We want to move to a Marina in Florida
The plan for quite some time has been to sail the boat to a marina in Florida (and have our residency there). We were thinking West Coast of Florida for a lot of reasons. It was warmer weather. We also like the clarity of the water along this part of the Florida coast. The water is warmer here than it is by us due to being further south. The last benefit for us is it is a bit easier to sail from where the boat is now to the West coast of Florida vs. the East coast.
First Consideration for Florida Marina – Warmer Weather
Our First consideration for a move to Florida is the warmer weather we gain from moving South. I should clarify, we are in the Northern hemisphere. Moving south for us is moving closer to the equator for warmer weather.
We are currently located, north of New Orleans in Louisiana and are at about 30 degrees of latitude. The places in Florida that we are looking, are all between 29 and as far south as 26 degrees of latitude. That makes a difference for sure in the temperature. I write this blog post sitting south of Tampa Florida where is it a beautiful 75 degrees Fahrenheit. To compare, I just checked with Siri, it is currently 39 in New Orleans right now. Apparently, a cold front is coming through because the temperature difference is not usually that large.
Second Consideration for Florida Marina – Clearer Water
We jokingly say we want to get to bigger, bluer water. There is nothing big or blue about the Tchefuncte River off of Lake Ponchartrain. It is a great hurricane hole and the slip rents are super cheap. These things make it is a great place to stay and refit a boat for a while. It is not where we want to keep this blue water boat forever.
Expanding our horizons
We used to sail on Lake Lewisville near Dallas Texas. We decided then that someday we would want to move onto a boat and see what that was like. At that time we had a 30’ Laguna Sailboat, and we would say we want to get to “Bigger Water.” We did that getting down to Kemah, Texas along the Galveston Bay. We sailed that for a few months while we searched for that larger boat. We found it in Panama City Florida and got a taste of “Clear” big water. Then our saying changed to “Bigger Bluer Water.” It still holds true all these years later. We have cruised/lived aboard along the South West Coast of the Gulf of Mexico. We have been in New Orleans, Alabama, Corpus Christi Texas, Mississippi and along the Galveston Texas coast as well.
Third Consideration for Florida Marina – Warmer Water
We want to swim, snorkel, cruise around on the sailboat, anchor out, and just get wet. Having warmer water when doing these things is indeed a plus for sure.
Water Temperature
When we look at the impacts of moving to lower latitudes on water temperature, it is clear that it warms up closer to the equator. There is an excellent resource on the NOAA website that captures and catalogs all NOAA (and some private) buoy data. It contains, water and air temperature, depth, wave height, wind speed, and many other attributes. It the National Data Buoy Center and is at the following link. https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
By way of example, the water temperature difference as I look this morning is 7 degrees. It is 7 degrees warmer in Florida than it is near where we keep DreamChaser today.
Off of Shell Beach on the Louisiana Mississippi
Off the coast of Venice Florida, the water temperature is 73.4 degrees Fahrenheit. This buoy is at 27.072 North by 82.453 West. The buoy data for this station can be found at this location.
Fourth Consideration for Florida Marina – Easier to sail here
I hate to admit this last item. It is a more leisurely sail from where we are to the West coast of Florida. It would be much harder to go all the way around the keys and back up the East coast. We have done a lot of work to the boat, but we haven’t taken her out for a proper shakedown cruise.
Sample Sets
I would not by as concerned about this if it were not for the experiences of some good friends of ours. He is an experienced sailor. We have sailed together for years and even charted in the BVI together with he and his wife. He can fix almost anything and has a well prepared Bruce Roberts ketch. He left from Galveston heading to Tampa and ran into engine troubles that put him into Venice LA for repairs. He fixed those issues and set sail again. They ended up having some more engine troubles and rough weather. This had them going back into Pensacola for more repairs. They did sail on and make it to the Tampa area safe and sound. However, that experience has me a bit worried about my boat as I don’t believe it is in the same condition as my friends.
Marina or not to Marina
So in the words of Prince Hamlet by Shakespeare, To Marina or not to Marina, that is the question. Okay, that may not have been Bill Shakespeare exact word, but you read that in your head with grandeur didn’t you? We are considering the cost of liveaboard Marinas. We are likely going to pay between 900 and 1100 a month for a slip for our boat with the Liveaboard fee. We started considering houses that are waterfront, where we can stay on the ship. Doing so would allow us to have that “slip rent” money go toward some equity. It would also allow us a way to drop some of the costs we have. All of a sudden we think we can cover 2/3’s of a waterfront places mortgage just in applying funds in a different location.
Search Continues
We are in Florida this week starting to look at those property options. We will keep you posted on what we find. They are easy to find if you want to spend a million dollars. Which for the record we are looking for stuff MUCH less than that We have seen a few interesting ones, like living on an island that requires a ferry to get to. Pretty cool stuff, but all options are open right now.
Stay tuned next week for more of the details of the financial impact and what that would be.