechobee can be likened to a saucer full of water. It is shallow with normal depths from 7 to 11 feet MLW depending on the season and annual rainfall onto the drainage area to the north and the lake itself. The Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District manage the level of the lake. The depths charted in Lake Okeechobee are based on a datum of 11.50 feet. If skippers know the lake level they can determine the difference between the datum and the current level and modify the charted depths accordingly. Depths in the sections between dams on either side of the lake vary slightly with lake level changes but the differences are seldom enough to affect navigation."

I've done that route with 5' draft and never touched.

[Wolfe10]

Assuming the OP is not headed for the east coast of Florida, there would be no reason to cross Lake Okeechobee-- most of the storage places on the waterway are on the west side of the lake.


And, no reason to speculate on either lake depth or air clearance on the RR bridge. The Corp of Engineers published that info daily:


https://w3.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/reports/r-oke.html


Currently 6.65' depth in channel and 50.91' air draft.

[Shanachie]

Maybe it's just me but, if I buy an older sailboat and plan on taking a long trip home, I'm going to want to sail the boat a few times. You know. Learn how it works. See what doesn't.



Especially when it is the OP's first "big boat."


This means there will be many surprises as he discovers lots of things that weren't part of managing a day sailer, and some things that probably were neglected on the boat that the surveyor didn't find.


So docking it many miles from a sailing area is asking for trouble. You save a few dollars, but you guarantee that you will have an interesting adventure in the Gulf at the height of the hurricane season.


Last time I went through Lake Okeechobee, about three years ago, the approach to Clewiston had several spots closer to 4 feet than 5, and stretches where it was not much more than 5.


That was with 49 feet of clearance at the RR bridge.



Maybe someone got a dredge out there recently, but I suspect it's still a tricky channel where you rely as much on luck as you do skill.

[Wolfe10]

Originally Posted by Shanachie

Last time I went through Lake Okeechobee, about three years ago, the approach to Clewiston had several spots closer to 4 feet than 5, and stretches where it was not much more than 5.


That was with 49 feet of clearance at the RR bridge.

Lake level and to a much lesser degree, RR bridge clearance is related to two things:


Dry season (were at the end of it) VS wet season.


Amount of water "diverted" to Sugar interests/agriculture interests.


Per the Corp of Engineers report today,
Total Outflows: 4,566 Cubic Feet Per SECOND

Total Inflow: 245 CFS. Big difference.

What others have experienced at other times is really not a good indicator of current conditions. That is why the Corp publishes the data daily.