When planning my trip from Rhode Island down the ICW to the Bahamas, I knew I didn’t want to come all the way back north in one year. I wanted the option to return to the Bahamas or cruise Florida for a second winter. So, I planned to haul and store my boat on land for hurricane season along the ICW. We will call this Plan A. Like so many things with sailing, that didn’t exactly go to plan. When I was just a couple of hours from the boatyard where I’d been planning to go for several months, I learned they didn’t have space for me. I didn’t have a backup plan, but I did have a flight in a few days. Here are my lessons learned and a range of costs and considerations.
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Some of the cheapest slips are in the mid-Chesapeake, the result of a whole lot of shoreline and no big cities near by. I kept my PDQ and a friend still keeps their PDQ 36 for $3.70/foot with an 18-foot beam. I pay the same for my F-24 (18-foot beam). Water and electricity are included. In our case, part of the reason is shallow water, only about 4 feet at low tide. But for multihulls, no problem. Just $125 per month.
It’s warm enough that there is no need to haul in the winter. We might get a fraction of an inch of ice for few weeks, but nothing damaging.
Yes, this is a bit far from Florida.