Florida Fears

[Unicorn Dreams]

4' is great
5' is nice
6' is okay
7' you will be extra nervous

I have my fathometer zeroed in to the bottom of my keel so I know how much water is under my keel.

Eyeball navigation will come in handy in places to watch out for coral heads and rocks in shallow waters, more so in the Bahamas..

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by pablothesailor

on the subjest of ¨Draft¨, most boats we have looked at 40-44ft have got 1.80 to 2.20 metre drafts, is this a BIG problem in Florida and the Carribean? If it is am just trying to work out what is the most common boat size you see at Anchor?

All kinds of boats at anchor, but usually can't see what type of keel.

Obviously, deep keel vs. shoal keel is a choice you'll have to make. A 2.2m draft would start to limit you in the Keys. For example, you'd have to wait for high tide to enter Boot Key Harbor via Sister Creek, you could enter via the west channel, but you have a 65' overhead wire to deal with, at the mooring balls you'd be OK. Angelfish creek would only happen at high tide. You'd be OK in the KW mooring field.

[pablothesailor]

I recently looked at a 44ft boat with a Scheel Keel, it has a shallower draft that is less than 5ft, anyone know, or better still have much experience sailing with a Scheel Keel? Positives and any negatives please!

[Tingum]

Come to the Bahamas. If you leave from Palm Beach you could be here before you got to lauderdale. Just provision heavy as tings are not cheap!

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by s/v 'Faith'

It is amazing to me, reading the negativity and complete BS that comes down from the same people over the years...

Maybe they like it so much that they are trying to discourage anyone else from coming and overcrowding their paradise!

[Kettlewell]

Florida is a big state with lots of places to go--if you find some hassle that bothers you in one particular harbor, move on! Florida generates lots of posts partly because there are lots of boaters there all year round, and due to the weather there are more liveaboards than most places so issues surrounding liveaboard situations are more likely to arise. It is also the gateway to fabulous cruising in the nearby Bahamas and the Caribbean. If it was so bad would there be all those cruisers visiting the place? It's not just in Florida, but I find that one person's cup of tea doesn't always suit me--in other words, you can't always go by Internet wisdom--you should check it out yourself and draw your own conclusions. Another thing to keep in mind is that in general those who are upset about something complain loudly, while often those that are happy with a situation are not heard from--the silent majority problem.

[Unicorn Dreams]

And usually, the places they do complain about are places I don't want to be ar anyway.

I cruise to get away from the big cities. Not to live in them.

But, that's me, some people just have to be in the cities...

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Waterwayguy

. Miami Beach and Daytona are famous for hassling boaters.

Never been hassled in Daytona. Cops visited a couple of times in South Beach when they enacted their by-law a few years ago. They were very nice. Have not had any visits from the authorities in South Beach for the last three or four years. Only complaint I have about Florida is the over zealous Fish and Wildlife guys at New Smyrna Beach.

[Kettlewell]

One other thing unique about Florida are the numerous and overlapping on-the-water marine policing jurisdictions. Naturally, in such a great boating state every police agency comes up with a justification for why they need a big go-fast boat that they can use to speed up and down the ICW, all at taxpayer expense. And once you've convinced the town fathers of such need you have to show something for it, so you get lots more patrolling looking for something to do than in any other state I have visited by boat. I was stuck waiting for an opening bridge in southeast Florida one time while five different police boats, from five different agencies milled around amongst all the boats waiting for the bridge. They were all looking for something to do, but the only boat that actually got stopped was someone taking a dinghy from one side of the ICW to the other because apparently they didn't have enough lifejackets or something. We were stopped one time near Jupiter for throwing an excessive wake, on our sailboat going 6 knots! This was after we had just been waked constantly by a steady stream of sportfishing boats roaring by. I think the police officer was a bit sheepish about stopping us and he let us go with a warning to watch our wake--he needed something to put in his log book for work accomplished that day. In Marathon the local officials get to go boating every evening around sunset in order to let everyone know they must have an anchor light on, despite the fact that most of the harbor is a mooring field and in most of the rest of the USA nobody in their right minds requires moored boats to use anchor lights. You get the picture.

[tybee22]

lived aboard in Fl. Keys for 20 yrs. Then bought property here. Have since sold property and am moving aboard again. Owning property here was a bigger hassle than liveaboard. Marathon has a wonderful city marina that caters to liveaboards. You can get all the info by going to the Marathon City website :
www.ci.marathon.fl.us

Very well run and one of the best protected spots in the Keys, but can be crowded , especially in the winter as everyone is escaping the cold.

[lorenzo b]

I would say fear is probably not the right word, Florida is not really dangerous per se.
Is it the perfect place for you? Depends a lot on who you are and what you want out of a community. We all know what kind of people move to Florida to retire and if that's you, you will love it. There's a handicapped shopping cart waiting just for you.
Bear in mind that 16,000 voters in just one electoral district voted for both presidential candidates, and then, just in case the whole world wasn't laughing hard enough, demanded a recount.
For the record, I am a legal resident of Florida on the advise of my much beloved and highly esteemed accountant.

[zeehag]

west florida is fine--just there are some shoals there --i was able to see where not to take my deep keel when i was there with a 4 1/2 ft draft..... all the boats with my draft were careened in low tide. i draw 6' 6".
i havent been to east fla and dont particularly plan on going there. i prefer fewer folks around me.

[AnchorageGuy]

Originally Posted by zeehag

west florida is fine--just there are some shoals there --i was able to see where not to take my deep keel when i was there with a 4 1/2 ft draft..... all the boats with my draft were careened in low tide. i draw 6' 6".
i havent been to east fla and dont particularly plan on going there. i prefer fewer folks around me.

Our experience on the west coast of Florida is just the opposite. We sailed our Mariner 40 with a 6 foot draft extensively along the entire Gulf coast and never careened it anywhere and had no issues at all. I can't imagine anywhere that 6 more inches would have mattered. We are currently in Fort Myers with the new to us boat. Chuck

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Waterwayguy

Our experience on the west coast of Florida is just the opposite. We sailed our Mariner 40 with a 6 foot draft extensively along the entire Gulf coast and never careened it anywhere and had no issues at all. I can't imagine anywhere that 6 more inches would have mattered. We are currently in Fort Myers with the new to us boat. Chuck

Amen--

We've been sailing here on the west coast of Florida with 6.5' of draft without undue difficulty since 2001. We do not recommend it for those that are not accustomed to thinking in terms of thin water, however, as it does take some adjustment. When we first arrived from SoCal where we had 30' of water in our slip, the idea of sailing in 12' was unnerving even though we had only 4.5' of draft. And, frankly, in the first year we were here I ran aground so damned often that I made up flotation gear for our Fortess and 10' of chain so I could swim it out to deep water so we could kedge off (and added a stern roller to our transom so I had a fair lead from our primaries!)

FWIW...

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by zeehag

west florida is fine--just there are some shoals there --i was able to see where not to take my deep keel when i was there with a 4 1/2 ft draft..... all the boats with my draft were careened in low tide. i draw 6' 6".
i havent been to east fla and dont particularly plan on going there. i prefer fewer folks around me.

I agree with Zee..I have lived in Yulee Fla.(Fernandina Beach) and W.Palm(Singer Island)and I have visited the West Coast from Tampa down to Pine Island and my thoughts are that the west is the best..it looks and feels like the ads you see about Fla.the east coast is a hassle most of the time and not as pretty as the west.