On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:58:33 -0400, you wrote: >It looks like I'll be able to join the snowbirds and go south for >this coming winter. Like most everyone's, my intention would be to >get far enough south so that the weather is likely to be comfortably >warm most of the time. My thoughts have long been that the Keys, >Bahamas, or PR/VI, listed in increasing degrees of difficulty (and >inverse degree of desirability), would be the best bets. I >originally contemplated St. Augustine till I noted the temperature at >one point got into the 20's - I can do that here in upstate NY.
The difference is - it doesn't last long in FL. > >Judging from the comments on this list, Florida is not particularly >cruiser-friendly - except, perhaps, for Marathon. Any >thoughts/advice on Marathon as a place to hang out for several months >in the winter? I would expect to be anchored out, or on a mooring. >I'm also carrying 6'6" of draft, and it's not clear from what I've >seen that that will work comfortably in Marathon (or lots of the Keys >either). > We have a draft of 5', but we have friends whose draft is 6'6" and they do the Keys - you will just have to stay on the Atlantic side. We did spend the winter in Marathon in 2003-04 and it was OK although we couldn't get a mooring ball and anchoring out would have been too stressful IMHO. So we were in a marina, and basically we love the marina but hated the marina management. About once a month we would rent a car for a week and go down to Key West to shop and tour around. Other times Bob would ride his bike up to the market or walk up and take a taxi back with the groceries. >So any advice would be much appreciated. Perhaps there's a better >place in Florida than Marathon. Hal There are moorings in Key West but I don't know if your boat is small enough to use them - ours is not. I really liked Tituville which has a nice marina which you can land a dinghy at, but it is a much smaller place than Marathon. I also like Fernandina Beach, but that's even farther north than St. Augustine. We liked the Bahamas better than Florida, and it's not any harder to get to than Florida really. _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
